Arista H-O400-4Q100-2M-Arista | 400G OSFP to 4x 100G QSFP28 Breakout Cable, 2m

Q: What equipment does this cable connect?
A: This breakout cable connects a single 400G OSFP port on one end to four 100G QSFP28 ports on the other end, commonly used to connect data centre switches with 400G uplinks to servers or aggregation switches with 100G ports.

Q: Does this cable require any external conversion or gearbox equipment?
A: No, the H-O400-4Q100-2M has an integrated gearbox within the QSFP end that performs the necessary 2x 50G PAM-4 to 4x 25G NRZ electrical signal conversion, enabling direct plug-and-play connectivity.

Q: Is this cable compatible with QSFP-DD ports?
A: This specific SKU is designed for OSFP to QSFP28 connectivity. For QSFP-DD to QSFP28 applications, Arista offers the H-D400-4Q100-2M variant with the same electrical characteristics.

Q: What advantages does active copper offer over passive DAC?
A: Active copper cables incorporate signal amplification and conditioning circuitry, enabling longer reach (up to 5 meters in this series) with lower signal degradation compared to passive twinax cables, which are typically limited to 1-2 meters for high-speed applications.

Q: What is the typical use case for this cable in a data centre?
A: This cable is ideal for spine-leaf architectures where 400G spine switches need to connect to multiple 100G leaf switches, or for migrating from 100G to 400G infrastructure while maintaining backward compatibility with existing 100G equipment.