Panduit FC2ZN-24-10AS OM4 24-Fiber MPO-LC Cassette

Panduit FC2ZN-24-10AS OptiCom™ OM4 24-Fiber MPO-LC Cassette

The Panduit FC2ZN-24-10AS OptiCom™ fiber cassette delivers high-density 40G/100G backbone connectivity in a plug-and-play module that fits standard rack-mount enclosures. This OM4 cassette breaks out two 12-fiber MPO trunk connectors to twelve duplex LC ports using Method A polarity, supporting 24 fibers total in a single-unit form factor. Built for datacenter spine-leaf architectures, enterprise campus cores, and AV-over-IP distribution layers where rapid deployment and space efficiency are non-negotiable, the FC2ZN-24-10AS eliminates field termination and fusion splicing—every fiber path is factory-terminated, factory-tested, and ready for immediate service. Polycarbonate housing with aqua LC adapters and black MPO-12 male connectors provides visual polarity confirmation at a glance, reducing troubleshooting time during MACs and reducing the risk of cross-polarity errors that can halt 40GBASE-SR4 or 100GBASE-SR4 links.

Key Features

• 2x MPO-12 male to 12x LC duplex breakout in OM4 multimode fiber, 24 fibers total per cassette
• Method A polarity (straight-through MPO pin assignment) for TIA-568 standards compliance
• Factory-terminated and tested to standard insertion loss specifications, eliminating field splicing labor
• Black polycarbonate housing with aqua LC adapters for OM4 visual identification per TIA-598
• Single-unit cassette form factor fits OptiCom™ panels and standard fiber enclosures
• Supports 40GBASE-SR4 (150m), 100GBASE-SR4 (100m), and parallel optics applications over OM4 fiber
• Rapid deployment in high-density environments—install cassette, plug MPO trunks, connect LC patch cords
• Backward compatible with OM3 fiber plants when link budgets allow, forward compatible with future upgrades
• Packaged individually, carton quantity 10 for bulk datacenter builds or phased rollouts

MPO-to-LC cassette architecture is the backbone of modern structured cabling in datacenters running 40G and 100G Ethernet. The FC2ZN-24-10AS uses two 12-fiber MPO trunk connectors on the rear to aggregate 24 fibers into a compact module, then fans those fibers out to twelve LC duplex ports on the front panel. Each LC duplex port is a transmit/receive pair supporting one bidirectional 10G link, or when used in parallel optics configurations (QSFP+ SR4, QSFP28 SR4), four LC duplex ports combine to form a single 40G or 100G channel. Method A polarity ensures pin 1 on the MPO connector maps to fiber 1 on the first LC port in a straight-through pattern, which is the standard layout for most MPO trunk cables and transceiver modules. This eliminates the need for key-up/key-down adapters or polarity-reversing patch cords in typical spine-to-leaf or core-to-distribution topologies. The OM4 fiber specification delivers 4,700 MHz·km effective modal bandwidth at 850nm, enabling 40GBASE-SR4 links up to 150 meters and 100GBASE-SR4 links up to 100 meters, well beyond the 80-100m distances typical in even large enterprise datacenters. Standard insertion loss ratings—factory tested before shipment—mean predictable link budgets and minimal troubleshooting during turn-up. The polycarbonate housing is impact-resistant and designed for repeated插拔 cycles in live production environments where MACs (moves, adds, changes) happen weekly.

High-density fiber deployments face a constant tension between port count and rack space. Traditional LC-to-LC patching at scale consumes excessive front-panel real estate and creates cable management nightmares when port counts exceed a few hundred fibers. MPO-LC cassette systems solve this by running MPO trunk cables (typically 8, 12, or 24 fiber) through vertical or horizontal pathways, then breaking out to LC at the point of use in modular cassettes. A single 1U OptiCom™ panel can house multiple FC2ZN-24-10AS cassettes, delivering 288+ fibers in one rack unit compared to 48-96 fibers in traditional LC patch panels. This density advantage is critical in colocation facilities where rack space costs hundreds of dollars per U per month, and in edge datacenters where physical footprint is constrained. The FC2ZN-24-10AS ships as a complete plug-and-play module—no field termination, no fusion splicing, no epoxy curing. Installation is mechanical: mount the cassette in the enclosure, insert MPO trunk connectors on the rear (they click into place with positive latching), route LC patch cords from the front panel to switches or servers. A two-person team can deploy 576 fibers (24 cassettes) in under an hour, compared to multiple days for equivalent field-terminated LC infrastructure. Aqua-colored LC adapters provide instant visual confirmation of OM4 media per TIA-598-D color coding standards, reducing the risk of accidentally patching OM4 cassettes to OM3 or OM2 infrastructure and violating link budget assumptions. Black MPO connectors with black cassette housing create a clean, professional appearance in customer-facing datacenters and AV equipment rooms.

The FC2ZN-24-10AS meets TIA-568 structured cabling standards for Method A polarity, ensuring interoperability with the majority of MPO trunk cables and 40G/100G transceivers deployed in enterprise and service provider networks. Method A uses a straight-through pin assignment (pin 1 to fiber 1, pin 12 to fiber 12) on the MPO connector, which pairs with a Type B crossover trunk cable to achieve the transmit-to-receive flip required for bidirectional communication. This is the most common deployment pattern for Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and Dell switches running QSFP+ or QSFP28 optics. Packaging in carton quantities of 10 supports both small-scale projects (a single cassette for a 24-fiber link) and large staged rollouts where installers pre-kit materials for multi-building campus deployments or phased datacenter builds. For integrators managing fiber infrastructure across healthcare campuses, financial trading floors, broadcast facilities, or hyperscale datacenters, the FC2ZN-24-10AS eliminates the single biggest variable in fiber projects—field termination quality—and replaces it with factory-controlled, factory-tested connectivity that works the first time, every time.