Cisco 100G QSFP28 Passive Direct-Attach Copper Cable 3m

The Cisco 100G QSFP28 Passive Direct-Attach Copper Cable (QSFP-100G-CU3M) provides a high-density, passive copper interconnect solution for 100 Gigabit Ethernet applications within the data center. Operating in the QSFP28 form factor, this 3-meter twinaxial copper assembly delivers 100GbE throughput by aggregating four 25G electrical lanes, conforming to the IEEE 802.3bj 100GBASE-CR4 standard. As a fully passive assembly, it draws no optical power and requires no digital optical monitoring circuitry, making it an operationally straightforward choice for short-reach rack and adjacent-rack connectivity.

Designed for Top-of-Rack (ToR) switching environments, the QSFP-100G-CU3M is engineered to interconnect Cisco Nexus series switches, spine and leaf nodes, and high-performance servers within the same rack or across closely spaced racks. The cable assembly integrates directly into QSFP28 ports without requiring additional transceivers or optical components, eliminating signal conversion overhead and reducing link latency. Cisco codes this assembly for compatibility with its Nexus switching platforms and validates it through Cisco's standard qualification process, ensuring consistent behavior under NX-OS and interoperability with Cisco's data center fabric architectures.

Enterprise and cloud data center operators deploying 25G server uplinks aggregated into 100G switch uplinks find the QSFP-100G-CU3M well-suited for structured cabling within standard rack unit distances. Its passive construction contributes to lower power draw per port compared to active optical or active electrical alternatives, supporting power budget optimization in dense switching deployments. The 3-meter reach covers the majority of intra-rack and short inter-rack runs in modern hot-aisle/cold-aisle data center layouts.

Ideal for

• Top-of-Rack (ToR) switch-to-switch 100GbE uplink connections within a single rack or between adjacent racks in leaf-spine fabric deployments
• High-density server-to-switch direct attachment for bare-metal servers equipped with 100GbE QSFP28 NICs requiring low-latency copper links under 3 meters
• Cisco Nexus leaf-to-spine interconnects in small-footprint data center pods where rack proximity keeps cable runs within the passive copper reach envelope
• Storage networking backplane connections between 100GbE-capable storage controllers and Nexus top-of-rack switches in NVMe-oF or iSCSI storage fabrics
• High-performance computing (HPC) cluster node interconnects where deterministic low-latency copper links are preferred over optical alternatives for short intra-rack runs
• Test and lab environments requiring repeatable, passive 100GbE copper links between Cisco switching and server hardware without optical transceiver variables

Technical specifications

Available from Omnixon Global. Submit an RFQ and our team will confirm configuration and availability for your order.