Based on current TIA-942-C standard, the equipment transceiver optical interface is only involved with LC and MPO, even though LC is small compared with SC, and MPO with multi fiber in a single connector, however, for the AI data center, Computing capacity may be 1000x in 10 years, thus the density of the AI data center is critical.
Since AI required enormous computing capacity and also storage capacity, 400G is the base speed for AI now in this year, but the speed will be double to 800G in 2025, and 1.6T in year 2026. Based on current technology, it will requires 16 fibers. Thus a neighborhood data center may requires 70K to 80K fiber cores between the two rooms. This massive presence of connected fibers make VSFF connectors, as well as smaller-diameter cables, necessary and invaluable elements in AI networking.
There are several VSFF connectors defined in the transceiver hardware specifications:
- The CS connector
- The SN connector
- The SN-MT connector
- The MDC connector
- MMC Connector
