If you are noticing your organization’s network needs a little extra speed in 2023, but your budget is fixed, you may be looking at ways to upgrade certain areas without a huge financial investment. 

In previous articles, we’ve reviewed 25G optics and their application in the  5G Radio Access Network (RAN) fronthaul. 

There are different applications for 25G optics, not just for 5G but also the deployment of 25 Gigabit Ethernet (25 GbE) in the data center specifically for server access networks. 

As an example, one of our clients – a leading global corporation specializing in payment card services for consumers, merchants and travel related services – needed to upgrade the server speed in their data centers. 

In this situation, the next speed upgrade after 10 Gb/s is 25 Gb/s with the benefits of 2.5 times the theoretical bandwidth, high port density and investment preservation. So, working with IT engineers, Approved Networks offers a variety of solutions, like the 25GBASE-SR optics. 

With this arrangement, you achieve high bandwidth and low latency for server connections, plus notable cost savings. In addition, the reach capability of those 25G optics provided flexibility in the server and switch placement using the top of rack, middle of row or end of row deployment model. 

Recently, we’ve been seeing data centers migrating server connections not only from 10GbE to 25, but to 50, even 100GbE and beyond. 

Using 25GbE server Network Interface Cards (NICs) and 100GbE switches, you can build high density networks in a 4 x 25GbE breakout format. For example, you can install 100GBASE-SR4 optics in 32-port 100G switches and 25GBASE-SR optics in server NICs to construct 4 x 25GbE breakout networks. Similar networks can be built over single-mode fiber as well. 

Because upgrades are meant to improve network efficiency while reducing expenditures in the long run, a quick way to save costs is to use 10/25G optics in server NICs, run it first at 10Gb/s, then change to 25Gb/s when switches are updated to 100GbE. 

Furthermore, with proper optic selections and optical link budget design, you can preserve the investment on fiber cabling when migrating from a 4 x 10GbE or 4 x 25GbE to 4 x 100GbE network in the data center.

If your 2023 budget includes network upgrades for the short-term, you can migrate the server connection speed from 10Gb/s to 25Gb/s – or more – without going money-crazy, all the while improving network performance for your colleagues and customers.

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Frank Yang Senior Product Management Leader Approved Networks Senior product management leader with extensive experience in strategic planning, product line management, product marketing, I.T. software and hardware engineering.