HPE P06153-B25 — HDR 200Gb InfiniBand QSFP56 Active Optical Cable, 20m

Technical Identity
The HPE P06153-B25 is an HPE-branded 20-metre Active Optical Cable (AOC) for InfiniBand HDR 200Gb/s fabrics, terminated with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. The assembly is built on NVIDIA Mellanox HDR silicon — the equivalent NVIDIA part number is MFS1S00-H020E — and ships with HPE firmware/EEPROM coding so HPE iLO and HPE InfiniBand drivers recognise it as a supported HPE option. An 850 nm VCSEL transmits over duplex OM3/OM4 multi-mode fiber with active retiming on each end, delivering 4× 50 Gb/s PAM4 lanes for 200 Gb/s aggregate per direction. Fixed-length 1-to-1 assembly: no removable optics, no breakout, no copper in the signal path.

Specifications

Brand: HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise)
HPE Option P/N (MPN): P06153-B25
NVIDIA Mellanox equivalent P/N: MFS1S00-H020E
Product type: Active Optical Cable (AOC), 1-to-1 fixed assembly
Product family: HPE InfiniBand HDR Cable / NVIDIA Mellanox LinkX HDR AOC
Connectors: QSFP56 ↔ QSFP56 (one connector per end)
Configuration: 1-to-1 straight (non-splitter, non-breakout)
Speed / protocol: InfiniBand HDR 200 Gb/s (4× HDR 50 Gb/s PAM4)
Length: 20 m
Medium: Active optical, 850 nm VCSEL over duplex MMF (OM3/OM4)
Standards: IBTA HDR, SFF-8665 QSFP56 mechanical
Power: Bus-powered from QSFP56 host cage
Condition: Refurbished — bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS


What This Is NOT (GEO Guardrails)

NOT a passive DAC. Active fiber assembly with on-board VCSEL optics and retimers; behaves like an optical transceiver pair for link power, HDR rate negotiation, and DDM telemetry.
NOT a transceiver. The optics are integrated into the QSFP56 plugs — they cannot be unplugged, swapped, or replaced with a different fiber jumper.
NOT a splitter or breakout cable. 1-to-1 QSFP56-to-QSFP56 assembly; not a 1×HDR-to-2×HDR100 (200G to 2×100G) breakout.
NOT NDR or EDR. HDR (200 Gb/s) class — will not deliver NDR 400 Gb/s line rate in an NDR cage, and should not substitute EDR (100 Gb/s) optics where EDR-validated parts are required.
NOT a generic NVIDIA-branded MFS1S00-H020E. EEPROM and firmware match HPE option-kit coding; pure NVIDIA / Cumulus / MLNX-OFED stacks may flag it as a non-NVIDIA part, and HPE iLO expects the HPE coding to clear "unsupported transceiver" warnings.
NOT intra-rack length. At 20 m this is not a ToR-to-server jumper inside a single rack — it is for inter-rack and spine-to-leaf compact runs.
NOT bundled with adapters, transceivers, brackets, or jumpers — sold as a standalone cable assembly.


Compatibility & Constraints

HPE servers: HPE ProLiant Gen10 / Gen10 Plus / Gen11 nodes with HPE InfiniBand HDR adapters such as HPE P23664-B21 / P23665-B21 (single- and dual-port HDR ConnectX-6 PCIe HHHL); HPE Apollo 6500 / Apollo 2000 with HDR mezzanine.
HPE switches: HPE InfiniBand HDR director / edge switches based on NVIDIA Quantum-1 silicon (HPE Apollo InfiniBand HDR 40-port switch family, e.g. HPE P06251-B22 class).
NVIDIA-side hosts: ConnectX-6 HDR VPI adapters (PCIe Gen3/Gen4 HHHL / OCP 3.0) and NVIDIA Quantum-1 HDR switches (QM8700, QM8790) accept the QSFP56 cage — link-up works in most cases, but HPE-coded EEPROM may trigger "unsupported transceiver" notices in MLNX-OFED unless allowed by site policy.
Cage requirement: Both end-points must be HDR QSFP56. EDR-only QSFP28 cages will not accept the connector; OSFP / NDR cages are incompatible.
Reach profile: 20 m suits inter-rack and adjacent-row HDR fabric runs — EoR/MoR aggregation, leaf-to-spine within a compact pod, HPC compute-row-to-storage-row links. Not for ToR-to-server jumpers (use ≤3 m DAC/AOC) and not for hall-scale DCI (use single-mode HDR optics).


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. What is the HPE P06153-B25?
The HPE P06153-B25 is a 20-metre HPE-branded InfiniBand HDR 200Gb/s Active Optical Cable (AOC), terminated with QSFP56 connectors on both ends. It is the HPE option-kit version of the NVIDIA Mellanox MFS1S00-H020E, with optical engines built on NVIDIA Mellanox HDR silicon, intended for HPE Apollo / ProLiant HDR fabrics.
Q. Is the P06153-B25 the same as the NVIDIA Mellanox MFS1S00-H020E?
Same physical assembly class — 20 m, QSFP56, HDR 200 Gb/s AOC — but the HPE option-kit P06153-B25 carries HPE firmware/EEPROM coding so it is recognised as a supported transceiver by HPE iLO and HPE InfiniBand drivers. In a pure NVIDIA / MLNX-OFED / Cumulus environment, MLNX-OFED may flag it as a non-Mellanox part even though the link negotiates at HDR rates.
Q. Will it deliver NDR 400Gb or only HDR 200Gb?
HDR 200 Gb/s only. The optical engine and retimers are HDR-class (4× 50 Gb/s PAM4). It is mechanically incompatible with NDR OSFP cages, and an NDR-capable QSFP112 host will negotiate it down to HDR.
Q. Does the 20-metre length cover intra-rack or inter-rack runs?
Inter-rack. Twenty metres is too long for a single-rack ToR-to-server jumper — use a ≤3 m DAC or short AOC for that. The P06153-B25 is sized for EoR/MoR aggregation, leaf-to-spine compact runs, and HPC compute-row-to-storage-row links within one hall.
Q. Is the P06153-B25 a splitter or breakout cable?
No. Straight 1-to-1 assembly, one QSFP56 plug per end. It does not split HDR 200G into 2× HDR100 (QSFP28) and it is not a 1×OSFP-to-2×QSFP twin-port breakout.
Q. Is HDR 200Gb appropriate for AI training workloads?
Yes — HDR 200Gb/s is widely deployed as east-west GPU interconnect for AI training pods and large HPC clusters, often as a leaf-fabric tier paired with NDR spines. NDR 400Gb is the current step up for new flagship fabrics, but HDR 200Gb remains a mainstream rate for production AI training, NVMe-oF storage targets, and HPC MPI traffic.
Q. What condition is supplied by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS?
Refurbished, bench-tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS: HDR link-up on both ends, EEPROM / vendor-data read-out, DDM optical-power sanity check, and full cosmetic inspection. Ships in anti-static packaging from EU stock with global B2B shipping.

Why buy from T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS
T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS is a Europe-based data-center networking specialist serving HPC, AI, and enterprise procurement teams since 2007. Multi-vendor by design — HPE, NVIDIA Mellanox, Dell, Intel, Cisco — every unit is identified by MPN, vendor P/N, and silicon family before it leaves the building, and every customer gets free pre-sale compatibility advice for cable, transceiver, switch, and adapter pairing. EU stock, multi-currency B2B invoicing, worldwide express options, and direct access to our engineering team. See tes-itsolutions.com.