1000BASE-SX SFP Transceivers for Gigabit Ethernet

Standardized by the IEEE, Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a Gigabit per second, which has been considered to be a viable solution for increased bandwidth requirements for growing networks. 1000BASE SFP transceiver is a hot-pluggable input/output device that plugs into a Gigabit Ethernet port/slot, linking the port with the network. Recently the market is flooded with various 1000BASE SFP transceivers available for Gigabit Ethernet. With so many options out there in the market, people may feel puzzled about how to select the one that is in in accordance with their application. Therefore the following article will make a brief introduction to the 1000BASE SFP to help you choose the most suitable one.

Fiber-based or Copper-based Gigabit Ethernet

According to cable material, Gigabit Ethernet can be classified into fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet and copper-based Gigabit Ethernet. In fiber-based Gigabit Ethernet, 1000BASE-X is used to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission over fiber. 1000BASE-X is a group of standards for Ethernet physical layer standards. These standards include: 1000BASE-SX (A fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet standard for operation over multi-mode fiber), 1000BASE-LX (a fiber optic Gigabit Ethernet standard using a long wavelength laser and a maximum RMS spectral width of 4 nm), 1000BASE-LX10 (which is very similar to 1000BASE-LX, but achieves longer distances over a pair of single-mode fiber), 1000BASE-BX10 (which is capable of up to 10 km over a single strand of single-mode fiber) or the non-standard 1000BASE-EX ( a industry accepted term to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission) and 1000BASE-ZX (a multi-vendor term to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission) implementations.

While for copper-based Gigabit Ethernet, 1000BASE-CX, 1000BASE-KX, 1000BASE-T and 1000BASE-TX are four standards for Gigabit Ethernet over copper wiring. 1000BASE-CX uses copper cables as a medium. 1000BASE-KX is part of the IEEE 802.3ap standard for Ethernet Operation over Electrical Backplanes. 1000Base-T uses four pairs of Category 5 unshielded twisted pair cables to achieve Gigabit data rates. 1000BASE-TX is similar to 1000BASE-T but uses two pairs of wires rather than four for data transmission.

1000BASE SFP Transceivers for Gigabit Ethernet

1000BASE SFP transceiver is a device that interfaces a network device motherboard to a fiber optic or copper networking cable. It is designed to support Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel and other communications standards. As noted before, there are 1000BASE optical SFP transceivers and 1000BASE copper SFP transceivers used in Gigabit Ethernet. The following part will go on to talk about one of the 1000BASE optical SFP transceivers—1000BASE-SX SFP.

The 1000BASE-SX is one of the physical layer standards for Gigabit Ethernet, meaning the single optic fiber 1000Mbps baseband transmission standard. “S” refers to short-range multimode optical cable, while “X” means 4B/5B block coding for Fast Ethernet or 8B/10B block coding for Gigabit Ethernet. The standard specifies a transmission distance between 220 m and 550 m. It is highly popular for intra-building links in large office buildings, co-location facilities and carrier neutral internet exchanges. Therefore, 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver module is the best seller in those fields.

Two 1000BASE-SX SFP Transceivers

The 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver module is compatible with the 1000BASE-SX standard. It can support up to 1km over laser-optimized 50μm multimode fiber cable. The wavelength range that 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver module transmits and receives is from 770nm to 860nm. Fiberstore provides a variety of 1000BASE-SX SFP transceivers that are fully compatible with other brands. Take AA1419048-E6 and TL-SM311LM as an example.

AA1419048-E6AA1419048-E6 is Avaya Nortel 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver module for multimode fiber. It is the multimode module with a wavelength of 850nm. Avaya Nortel 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver module supports hot-pluggable SFP footprint duplex LC connector Interface. This transceiver is built to comply with Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) standards. AA1419048-E6 supports dual data-rate of 1.25Gbps/1.0625Gbps, which is widely used in fiber channel links, Gigabit Ethernet links, Fast Ethernet links, other optical links.

TL-SM311LMBesides AA1419048-E6, TL-SM311LM from TP-LINK is also available in the market for supporting Gigabit Ethernet Application. TL-SM311LM has the same specification with other 1000BASE-SX SFPs, which supports a link length of up to 550m on multimode fiber.

As there are different physical layer standards for Gigabit Ethernet, different 1000BASE SFP transceivers may be used for different application. These 1000BASE SFP transceivers can be used for single-mode and multimode fibers of different reaches. 1000BASE-SX SFP transceiver can operate link spans of up to 550m on any multimode fibers. Fiberstore produces a variety of compatible 1000BASE SFP with high quality and low prize including the above two SFP transceivers. We can also customize optic transceiver to meet your specific requirements. If you have any interest, please send your request to us.

Dig Deeper Into SFP Transceivers

Small form-factor pluggable (SFP) is a prevailing type of optical transceivers in the market widely utilized for Gigabit Ethernet application. As it has the same function with GBIC but with a smaller size, SFP transceiver is also called mini-GBIC. Optical transceivers are typically designed to both transmit and receive electrical optical signals under the Multi-Source Agreement. Each SFP module can support data rates from 1Gbps to 10Gbps. And there are a number of SFP modules and network accessories available for you to select from. Which one suits you better? The following article will dig deeper into the SFP transceivers that will help decide which one will work best for you.

SFP transceivers have a variety of different transmission and receiving type, users can select the appropriate transceiver for each link, to provide the optical performance can be achieved based on the available fiber type (such as a multimode fiber or single-mode fiber). Optical SFP modules available are generally divided into the following categories. Figure 1 displays the basic components of a SFP transceiver.

 

1000BASE-LX—Specified in IEEE 802.3 Clause 38, 1000BASE-LX uses a long wavelength laser (1270-1355 nm), and a maximum RMS spectral width of 4nm. 1000BASE-LX is designed to cover a distance of up to 10 km over 10µm single-mode fiber. 1000BASE-LX can also run over all common types of multimode fiber with a maximum segment length of 550 m. For link distances greater than 300 m, the use of a special launch conditioning patch cord may be required. E1MG-LX-OM is Brocade 1000BASE-LX SFP that can work over a distance of 10km.

1000BASE-EX—1000BASE-EX is not a standard but industry accepted term for Gigabit Ethernet transmission. It is very similar to 1000BASE-LX10 but achieves longer distances up to 40 km over a pair of single-mode fibers due to higher quality optics than a LX10, running on 1310nm wavelength lasers. It is sometimes referred to as LH (Long Haul).

1000BASE-ZX—1000BASE-ZX is also a non-standard but multi-vendor term using 1,550nm wavelength to achieve distances of at least 70 kilometers over single-mode fiber. Some vendors can specify distances up to 120 kilometers over single-mode fiber. Ranges beyond 80 km are highly dependent upon the path loss of the fiber in use, specifically the attenuation figure in dB per km, the number and quality of connectors/patch panels and splices located between transceivers.

1000BASE-SX—1000BASE-SX is a Gigabit Ethernet standard for operation over multimode fiber using a 770 to 860 nm, near infrared (NIR) light wavelength for a maximum of 550m at 1.25 Gbit/s (gigabit Ethernet) or 150m at 4.25 Gbit/s (Fibre Channel). Take EX-SFP-1GE-SX as an example, it is 1000BASE-SX SFP that can support a link length of 550m over OM2 cable. Figure 2 shows that EX-SFP-1GE-SX inserts into a Juniper SRX210.

 

1000BASE-BX10—1000BASE-BX10 is capable of up to 10 km over a single strand of single-mode fiber, with a different wavelength going in each direction. The terminals on each side of the fiber are not equal, as the one transmitting downstream uses the 1490nm wavelength, and the one transmitting upstream uses the 1310nm wavelength.

1000BASE-T—It is a standard for Gigabit Ethernet copper cabling. The maximum length of 1000GBASE-T is 100 meters. 1000BASE-T must use Category 5 cable or better (including Cat 5e and Cat 6. 1000BASE-T can be used in data centers for server switching, for uplinks from desktop computer switches, or directly to the desktop for broadband applications.

1000BASE-TX—Created by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), 1000BASE-TX (TIA/EIA-854) is a standard similar to 1000BASE-T that was simpler to implement. Compared with 1000BASE-T, this simplified design would have reduced the cost of the required electronics by only using two unidirectional pairs in each direction instead of 4 bidirectional. However, this solution has not been widely used largely due to the required Category 6 cabling and the rapidly falling cost of 1000BASE-T products.

Recommended Information It is known that there is no visual difference between the bare SFP modules, so how to differ them? Smart manufacturers figure a way out by marking the color of pull ring to distinguish generally. For example: black pull ring is multimode, the wavelength is 850 nm; blue is the 1310nm module; yellow is the 1550nm module; purple is the 1490nm module and so on. If you are confused with the specifications of the SFP modules, you should find a reliable vendor to help you. Fiberstore provides a variety of SFP modules including 100BASE SFP, 1000BASE SFP, BiDi SFP, CWDM/DWDM SFP, SONET/SDH SFP and 2G/4G FC SFP. Our SFP modules are fully compatible with major brand. For more information about SFP transceivers, please feel free to contact us.