Pluggable Fiber Optic Transceivers The pluggable fiber optic transceivers are hot-swapped compact media converters that are used to provide instant fiber connectivity for the networking needs. They are an affordable and cost effective way to connect single network devices to a wide variety of fiber cable distances and types. These devices facilitate the transportation of fast Ethernet and the gigabit Ethernet LAN packets over a multiplexed time-division mode over a packet-switched network.
Mode of operation These devices are used in data communication, and telecommunication networks interfacing devices such as switches, routers, and fiber optic cables to perform the conversion between the optical and the electrical signals. These fiber optic transceivers support the communication standards that include the Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), gigabit Ethernet and the fiber channel. The Optical Transceivers have a wide range of detachable interfaces to the multimode/single-mode fiber optics, that allow the users to make a selection on the appropriate transceiver, in accordance with the required optical range for the network.
Availability The Optical Transceivers are available with the copper cable interfaces, which facilitate a host device that is primarily designed for the optical fiber communications to allow communication over unshielded twisted pair networking cables. The modern transceivers support the digital diagnostics monitoring (DDM) functions which is also known as digital optical monitoring. This is the feature that allows the users to monitor the real-time parameters of SFP, such as the power output of the optical device, the optical input power, temperature, the laser bias current and the transceiver supply voltage.
Types of Available Fiber Optic Transceivers. There are different types of the available transceivers on the market. The most common ones are; 1. SFP This is a small form-factor pluggable that is compatible, hot-swapped transceiver module, that is used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. These modules can be regarded as an upgrade to the GBIC module. The SFP is a popular industry format that is supported by various network component vendors as they are designed to offer the
support of SONET, the Gigabit Ethernet, Fiber Channel and other communications standards. 2. SFP+ The SFP+ is an enhanced and advanced version of the SFP that supports data rates for up to 10 Gbit/s, with support of the 8 Gbit.s Fiber Channel, 10-gigabit Ethernet and the Optical Transport Network standard (OTU2). It is a popular industry standard format that is supported by many network component vendors. In the modern market, their applications have expanded to SONET OC-192, SDH STM-64, OTN G..709. CPRI wireless, the 16G Fiber Channel and the modern 32G Fiber Channel application. 3. XFP The XFP appeared before the introduction of the SFP+. It is a standardized form factor of the serial 10 Gb/s fiber optic transceiver. It is protocol independent and fully compliant with various standards such as - 10G Ethernet, 10g Fiber Channel, SONET OC-192, SDH STM-64 and the OT G.709. These transceivers are used in datacom and telecom optical links to offer a small footprint and lower the power consumption of the transponders. 4. QSFP/QSFP+ This is the quad 4 channel small form-factor pluggable that is compact hot-pluggable transceiver used for the data communication applications. The QSFP+ emerged as a standard to support the 1oGb.s data rates. 5. CFP The C form-factor pluggable is a multi-source agreement that is used to produce a common form factor for the transmission of high-speed digital signals. The c stands for the Latin letter C that is used to denote the number 100 which means centum, as the standard was initially developed for the 100 Gigabit Ethernet Systems
Application areas These Optical Transceivers are applicable to a number of places such as; -
Switches/Bridges/Routers/Servers SONET/SDH Network Gigabit Ethernet 1x/2x Fiber Channel Point-Point Networking Metro Access Rings Fiber-to-the-desktop (FTTD) High-speed Computer Links LANS, SAN (Local, storage area networks)
The pluggable fiber optic transceivers facilitate the network upgrades because they are interchangeable with the fiber connectors that can adapt to most of the existing networks. There is an increasing demand for the Optical Transceivers as the communication market grows in response to the many available smartphones and the internet transmission of data. BENEFITS The benefits of using the pluggable fiber optic transceivers are many. Their benefits make them valuable to many networks because of their
universality and ability to operate in many different networks. -
They They They They
are easy to replace and repair are compatible with many other devices pass data across long communication distance have various set speeds facilitating different data rates
The transceivers are able to accommodate a wide range of link spans and can be used in the telecom and datacom applications to change an electrical signal into optical signals and vice versa. They are pluggable fiber transceivers that are preferred by many designers because of their flexibility, scalability, and affordability.