Panduit FDCWA-24-10ASLH FlexCore 24-Fiber OM5 LC to MPO-12 Cassette

High-density fiber interconnect for data centers and enterprise networks requiring 40/100/400G migration paths. This Panduit FlexCore cassette breaks out a single 24-fiber MPO-12 trunk connector to twelve LC duplex ports, delivering structured OM5 wideband multimode connectivity in a single-slot form factor. Purpose-built for FlexCore ODF and OSF enclosures, it eliminates the cable congestion and panel sprawl that comes with discrete patch cables in high-port-count environments. Install teams gain field-swappable modularity without sacrificing polarity control or insertion-loss budgets—critical when you're running 100GBASE-SR4 links or multi-wavelength shortwave-division-multiplexing (SWDM) applications that depend on OM5's wideband performance.

Key Features

• 24-Fiber OM5 Wideband Multimode — 50 µm core diameter optimized for short-wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) and legacy 850 nm applications, supporting 40/100/400G Ethernet and 32G Fibre Channel over extended distances compared to OM3/OM4
• LC Duplex to MPO-12 Male Breakout — Twelve front-accessible LC duplex ports fed by a single rear MPO-12 male connector, reducing trunk-cable count by 92% and simplifying moves/adds/changes in structured cabling environments
• FlexCore System Integration — Drop-in compatibility with Panduit FlexCore ODF (Optical Distribution Frame) and OSF (Optical Splice Frame) enclosures; tool-free insertion and removal for rapid deployment and future reconfigurations
• Polycarbonate Housing with Integrated Strain Relief — Black polycarbonate cassette body with molded alignment rails and cable-management features; 11.53" × 0.46" (W×H) profile fits standard FlexCore slots without adapter modules
• Multi-Standard Compliance — Meets ISO/IEC 11801, ANSI/TIA-568-C.3, TIA-604-5 (FOCIS-5), TIA-604-10 (FOCIS-10), IEEE 802.3 Ethernet, and ANSI T11.2 Fibre Channel performance requirements; RoHS 2002/95/EC compliant for global deployment
• Factory-Terminated & Tested — Pre-terminated fiber assemblies with factory insertion-loss and return-loss validation eliminate field-polishing risk and reduce installation labor by 70% compared to on-site termination
• Method-B Polarity & Key-Up MPO Orientation — Straight-through array mapping with key-up male MPO ensures correct A-to-B fiber pairing when mated to standard key-down female trunk cables, eliminating the need for crossover adapters or polarity-reversal modules
• Carton Quantity 10 — Shipped in 10-unit cartons for multi-rack deployments; consistent lot testing ensures uniform performance across large-scale data-center builds

OM5 wideband multimode fiber extends the operational envelope beyond OM3 and OM4 by supporting wavelengths from 850 nm to 953 nm, enabling short-wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) transmission that multiplies bandwidth without adding fibers. In practical terms: a single OM5 duplex link can carry four wavelengths simultaneously (850, 880, 910, 940 nm), delivering 400 Gb/s over distances up to 150 meters—critical for leaf-spine data-center topologies where rack-to-aggregation runs exceed the 70-meter reach of OM4 at 400GBASE-SR8. While OM3 and OM4 were optimized for single-wavelength 850 nm VCSEL transmission, OM5's reduced modal dispersion across the 850–953 nm band prevents inter-symbol interference when multiple wavelengths share the same fiber core. This cassette's LC-duplex-to-MPO-12 architecture consolidates twelve duplex circuits into one trunk connection, cutting backbone cable volume by 92% and freeing vertical-cable-manager real estate for power feeds and copper uplinks. The MPO-12 male interface uses the key-up orientation standard, ensuring polarity consistency when mated to key-down female trunk cables; Panduit's FlexCore cassettes ship with Method-B polarity (straight-through array mapping), so pairing this cassette at both ends of an MPO trunk cable produces correct transmit-to-receive fiber pairing without crossover adapters. Insertion loss stays below 0.35 dB per mated pair—well within the 1.5 dB channel budget for 100-meter 100GBASE-SR4 links—and return loss exceeds 20 dB, keeping back-reflection below the threshold that degrades VCSEL transmitter performance in 25G-per-lane applications.

FlexCore ODF and OSF enclosures accept up to 144 fibers per rack unit when populated with these 24-fiber cassettes, giving network architects the density needed to collapse multi-panel installations into a single-RU solution. Installation follows a tool-free slide-and-click process: insert the cassette into an available FlexCore slot, push until the latch engages, then dress the rear MPO trunk cable into the enclosure's cable-management spine. The polycarbonate housing includes molded alignment rails that prevent rotation and ensure the LC ports align with the enclosure's front-panel grid, so pre-printed port labels remain accurate across moves and changes. Cassette removal requires no tools—press the release tab, slide the module forward, disconnect the rear MPO—making it practical to reconfigure port assignments during after-hours maintenance windows without rack teardown. For deployment in enterprise campus networks, the cassette's support for IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standards (10GBASE-SR, 40GBASE-SR4, 100GBASE-SR4, 100GBASE-SR10) and ANSI T11.2 Fibre Channel (8/16/32 GFC) makes it suitable for converged SAN and LAN infrastructures where storage and data traffic share the same fiber plant. The 24-fiber count maps cleanly to leaf-switch uplink configurations: a single cassette can home twelve 10G server uplinks or six 40G spine connections, and the OM5 fiber specification future-proofs the installation for 100G-per-port upgrades without re-cabling.

Migration from legacy OM3 or OM4 infrastructure follows a cassette-swap path: pull the existing OM3 cassette, insert this OM5 unit, re-patch the front LC connections, and label the link for SWDM capability. Because OM5 maintains backward compatibility with 850 nm-only transceivers (10GBASE-SR, 40GBASE-SR4), you can deploy these cassettes today and gain immediate benefits from the improved modal-bandwidth specification—OM5 delivers 4700 MHz·km at 850 nm versus OM4's 4700 MHz·km, but adds 2470 MHz·km at 953 nm, extending reach for future SWDM optics without sacrificing performance on installed 850 nm gear. The cassette's factory termination eliminates the three most common field-install failures: fiber end-face contamination (causes 85% of link failures in field-terminated assemblies), incorrect polarity mapping (reverses transmit/receive pairs and prevents link establishment), and out-of-spec insertion loss (results from poor cleave angles or incomplete epoxy curing). Panduit tests every cassette for insertion loss, return loss, and polarity before shipment, and the sealed MPO connector arrives with a protective dust cap that prevents contamination during staging and installation. Field techs appreciate the time savings—no fusion splicer, no polishing jig, no insertion-loss rework—and the carton quantity of 10 ensures you can populate an entire top-of-rack switch deployment from a single parts order.

The 11.53-inch width accommodates the twelve LC duplex adapters plus internal fiber routing without exceeding the FlexCore cassette slot dimension, and the 0.46-inch height allows six cassettes to stack within a standard 1U enclosure opening. Internal fiber management uses controlled-radius bends (minimum 30 mm radius) to keep attenuation below the 0.1 dB threshold that triggers chromatic-dispersion penalties in 25G-per-lane links, and the polycarbonate housing provides 1500 N/m² impact resistance to survive rack-and-stack handling during installation. When you're building out a new data hall or retrofitting a legacy cat-5e campus with fiber to the desktop, this cassette's modular architecture lets you scale in 24-fiber increments rather than committing to full 144-fiber panel swaps. For hyperscale deployments, the carton-of-10 packaging supports bulk procurement: order enough cartons to populate your planned switch count, then stock spares at 5% to cover future port adds without triggering emergency logistics. The black housing color matches Panduit's standard FlexCore enclosure finish, maintaining a uniform appearance across the front of the rack—important when you're photographing the installation for as-built documentation or compliance audits.

RoHS compliance under directive 2002/95/EC clears European and California regulatory requirements by restricting lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and brominated flame retardants below the 0.1% threshold, and the cassette's conformance to TIA-604-5 (FOCIS-5) for LC connectors and TIA-604-10 (FOCIS-10) for MPO interfaces ensures interoperability with any standards-compliant patch cable or trunk assembly from Panduit, Corning, CommScope, or third-party suppliers. ISO/IEC 11801 compliance covers the international structured-cabling standard that governs fiber-optic link performance in commercial buildings, and ANSI/TIA-568-C.3 specifically addresses balanced twisted-pair and optical-fiber cabling requirements for North American installations. For data-center operators managing spine-and-leaf Clos networks, SAN administrators running 32G Fibre Channel to all-flash arrays, or AV integrators deploying 12G-SDI video over fiber, this Panduit FlexCore cassette delivers the connector density, polarity certainty, and insertion-loss performance that keep optical links inside spec through Day Two changes and future bandwidth migrations.