CommScope, supplier of components for communication networks, is planning to demonstrate next week how its multi-mode fiber technology can help bring data center networks into the next generation without growing pains.

CommScope said it was going to demonstrate to IT managers that using multi-mode fiber instead of single-mode fiber can save them time and money when transitioning from 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) to 40GbE and then to 100GbE.

The company will set up the demonstration at the DatacenterDynamics Converged conference in San Francisco on 17 July.

Key element of CommScope’s pitch is transition to 40GbE without re-engineering existing networks or deploying new cable when the time to go up to 40GbE comes.

Using CommScope’s pre-terminated multimode fiber for 40GbE transmission ends up being cheaper because total cost of 40GbE over single-mode fiber is higher than pushing 40GbE over multi-mode fiber, the company said.

Multi-mode fiber also increases 10GbE port density by three times, consuming half the power required per 10Gb channel, according to CommScope.

To do the demonstration in San Francisco, North Carolina-based CommScope is teaming up with the IP testing company Ixia and analog-interface component supplier Avago Technologies, both with headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Avago is providing optical-receiver modules for the demonstration and Ixia is providing 40GbE and 100GbE load modules. Ixia senior product manager Charles Seifert said a crucial part of testing higher-speed Ethernet technologies was verifying that transmission media does not contribute to packet errors.

Both Avago’s and CommScope’s technologies have “succeeded at their respective tasks,” Seifert said.

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