Cisco SFP Modules Overview

As we all know, Cisco is one of the most famous brands in the field of telecommunications. Cisco compatible SFP transceiver modules are widely used for Gigabit Ethernet applications in data centers and network systems. The hot-swappable input/output device plugs into a Gigabit Ethernet port or slot. Optical and copper models can be used on a wide variety of Cisco products and intermixed in combinations of 1000BASE-T, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX/LH, 1000BASE-EX, 1000BASE-ZX, or 1000BASE-BX10-D/U on a port-by-port basis.

1000BASE-T SFP for Copper Networks

The 1000BASE-T SFP operates on standard Category 5 unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling of link lengths up to 100 m. Cisco 1000BASE-T SFP modules support 10/100/1000 auto negotiation. The following is Fiberstore's Cisco compatible 10/100/1000BASE-T copper SFP transceiver, compliant with the Gigabit Ethernet standard as specified in IEEE STD 802.3 and can fully satisfy the 10/100/1000BASE-T application.

1000BASE-SX SFP for Multimode Fiber Only

The 1000BASE-SX SFP, compatible with the IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-SX standard, operates on legacy 50 μm multimode fiber links up to 550 m and on 62.5 μm Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)-grade multimode fibers up to 220 m. It can support up to 1km over laser-optimized 50 μm multimode fiber cable. For example, Fiberstore's Cisco SFP-GE-S compatible 1000BASE-SX SFP operates on legacy 50 μm multimode fiber links up to 550 m with digital diagnostics monitoring function.  

1000BASE-LX/LH SFP for Both Multimode and Single-Mode Fibers

The 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP (GLC-LH-SMD) is compatible with the IEEE 802.3z 1000BASE-LX standard and operates on standard single-mode fiber-optic link spans of up to 10 km and up to 550 m on any multimode fibers. When used over legacy multimode fiber type, the transmitter should be coupled through a mode conditioning patch cable.

1000BASE-EX SFP for Long-Reach Single-Mode Fibers

The 1000BASE-EX (GLC-EX-SMD) SFP operates on standard single-mode fiber-optic link spans of up to 40 km in length. A 5-dB inline optical attenuator should be inserted between the fiber-optic cable and the receiving port on the SFP at each end of the link for back-to-back connectivity.

1000BASE-ZX SFP for Long-Reach Single-Mode Fibers

The 1000BASE-ZX SFP operates on standard single-mode fiber-optic link spans of up to approximately 70 km in length. The SFP provides an optical link budget of 21 dB, but the precise link span length depends on multiple factors such as fiber quality, number of splices, and connectors. When shorter distances of single-mode fiber (SMF) are used, it might be necessary to insert an inline optical attenuator in the link to avoid overloading the receiver. A 10-dB inline optical attenuator should be inserted between the fiber-optic cable plant and the receiving port on the SFP at each end of the link whenever the fiber optic cable span loss is less than 8 dB.

1000BASE-BX10-D and 1000BASE-BX10-U SFP for Single-Fiber Bidirectional Applications

The 1000BASE-BX-D and 1000BASE-BX-U SFPs, compatible with the IEEE 802.3ah 1000BASE-BX10-D and 1000BASE-BX10-U standards, operate on a single strand of standard SMF. A 1000BASE-BX10-D device is always connected to a 1000BASE-BX10-U device with a single strand of standard SMF with an operating transmission range up to 10 km.

Fiberstore's SFP transceivers for Gigabit Ethernet are designed for the Gigabit networks with different types to fit for 1000Base-SX, 1000Base-LX/LH, 1000Base-EX, 1000Base-ZX and 1000Base-T applications. All these modules come with digital diagnostics monitoring (DDM) functions and are very cost-effective. We can supply 100% compatible fiber optic transceiver modules of many famous brands, like Cisco, Dell, D-link with incredible discounts. In particular, you can find a full product line of our New Cisco SFP with a good price and enjoy same-day shipping.

Why Plug-and-Play Transceivers Are So Popular

Plug-and-play is a technology that allows the operating system to detect and configure internal and external peripherals as well as most adapters. It has the ability to find and configure hardware components without having to reset DIP (dual in-line package) switches and jumpers. Plug-and-play transceivers refer to hot-swappable or hot-pluggable optical transceivers, such as SFP transceivers or XFP transceivers, which can be quickly plugged into an interface of fiber optical devices. Here are the reasons why plug-and-play transceivers play such an important role in data center communications.

Designed to Handle Mission Critical Applications

Plug-and-play transceivers are the basics of linking and transmitting data in mission critical applications which are the foundation of a company's business, like telecommunications company or networking technical company which depend heavily on data center. Therefore it is essential that these applications run efficiently or the entire company will be stuck in trouble. The faster data can reach, the faster decisions can be made. That's why it's so important to ensure that the applications are up and running 99.99 percent of the time. Even if plug-and-play transceivers fail to work well, there is relatively little downtime because the devices can be replaced without powering down the entire system.

Time-saving and Cost-effective

There's nothing worse than a malfunctioning transceiver that needs repair or replacement. Imagine that if you have to redesign an application every time one component malfunctions. Redesigns are not favorable because they are expensive and time consuming. Using plug-and-play transceivers can avoid redesign, because they are highly compatible and can be easily replaced. This is an important factor why plug-and-play transceivers are more popular than standard transceivers, because you can save time and money with plug-and-play transceivers and avoid redesigns that could ruin the efficiency of your work.

Upgrade When Needed

This will allow you to keep your capital liquid and invest in other aspects of your business. When new devices are introduced on the market, it will be easy to drop them into your existing design. Many of the transceivers are 100% compatible and are backed by a warranty. Thus, designers have nothing to fear by waiting to upgrade. If the upgrade doesn't work, they'll be refunded for the cost of the device.

Increase Productivity and Efficiency

As mentioned above, plug-and-play transceivers allow people to replace transceivers easily without completely shutting down their entire system or redesigning the application. When it's not required to power down the device for replacement or repair, productivity and efficiency improves. This is why so many telecommunications company and networking technical company are choosing plug-and-play devices over standard devices, especially the plug-and-play transceivers. Currently, fiber plug-and-play solutions for data center applications are very necessary to transmit data with a high degree of integrity, reliability and efficiency.

All in all, there are so many reasons that plug-and-play transceivers are preferred over standard transceivers. Fiberstore provides a wide range of plug-and-play transceivers, such as CiscoCVR-X2-SFP10Gcompatible module, Cisco SFP-GE-S compatible SFP module and other transceiver modules compatible with many other famous brands.  

Fiberstore Pluggable Fiber Optic Transceivers

Pluggable fiber optic transceivers refer to hot-swappable or hot-pluggable optical transceivers which can be quickly plugged into an interface of fiber optical devices. An optical transceiver can best be described as a device that converts high-speed data from a cable source to an optical signal for communication over optical fiber. Optical transceivers are used to update the communications networks to manage broadband, to update the data center networks to make them manage traffic with higher speeds, and to implement the backbone network for mobile communications.

Pluggable fiber optic transceivers provide connectivity options for Ethernet over twisted pair copper and fiber optic cables with transition speeds from 100 Megabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second. Twisted pair copper transceivers support transmission distances of up to 100 meters and fiber optic transceivers support multi-mode and single-mode fiber optic cable types with transmission distances up to 120 kilometers. Followings are some of the most common types of pluggable transceivers from Fiberstore.

GBIC Transceivers

For transceivers that plugs into Gigabit Ethernet and links to a fiber optic network, the Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) is the standard and SFP is for small form factor pluggable transceiver. The GBIC transceiver module operates as an input and output transceiver and is linked with the fiber optic network generally through the optic patch cords. GBIC transceivers are deemed to be ideal for any interconnections over the Gigabit Ethernet centers and for switches environment. The converters are virtually intended for high performance and continuing interactions that have need of gigabit or fiber channel interconnections.

XENPAK Transceivers

XENPAK is the first MSA for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The XENPAK MSA defines a fiber optic or wired transceiver module which conforms to the 10 Gigabit Ethernet standard of the IEEE 802.3 working group. XENPAK transceiver module is a hot-swappable, highly integrated and serial optical transceiver module for 10Gbit/s data transmission applications. It is designed to transmit and receive optical data of link length of 300m, 10km, 20km, 40km and up to 80km. 10G XENPAK solution includes dual fiber XENPAK, CWDM XENPAK and DWDM XENPAK transceivers which enable high port densities for 10 Gigabit Ethernet systems. A 70 pin electrical connector and a duplex SC connector optical interface assure that connectivity is compliant to the XENPAK MSA.

SFP Transceivers

SFP transceiver is a compact and hot-pluggable transceiver and a popular industry format jointly supported by many network component vendors. The devices are designed to use together with small form factor connectors and offer high speed and physical compactness, providing instant fiber connectivity for your networking gear. It is a cost effective way to connect a single network device to a wide variety of fiber cable distances and types. SFP transceiver modules are designed to support SONET/SDH, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and other communications standards.

SFP+ Transceivers

The small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) can be referred to as an enhanced version of the SFP that supports data rates up to 16 Gbit/s. SFP+ transceiver supports 8Gbit/s Fiber Channel, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and optical transport network standard OTU2. The SFP+ product family includes cages, connectors, and copper cable assemblies. The SFP+ transceiver modules are specified for 8Gbps/10Gbps/16Gbps Fibre Channel and 10-Gigabit Ethernet applications. Besides, converter modules for X2 and XENPAK ports are also available in Fiberstore. For example, the following Cisco CVR-X2-SFP10G compatible oneX converter module for X2 ports converts a 10 Gigabit Ethernet X2 port into a 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP+ port. With the OneX converter module, customers have the flexibility to use the 10 Gigabit X2 interface port of a switch with X2 modules or SFP+ modules.

Fiberstore's pluggable optical transceivers include GBIC, SFP, XFP, SFP+, X2. CFP form factors are available as well. These high quality transceivers support for a large variety of cable types and transmission distances. Fiberstore also provide third-party compatible optical transceivers including 100BASE (like Cisco GLC-FE-100LX SFP), 1000BASE (like Cisco SFP-GE-S SFP), as well as 1G to 100G optical transceivers.