USB-C to replace CatX/RJ45?

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Zeon

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#171708 28-Apr-2015 15:47

Hey guys,
Was reading this article:
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/opinion/Time-to-replace-RJ-45-connectors-in-the-data-center

Basically the author is suggesting that since USB-C can provide 10gbps and 100watts of power it could replace traditional RJ45/3 pin power cables in the rack with a unified top of rack/power supply switching device.

I think the idea has merit although 100 watt isn't really that much, especially compute intensive stuff. Predictions?

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n4

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#1293032 28-Apr-2015 15:55

I'm not sure having data and power on the same cable would be a good idea... why would you want to introduce a dependency like that?

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wasabi2k

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#1293033 28-Apr-2015 15:57

100 Watt is not enough for pretty much anything in our data centre, so it will not replace 3 Pin Power. Even if it did, would I then have 3 Pin AND another connector? No.

As far as ethernet, I would be interested in seeing how they compare interference wise. A single cable between devices is fine, what about 200+ coming out of a switch/chassis?

But at the end of the day this is a solution looking for a problem. CATx and RJ45 connections have about 2 million applications and they are great at most of them. I have boxes full of spares and I can buy rolls of them and terminate as and where I need to. Can you terminate a USB-C with a tool at home?

Interesting thought experiment.

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#1293040 28-Apr-2015 16:05

I only had a quick look over the article, because I don't think the suggestion has much merit at all. For a start, if you were going to use the connector, you'd throw out the USB signaling at the outset, and the 6 meter cable length limitation too. The issue then becomes one of cable data and power capacity.

I would argue that 100W isn't sufficient for data centre use, and even if you could theoretically power a commodity PC with 100W, no commodity PC is going to ship with a data centre-oriented connector. Power capacity is determined by cable thickness and material, so thicker CatX cabling would be all that is required. Whether the RJ-45 connector itself could remain compatible and meet those requirements is another question, but it seems there is plenty of room for a high-powered variant to be produced given the current narrow pins and wide plastic pieces separating them, and that's before you consider the fact that the bottom of the connector is entirely passive. If there is a need for more power, a new connector wouldn't be a bad thing, but there is no need to change signalling, a simple adaptor would do.

There is also the need for power redundancy in data centres.

gzt

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#1293073 28-Apr-2015 17:41

Interesting that it may reduce infrastructure requiements for some new deployments. Edit: but it's waiting on a new generation of low power display tech.

toyonut

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#1293080 28-Apr-2015 18:11

I was reading about a netgear switch the other day that ran HDMI cables between switches in place of a stacking cable as it could do 10GBe and all the rest for management.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

Zeon

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#1293096 28-Apr-2015 19:14

paulmilbank: I was reading about a netgear switch the other day that ran HDMI cables between switches in place of a stacking cable as it could do 10GBe and all the rest for management.

Yea I've heard of that before quite a few times. I'm guessing it's cheaper than ports for 10gbps over cat6?? Apparently you can do 10gbps on cat5e over short distances too. I doubt it would happen much with newer models which probably just use RJ45 now.

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Snowflake

#1293102 28-Apr-2015 19:40

paulmilbank: I was reading about a netgear switch the other day that ran HDMI cables between switches in place of a stacking cable as it could do 10GBe and all the rest for management.

i think they ditched the HDMI connector in favour of a regular GBIC in the later models

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chevrolux

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#1293164 28-Apr-2015 21:49

Regs:
paulmilbank: I was reading about a netgear switch the other day that ran HDMI cables between switches in place of a stacking cable as it could do 10GBe and all the rest for management.

i think they ditched the HDMI connector in favour of a regular GBIC in the later models

Allied Telesis certainly haven't. Their stacking arrangement gives 48Gbps with two hdmi cables in a send/receive arrangement.

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1293168 28-Apr-2015 21:55

n4: I'm not sure having data and power on the same cable would be a good idea... why would you want to introduce a dependency like that?

For the vast majority of devices now, of what use is power without data (or vice-versa) ?