Panduit FC2WA-24-10AS OM5 24-Fiber MPO-LC Cassette

Panduit FC2WA-24-10AS OptiCom OM5 MPO-to-LC Fiber Cassette

The Panduit FC2WA-24-10AS is a 24-fiber OM5 breakout cassette engineered for high-density 40G/100G/400G data center deployments. It converts two MPO-12 trunk connectors to twenty-four LC duplex ports using Method A polarity, eliminating field termination and reducing deployment time in spine-leaf architectures. Built for OptiCom modular cassette enclosures, this unit supports short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) over OM5 fiber, future-proofing migrations from 10G/25G leaf switches to 100G/200G uplinks without re-cabling horizontal runs.

Key Features

• 24-fiber OM5 lime-green broadband multimode fiber rated for 100G at 150m, 40G at 440m per TIA-492AAAE
• Dual MPO-12 male trunk connectors (pinned) to 12× LC duplex simplex pairs, Method A polarity for structured TIA-568 compliance
• Panduit PI Ultra polarity management system — color-coded boots and laser-etched labels prevent A/B reversals during MACs
• Polycarbonate housing rated UL 94 V-0, fits all OptiCom FHD and FHDX cassette enclosures without adapter plates
• Factory-terminated and tested to ≤0.35 dB insertion loss, ≥50 dB return loss; serial-number traceable to manufacturing batch
• 50-micron core optimized for 850nm VCSEL transceivers (SR4/SR10/SWDM4), backward compatible with OM3/OM4 patch cords
• Ships in cartons of 10 cassettes; each individually bagged with port dust caps and QR-linked test reports

OM5 fiber (ISO/IEC 11801-1 OF-500) extends the life of existing 850nm optics infrastructure by adding four SWDM wavelengths (850/880/910/940 nm) to the traditional 850nm channel. In practice, this means a single FC2WA-24-10AS cassette supports twelve 100GBASE-SR4 links today and twelve 200G-SR4 or six 400G-SR8 links tomorrow using the same physical fiber — critical for hyperscale operators deferring costly OM4-to-singlemode fork-lifts. The Method A pin mapping (1→12, 2→11… per TIA-568-C.0 Annex A) ensures transmit on one end maps to receive on the opposite end without crossover adapters, a frequent failure point when mixing Method B trunk cables with Method A cassettes. Panduit's PI Ultra scheme adds a second layer of idiot-proofing: each LC boot is laser-marked with position number and polarity direction, and the MPO keys are staggered male/female to block reversed trunk insertion. Installers working in live hot-aisle environments — where a single transposed fiber can black-out an entire leaf switch — will appreciate the mechanical keying that forces correct orientation even when you can't see the connector face.

Deployment context: a typical 48-port 100G leaf switch with QSFP28 optics requires two 24-fiber trunks to the spine — one trunk per cassette, two cassettes per 1U OptiCom enclosure, four enclosures per 42U rack column yields 96 breakouts, enough for two full leaf switches with redundant A/B fabric paths. The polycarbonate housing dissipates heat passively; no airflow baffles required even when stacked six-deep in zero-U vertical managers. Cable management becomes the long pole: each cassette exposes twelve duplex LC ports in a 2.8" width, so a fully populated FHD-6 enclosure (six cassettes, 72 duplex ports, 144 fibers) needs either angled boots or slack spools to avoid kink-radius violations on the patch cords. Pre-plan your bend-radius budget — OM5 is rated 10× cable OD for dynamic bends (30mm for 3mm cable), 20× OD for static bends. If your horizontal trunk run includes multiple 90° turns in overhead ladder rack, order the cassettes now and lay out the cable path in CAD before the vendor ships MPO trunks; a kinked trunk 80 feet into a ceiling plenum is a change-order, not a service call.

This cassette meets TIA-568-C.0, TIA-604-5 (MPO), and IEC 61754-7 connector standards and ships with manufacturer warranty. The 24-fiber count hits the sweet spot for leaf-spine fabrics (12 duplex ports = twelve 100G SR4 links or six 200G links), and the OM5 spec guarantees compatibility with Cisco/Arista/Juniper 850nm optics through at least the 400G generation. For integrators managing tech refresh cycles on a 5–7 year horizon, the $91-per-link cost (MSRP / 24 fibers / 2 ends) pays for itself versus field-terminating 24 LC connectors at $12 each plus the labor to test and document them. Factory certification eliminates the arguments with the network engineer when a link won't train — you can point to the serialized test report showing 0.28 dB insertion loss at acceptance, and the troubleshooting starts at the transceiver or patch cord, not your termination quality.