EXTREME NETWORKS 40G-DACP-QSFP3M – Direct Attach Copper Cable

Overview

The EXTREME NETWORKS 40G-DACP-QSFP3M is an enterprise-grade, passive direct attach copper (DAC) twinaxial cable assembly engineered for top-of-rack (ToR) data center switching deployments, server virtualization clusters, and high-density storage area networks. This short-range copper interconnect establishes immediate line-rate link optimization without the added power footprints, cost, or thermal overhead associated with fiber optic transceivers. It operates on a completely passive baseline, relying strictly on the host hardware’s integrated electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) circuitry to manage signal fidelity across the 3-meter span.

The assembly features twinaxial shielded copper cabling terminated with hot-pluggable Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable Plus (QSFP+) MSA-compliant hardware housings on both endpoints. Utilizing four discrete, full-duplex parallel transmit and receive lanes, the interconnect handles an aggregate throughput of 40 Gbps by driving 10.3125 Gbps per lane. The heavy-gauge 28 AWG wire structure minimizes insertion loss and cross-talk, ensuring clean signal transition and optimal Bit Error Rate (BER) execution across adjacent server enclosures.

Designed for structural deployment inside corporate data center racks and isolated branch communication closets, this 3-meter cable provides a dedicated link bridging core switches, upstream distribution arrays, and high-capacity network attached storage (NAS) devices. It interfaces natively with ExtremeXOS, SLX, and VDX hardware architectures for plug-and-play validation and full port configuration sync. Avoid deploying this passive DAC cable for cross-row vertical data center building runs exceeding 3 meters, or in legacy, non-MSA uncompressed ports that require active signal amplification modules.

Key Features

• Passive twinaxial architecture draws zero operating power from host ports.

• Four independent 10Gbps parallel lines sustain a 40Gbps line throughput.

• 28 AWG heavy-gauge wire core blocks signal attenuation over 3 meters.

• Factory-terminated pluggable QSFP+ shells enable zero-downtime hot swapping.

• Full SFF-8436 MSA conformance preserves peripheral hardware interoperability.