The QSFP4X10GAO3 is a Cisco QSFP-4X10G-AOC3M compatible optical quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP+) breakout cable that is designed, programmed and tested to work with Cisco® brand compatible servers or routers and complies with MSA industry standards. Connecting a single QSFP+ port (40 GbE) to four 10G SFP+ ports, this active optical breakout cable is fully hot-pluggable which makes upgrades and replacements seamless by minimizing network disruptions. 

The fiber QSFP+ cable is lighter and more flexible than QSFP+ direct-attach cables, making it ideal for installation in tight spaces and over longer distances. It is designed for high-speed interconnects and is great for point-to-point across-rack network switch or server connections, for up to four 10G SFP+ devices.

StarTech.com SFP Cables

All StarTech.com QSFP & QSFP+ cables are backed by a lifetime warranty and free lifetime multilingual technical support. StarTech.com offers a wide variety of direct-attach SFP Cables and SFP modules, providing the convenience and reliability you need to ensure dependable network performance.

• 100% compatibility with Cisco QSFP-4X10G-AOC3M guaranteed
• StarTech.com SFP cables are backed by a lifetime warranty
• Meets or exceeds MSA (Multi-Source Agreement) industry standards
• Low power consumption of less than 1.5 W
• Hot-swappable

• Use in 40Gb/10Gb mixed Ethernet network applications
• Point-to-point in-rack and across-rack server or network switch connections, for up to four devices

• QSFP+ to 4x SFP+ cable

What is a SFP Transceiver?
The SFP also known as ’small form-factor pluggable’ is a compact hot-swappable device that plugs into a SFP port of a network device or switch and is most commonly used for telecommunication and data communication applications. SFPs support communication using either fibre optic or copper networking cable. SFP optics have a transmitting side (Tx) and a receiving side (Rx). The transceiver communicates using a laser to the receiving side of the other optic network device. SFPs are built to support many different communication standards such as Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and SONET.

What is the difference between SFP & SFP+ transceivers?
SFP and SFP+ transceivers are very similar in terms of size and appearance. Primarily the key difference being that SFP+ is commonly used in Gigabit Ethernet applications while SFP is for 100Bse or 1000Base applications and SFP maximum data rate is limited to 10Gbps whereas SFP= transceivers support higher but also accounts for a difference in transmission distances. It’s important to note that a SFP+ transceiver cannot be plugged into an SFP port as SFP+ do not support speeds less than 1Gbps.

What is QSFP Transceiver?
QSFP also known as Quad small factor pluggable is a 4 channel type of compact hot swappable transceiver and is used for 40 Gigabit ethernet data communication applications. These devices support Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand and SONET/SDH standards with different data rate options. The most common types include: 4x1Gbps QSFP, 4x10Gbps QSFP+, 4x28Gbps QSFP28.
QSFP+ and QSFP28 are the latest versions and support numerous 40Gbps and 100Gbps applications. Both QSFP+ and QSFP28 modules integrate 4 transmit and 4 receiver channels.