What is DAC?
Driven by demand for higher speed fiber cables, network cabling has gone through great changes over the years. Cat5e copper cabling and 1000BASE-T have dominated data center interconnection application for years. However, SFP cable becomes a new favorite with less cost and lower power consumption, which is a form of the high-speed cable with pluggable connectors on either end. This direct attach cable can be classified to DAC cable and AOC cable. DAC cable is the most basic form of high speed direct attach cabling.
Direct attach copper cable, short for DAC cable, is a kind of fixed high speed copper cable assembly. The longer the distance, the higher the AWG rating should be. It can be used to connect switches to routers or servers for short transmission distance. In addition, DAC cables are commonly available in several different categories: SFP+ DAC, XFP DAC, QSFP DAC and so on.
Types of DAC Cable
Generally, according to the construction difference, the DAC cables can be classified into two types: passive DAC cable and active DAC cable.
Passive DAC cables have no electrical components built into the cable assembly. Hence, it has the minimal power consumption of no more than 0.15w and generally for short reach up to 7m.
Active DAC cables have signal amplification and equalization built into the cable assembly. Therefore, it allows a little longer transmission distance up to 15m and ensures better transmission quality. whereas it has a higher price and consumes more power around 0.5-1w.
What Are They Used For and How?
The most basic and fundamental use of DAC cables is for the connection made between switches and routers and/or servers. They are used widely in data centers and they’re becoming more broadly used in network industries. This is because of their reliable performance and the ease of finding them. These cables are also more affordable when compared to other optic cables. In addition, they’re also compatible with 10G switched delivered by 48x SFP+ ports found in a rack unit.
DAC cables are extremely dependable, and it makes it possible for connections to be made swiftly, reliably and affordably in all kinds of industries. If you need to connect switches to a router or a server for whatever reason or end function, these cables are the ones that you should be considering. It’s no coincidence that so many companies, across a broad spectrum of industries are now turning to DAC cables to help them meet their needs.
