A direct attach cable is a kind of factory discontinued twinax cable that connects straightaway into transceivers and can be purchased in several lengths for interim distances of up to 15 meters. The direct attach cable market size is expanding as these cables comprise of stable lengths of guarded copper coaxial or fiber optic cable with stable pluggable transceivers on either end with differing gauges from 24 to 30 AWG. Direct attach cable can attain association up to 15 m through twin axial copper cable and end up at 100 m over active optical cable at 10Gbps, 40Gbps, and beyond.
The global direct attach cable market was valued at USD 6.84 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at USD 156.83 billion with a CAGR of 36.8% during the forecast period 2032.
What Are the Types of Direct Attach Cables?
- 10GSFP + to SFP + direct attach cable: The 10G SFP+ to SFP+ DAC utilizes a passive twin axial cable assembly and secures straightforwardly to the SFP+ module, presenting extreme density, low power, low cost, and low latency. The types of 10G SFP+ to SFP+ DAC are 10G SFP+ Passive Copper Direct Attach Cable (DAC), 10G SFP+ Active Copper Direct Attach Cable (ACC), 10G SFP+ Active Optical Cable (AOC). They are appropriate for network attachments within a rack and are totally economical. The SFP+ passive copper core direct connection cable offers a straightforward electrical frontier between the two terminations of the similar cables, and the connection and distance can extend to 12m.
- 25G SFP28 to SFP28 Direct Attach Cable: 25G SFP28 to SFP28 DAC cable can offer consumers with 25G extreme bandwidth data associated potential in tandem with IEEE P802.3by Ethernet standard and SFF-8402 SFP28 and is broadly utilized in a data center or supercomputing center system frameworks.
- 100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 Direct Attach Cable: 100G QSFP28 to QSFP28 DAC cab offers consumers with 100G extreme bandwidth data associative potential offering 4 duplex channels, each channel can reinforce up to 25Gb/s operating rate, and the total bandwidth is 100Gb/s in tandem with SFF-8436 specification utilized in connection between devices with QSFP28 ports.
How Far Do the Direct Attach Cables Reach?
This is momentarily dependent on the type of DAC and the vendor. Usually speaking, a transcendental era is being probed where speeds are above 100GbE speeds, and DACs are restricted to 5m runs or compact runs. As DACs move into escalated speed, they also require more protection. More protection indicates a bigger cable. This consequently means escalated speed DACs are less bendable than lesser speed DACs. If one looks at a quintessential QSFP+ 40GbE DAC versus a QSFP28 100GbE DAC, one will observe the one utilized in 100GbE networking is thicker and stiffer. This indicates that the routing DAC cables in a shelf is more demanding that it had been formerly.
Growth Drivers
The market is witnessing a sizeable growth pushed by the escalated demand of high speed data transmission. The direct attach cable market sales are soaring as data-concentrated administration, and services become more extensive there is an increasing requirement for methodical and economic association solutions within data centers and networking ambiances. DAC cables provide captivating responses to this demand as they offer escalated speed data transmission potential at a lesser cost as juxtaposed to conventional networking instruments. Datacenter mechanics and undertakings are growingly acquiring DAC cables to minimize the gap between servers, switches, and storage devices.
Final Thoughts
DACs are becoming growingly favorable not just with data centers but within broader spaces of the industry as they provide a very economical, effective, and simple way of rendering these connections. They are also extremely dependable. In the direct attach cable market, the modules that plug straightforwardly into the equipment port render a tangible electrical contact, which sanctions a robust connection.