What Are SFP Ports Used For?

If you know Cisco SFP Modules, you must know the SFP Ports. If you didn’t know what are SFP modules or SFP ports, you can read this article, which can tell you what are SFP ports on a Gigabit Switch used for?

 

Cisco SFP Modules, the industry-standard Cisco Small Form-Factor Pluggable Gigabit Interface Converter, links your switches and routers to the network.

 

SFP sockets are found in Ethernet switches, routers, firewalls and network interface cards. It interfaces a network device motherboard (for a switch, router, media converter or similar device) to a fiber optic or copper networking cable.

 

In many cases, SFP ports are also known as mini-Gigabit interface converter (GBIC) modules, as they have replaced the older GBIC transceivers.

 

SFP Port Advantage

 

It is flexible for the SFP port link to the network. The SFP port is the I/O device which is able to be hot-plugged. We are able to insert the Gigabit Ethernet port or slot into the SFP port and then connect the SFP port with the network. The SFP port is applied in many products and is able to exchange with the port of the 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-LX/LH, 1000BASE-ZX or the 1000BASE- BX10-D/U.

 

Why Need SFP Module?

Compared with GBIC module, SFP Modules volume ratio reduced by half, and the number of ports can be configured more than 2 times on the same panel. That can be inserted mini head fiber module slot. The Other basic features are consistent with GBIC.SFP Modules for Gigabit Ethernet Applications: Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) links your switches and routers to the network.

 

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 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.

 

SFP Ports on a Gigabit Switch

SFP ports enable Gigabit switches to connect to a wide variety of fiber and Ethernet cables in order to extend switching functionality throughout the network.

 

The SFP devices allow the switch to connect to fiber cables of different types — including single-mode and multimode–and speeds (1 Gbps, 10 Gbps), or even Ethernet copper cables, such as CAT5e and CAT6.

 

Almost all enterprise-class switches include two or more SFP ports, allowing them to become part of a ring or star-based network topology spread among different buildings, floors or areas, and connected via fiber optic cabling.

 

The Hot SFP Modules

The latest SFP modules, such as GLC-BX-D and GLC-BX-U, support digital optical monitoring, which lets end users monitor the performance of SFPs in real time, tracking such metrics as temperature, optical output power, optical input power, transceiver supply voltage and laser bias current.

 

SFPs can support speeds of up to 1 Gbps, with transmission ranges of 10 kilometers (1000BASE-BX10-D), 40 km (GLC-BX40-D) or 80 km (GLC-BX80-D), depending on the model selected.

 

Newer SFP+ modules support increased speeds of up to 10 Gbps; however, not all rival SFP+ modules are automatically compatible.