Panduit FDS9N-24-10P 24-Fiber OS2 LC Duplex Cassette

Panduit FDS9N-24-10P FlexCore 24-Fiber OS2 LC Duplex Splice Cassette

The Panduit FDS9N-24-10P is a front-access FlexCore fiber splice cassette engineered for high-density singlemode deployments in ODF (Optical Distribution Frame) and OSF (Optical Splice Frame) environments. It terminates 24 OS2 9/125µm fibers from discrete pigtails to 12 LC duplex adapters in a compact 1U-compatible form factor, allowing datacenter and telecom installers to consolidate patching real estate while maintaining full per-fiber access for MACs (moves, adds, changes). Standard insertion loss performance and snap-in cassette design reduce deployment time in both new builds and retrofit upgrades where rack space is at a premium.

Key Features

• 24 OS2 singlemode fibers (9/125µm) terminated to 12 LC duplex adapters, unterminated pigtail tails for field splicing
• Front-access FlexCore cassette design for tool-free insertion and extraction in Panduit ODF/OSF chassis
• Standard insertion loss specification for cost-effective 10G/40G/100G singlemode links
• Black polycarbonate housing: 11.7mm H × 292.8mm W (0.46" × 11.53"), fits standard 1U fiber enclosures
• Compliant with ISO/IEC 11801, ANSI/TIA-568-C.3, TIA-604-5 (FOCIS-5), TIA-604-10 (FOCIS-10), IEEE 802.3, ANSI T11.2 Fiber Channel
• RoHS 2002/95/EC compliant, 10-pack carton for multi-floor or multi-rack rollouts

The FDS9N-24-10P uses LC duplex connectors on the adapter side—the de facto standard for enterprise and service-provider singlemode infrastructure—paired with unterminated 900µm tight-buffered pigtails on the splice side. This "fanout" configuration allows you to fusion-splice incoming 12-fiber or 24-fiber ribbon or loose-tube cables directly to the pigtail array inside the cassette, then slide the cassette into a FlexCore ODF chassis for a clean front-panel patch field. Each LC duplex port presents two fibers (transmit/receive pairs), so the cassette supports 12 duplex circuits or 24 simplex strands depending on your architecture.

The OS2 fiber specification (ITU-T G.652.D) delivers ≤0.4 dB/km attenuation at 1310nm and ≤0.3 dB/km at 1550nm, making this cassette suitable for 10GBASE-LR, 40GBASE-LR4, 100GBASE-LR4, and coherent DWDM transport over distances from a few hundred meters (intra-building risers) to tens of kilometers (campus or metro links). Standard insertion loss—typically ≤0.5 dB per mated pair—keeps your link budget healthy without the cost premium of ultra-low-loss (ULL) connectors, a practical tradeoff for most enterprise and regional carrier applications where span loss is dominated by cable length rather than connector count. For reference, a 10GBASE-LR link budget allocates 7.3 dB maximum path loss; with this cassette's ~0.5 dB insertion loss at each end, you still have 6.3 dB remaining for cable and any intermediate splices—enough headroom for a 15km span at 0.4 dB/km with margin to spare.

The polycarbonate cassette body is molded with integral splice-tray guides and strain-relief clips. You route pigtails through the rear breakout, perform fusion splices in the internal tray (which holds up to 24 individual splices or multiple ribbon splices depending on splicer configuration), coil excess pigtail slack in the radius-managed tray, then snap the cover shut. The tray enforces a 38mm minimum bend radius to prevent macrobending attenuation spikes—critical for OS2 fiber, which is more bend-sensitive than OM3/OM4 multimode. The entire assembly slides into a FlexCore chassis slot on toolless rails, latching with a front-tab mechanism that allows one-handed insertion and extraction—critical when you're working in a live ODF with adjacent cassettes already populated and patched. No screws, no panel removal, no disruption to neighboring circuits.

FlexCore cassettes are designed for modular fiber distribution in datacenters, telecom central offices, headends, and enterprise server rooms where port density and future scalability drive architecture. A typical deployment pairs this cassette with a Panduit 1U or 2U FlexCore chassis: you mount the chassis in a 19" or 23" rack, slide in as many cassettes as the chassis supports (often 4× or 6× cassettes per 1U, yielding 48 to 144 LC duplex ports in a single rack unit), then use the front LC duplex ports as your structured patch field. Backbone cables (MPO trunk cables, loose-tube OSP cables, or armored interbuilding fiber) enter from the rear, splice to the cassette pigtails, and all patching happens at the front—no need to open the chassis or disturb existing splices when you add or move a circuit.

This front-access model shines in high-churn environments: a datacenter leaf-spine fabric might use FDS9N-24-10P cassettes at the leaf switches (one cassette per switch uplink group) and at the spine aggregation layer, with pre-terminated MPO-to-LC breakout trunks or field-spliced OSP cables feeding the cassettes. When a switch fails or you need to migrate a VLAN, you simply move the patch cord at the front panel; the splice layer remains untouched and protected inside the sealed cassette. The 10-pack carton quantity supports multi-rack or multi-floor rollouts without reordering mid-project, and the standardized LC duplex footprint ensures that your patch-cord inventory (OS2 LC-LC duplex jumpers in 1m, 2m, 3m, 5m lengths) works across the entire infrastructure—no need to stock multiple connector types or custom breakout assemblies.

For retrofit scenarios—say, upgrading a legacy ST or SC fiber plant to LC—the cassette's discrete pigtail interface is a lifesaver. You don't need to replace entire trunk cables; instead, you fusion-splice the existing fibers (even mixed connector types or cable constructions) to the FDS9N-24-10P pigtails, install the cassette in a new FlexCore chassis, and your front-panel patch field is now uniform LC duplex. This incremental migration path preserves your fiber investment while modernizing the active layer. It also decouples your outside-plant cable decisions from your rack-level patching strategy: the OSP team can pull whatever cable best suits the conduit and environment (armored, gel-filled, ribbon, loose-tube, tight-buffered), and the datacenter team splices it to the cassette without worrying about connector compatibility or polarity schemes.

The 11.7mm (0.46") height allows stacking multiple cassettes in a single rack unit with minimal vertical clearance—useful in shallow-depth racks or wall-mount enclosures where every millimeter counts. The 292.8mm (11.53") width fits standard 1U panel cutouts, and the black finish matches most ODF and rack aesthetics (important for customer-facing or NOC-visible installations where appearance matters). The cassette's low profile also means you can mount FlexCore chassis in high-density zones (above or below cable managers, in tight vertical spaces between active gear) without sacrificing port count.

The FDS9N-24-10P meets ISO/IEC 11801 and ANSI/TIA-568-C.3 structured cabling standards, TIA-604-5 (FOCIS-5) LC connector geometry, TIA-604-10 (FOCIS-10) ferrule endface specifications, and is qualified for IEEE 802.3 Ethernet and ANSI T11.2 Fiber Channel physical-layer requirements. RoHS 2002/95/EC compliance ensures compatibility with EU and California environmental procurement rules. For installers managing multi-vendor ODF ecosystems, the discrete pigtail interface is the key advantage: you're not locked into a proprietary trunk cable pinout or MPO polarity scheme. Any fusion splicer, any fiber type (as long as it's 9/125µm OS2), any cable construction—ribbon, loose-tube, tight-buffered, armored—can terminate into this cassette. That flexibility, combined with Panduit's toolless FlexCore mechanics and the ubiquity of LC duplex patch cords, makes the FDS9N-24-10P a low-risk, high-density backbone solution for singlemode networks from 10G to 100G and beyond.