AOC CABLE VS DAC CABLE, What is your option?

AOC Active optical cables and Direct attach cables both are plug and play with a variety of configuration to work as alteration of optical transceivers for data center architecture deployment; both has its own pros and cons
Features of DAC Cable:

–With fewer components and simple structure, the cost is much lower than AOC cables to have cost saving
–DAC cable is a passive cable without power consumption to cut down data center operating expense
–Wider temperature range can be applied due to DAC cable don’t produce heat
–It is a direct electrical connection between corresponding cable ends, and has enough data rate for various applications and support higher data rates than a traditional copper interface, supporting such multiple protocols from Gigabit to 100G Ethernet, from up to 8G FC and InfiniBand
–Faster transmission: The mean time between failures (MTBF) is about 500 million hours making them reliable with fast transmission. This MTBF makes DACs essential for data centers.
–Interchangeability: As the technique development, the DAC cables are hot-swappable like fiber transceivers.
The cons for DAC cable would be heavy and thick, hard to manage, not immune to EMI, it is available in short length
Features of AOC Cable

–Greater bandwidth—Needing no equipment upgrades, AOC cable has a throughput of up to 40 Gbps with QSFP+.
–Lightweight, bend radius, space-saving—AOC cables are thin and with good bend radius which makes as the optimal option if space is limited in the data center, it also left more room for airflow and easy for cooling system
–EMI immunity—Since the optical fiber is a kind of dielectric, AOC cable is immune to electromagnetic energy.
Compared with DAC cable, AOC cable cost is relatively high, higher power consumption, narrow operating temperature
Those two types cables are widely applied in storage area network, data center, and high-performance computing connectivity, before making choice, may consider the application area, space for cabling, power consumption, project total budget, the connection distance, and available media to have the best economical, efficient, reliable solution.