Panduit FC2XN-12-10U Opticom Fiber Cassette
The Panduit FC2XN-12-10U is a 12-fiber OM3 cassette module that converts a single MPO-12 male trunk connection to six LC duplex ports, enabling structured breakout for 40GBASE-SR4 and 100GBASE-SR10 migrations in datacenter and enterprise network environments. Built under Panduit's Opticom sub-brand, this cassette provides a field-installable, plug-and-play solution for transitioning from high-density MPO backbone cabling to individual LC duplex patch points at the rack or zone distribution level. The polycarbonate housing is engineered for snap-in mounting in Panduit FHD fiber enclosures and compatible cassette-based patch panels, maintaining port density while simplifying moves, adds, and changes compared to direct MPO patching.
Key Features
- MPO-12 male to 6× LC duplex breakout for 40G/100G Ethernet deployment
- OM3 50-micron multimode fiber optimized for 300m at 40Gb/s, 100m at 100Gb/s
- Polycarbonate cassette housing designed for Panduit FHD enclosures and modular panels
- Field-swappable design enables rapid polarity correction and circuit reconfiguration
- Black housing for visual organization in multi-vendor or color-coded fiber infrastructures
Datacenter and enterprise network architects deploying 40GBASE-SR4 or 100GBASE-SR10 links face a core infrastructure challenge: spine switches and storage arrays typically use MPO/MTP connectors for density, while server NICs, edge switches, and legacy equipment require LC duplex interfaces. The FC2XN-12-10U cassette bridges this gap by housing the MPO-to-LC fan-out internally, so installers can present clean LC duplex ports at the front of the patch panel while maintaining a single MPO trunk connection at the rear. This architecture reduces cable congestion in overhead ladder rack and under-floor pathways, simplifies troubleshooting (each LC port maps to a known fiber pair within the 12-fiber MPO trunk), and allows incremental activation—connect the MPO trunk once, then patch individual LC duplex circuits as servers or switches come online. The OM3 fiber grade supports 300-meter link distances at 40Gb/s and 100-meter distances at 100Gb/s, covering typical intra-building datacenter runs and most campus distribution scenarios without requiring OM4 or singlemode upgrades.
Installation follows Panduit's modular cassette workflow: the FC2XN-12-10U snaps into an FHD fiber enclosure or cassette-ready patch panel, the MPO-12 male pigtail plugs into a corresponding MPO-12 female bulkhead adapter (connected to your MPO trunk cable), and the six LC duplex ports become immediately available for patching to servers, switches, or cross-connects. Because the cassette is field-removable, polarity errors discovered during testing can be corrected by swapping the cassette or the MPO trunk cable without re-terminating individual fibers—a significant time saver during after-hours cutovers or when troubleshooting link loss in production environments. The black polycarbonate housing provides mechanical protection for the internal fiber fan-out and fan-out splice points, and the color aids in visual segregation when mixing OM3, OM4, or singlemode cassettes in the same enclosure (many integrators assign black to OM3 multimode, aqua to OM4, and yellow to singlemode).
The FC2XN-12-10U ships as a single cassette per package, with a carton quantity of 10 units for multi-rack projects or staged deployments. Integrators outfitting a new datacenter pod or refreshing an older fiber plant should plan cassette quantities based on port count requirements: each cassette provides six usable LC duplex circuits (12 fibers total), so a 24-port LC patch panel populated with four of these cassettes would require four MPO-12 trunk cables back to the MDA or spine switch. Panduit's Opticom line is widely deployed in finance, healthcare, cloud service provider, and large enterprise IT environments where fiber infrastructure must support multi-generational equipment (1G, 10G, 40G, 100G) and where documentation, labeling, and change-control processes demand consistent, factory-terminated components rather than field-spliced assemblies.
