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Pro tool · for data-centre engineers and designers

MPO polarity planner

Build your channel: optic, cords, adapters, trunk, cassettes. Watch every lane trace from transmitter to receiver, with pass or fail per lane, the pin and gender check, the polish check, the one-part fix and a bill of materials.

Optic at both endsIEEE 802.3bm cl. 95.
Start from

Optic A (pinned port)

Cord at AMPO-12
End towards A
End towards B
Adapter 1
TrunkMPO-12
End towards A
End towards B
Adapter 2
Cord at BMPO-12
End towards A
End towards B

Optic B (pinned port)

Connector polish (whole chain)
PASS: every lane lands on its receiver8 of 12 fibres lit, 4 dark
END AEND B11TxTx22TxTx33TxTx44TxTx5566778899RxRx1010RxRx1111RxRx1212RxRx
Bill of materials
  • · MPO-12 cord at A, Type B, female to female, UPC
  • · MPO-12 trunk, Type B, male to male, UPC
  • · MPO-12 cord at B, Type B, female to female, UPC
  • · MPO-12 adapter, key-up to key-up
  • · MPO-12 adapter, key-up to key-up

Base-12 with a 4-lane optic leaves positions 5 to 8 dark. Base-8 trunks use every fibre.

How it works

Rules and tables you can check.

  • Every part is a position map

    Type A keeps position 1 at 1, Type B flips 1 to 12, Type C swaps pairs. Adapters flip or not. The planner chains them from optic to optic.

  • It checks what breaks on site

    Tx landing on Tx, male to male (pins on pins), female to female (no alignment), and APC mated to UPC.

  • The fix, not just the fail

    When a channel fails, it tries every single-part change and lists the ones that pass: swap this cord, flip that cassette.

  • Sources on every optic

    Lane maps from the IEEE 802.3 clause or the module datasheet. 800G maps vary by module, so the tool says check the datasheet.

Straight answers

What engineers ask.

What is the difference between MPO Type A, B and C?

Type A is straight through: position 1 at one end is position 1 at the other (key up to key down). Type B is reversed: 1 goes to 12 (key up to key up). Type C flips each pair: 1 to 2, 3 to 4. Parallel optics such as SR4 and DR4 need an overall Type B flip, so a direct link between two optics uses a Type B cord.

Can I connect two 100G-SR4 optics with a Type A cord?

No. With Type A, transmit position 1 lands on position 1, which is another transmitter. Use a Type B cord, or in a structured channel keep an odd number of flips end to end.

Does the MPO cord need to be male or female?

Transceivers have the guide pins, so the cord into the optic is female. At every adapter, one side must be male and the other female: male to male damages the end faces, female to female has no alignment.

Why does port 1 land on port 6 in Method B?

A Type B trunk reverses the position order, so the cassette ports reverse too. The channel still works; label the far panel to match or the patching will look wrong.

Free, no sign-up

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