NVIDIA Mellanox MC2207310-050 QSFP Active Optical Cable, FDR InfiniBand 56Gb/s and 56GbE VPI, 50m: This is a 50-meter active optical cable (AOC) designed for FDR InfiniBand 56Gb/s and 40/56GbE VPI links over QSFP. The AOC integrates VCSEL optics on multi-mode fiber with QSFP connectors permanently terminated at both ends. This is NOT a passive copper DAC and NOT a single-mode LR transceiver assembly. Condition: Refurbished.
Engineering Context: The cable carries 56Gb/s aggregate as 4 lanes × 14Gb/s NRZ for FDR InfiniBand, and supports 40GbE / 56GbE Ethernet over the same QSFP interface in VPI mode. The 50m length puts this AOC in the mid-reach band — well beyond the practical limits of QSFP DAC copper (typically ≤7m) and short-reach AOCs. Power and signaling are delivered through the QSFP electrical interface; no separate optical transceiver pair is required.
Deployment & Use Cases: Used for inter-rack and cross-aisle interconnects in HPC clusters running FDR InfiniBand, MPI fabrics, and Lustre/GPFS storage networks. Common between top-of-rack switches and aggregation/core FDR switches at distances DAC cannot serve, and for storage-to-compute links where a factory-tested AOC is preferred over field-terminated SMF.
Technical Specifications:
Connector: QSFP to QSFP (factory-terminated)
Cable type: Active Optical Cable (AOC), VCSEL over multi-mode fiber
Data rate: 56Gb/s FDR InfiniBand (4x14G NRZ); 40GbE / 56GbE Ethernet in VPI mode
Length: 50m
Protocol modes: InfiniBand FDR and Ethernet (VPI)
Hot-pluggable: Yes (via QSFP)
Condition: Refurbished
Compatibility & Constraints: Compatible with Mellanox QSFP host ports on ConnectX-3 / ConnectX-3 Pro VPI HCAs and SwitchX / SwitchX-2 switches in FDR or VPI mode. As a factory-terminated AOC, mid-span splicing or breaking the cable is NOT supported. This cable is NOT a breakout cable and is NOT a 100GbE QSFP28 AOC. Vendor lock-in or DDM compliance on third-party non-Mellanox switches is not guaranteed.
Why TES: Sourced and tested by T.E.S IT-SOLUTIONS, a specialist B2B reseller of NVIDIA Mellanox enterprise networking hardware. Ships from EU stock with 1–3 business day handling.