QSFPTek SFP and SFP+ Transceivers - Fiber and Copper

in today's video i want to compare the various types of transceivers used in sfp and sfp plus network switches and network cards if you want to learn more about what to use and why then watch the rest of this video and if you're new to the channel please subscribe and hit the notifications so you'll know when there's new content if you find this video useful please give it a like as it does support the channel [Music] full disclosure before we get started is that qsfptech was kind enough to send me these products to help me make this video they haven't paid me for this review nor have they influenced it in any way as i've been a customer of their products for years the opinions and test results are my own and they'll see this video for the first time as you're seeing it one of the main considerations when migrating to 10 gigabit or when working with mixed one gig and 10 gig environments is deciding what type of switches and devices to use if you've shopped around for 10 gig nic cards nas units or even pre-built pcs you'll know that some manufacturers especially pc vendors use copper rj45 type connections even on their 10 gig cards and many nas and switch vendors use what's called an sfp plus connector which tends to be a little bit less expensive more flexible and it runs over longer distances but it does require the use of a transceiver today's video we're going to cover a few different types of transceivers and discuss when to use them as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each type we'll look at the power and temperature and distance considerations that you should be aware of when selecting switches and network cards as we've all seen standard copper rj45 type connections let's quickly look at some of the examples of a copper rj45 transceiver as you can see from the side by side comparison the copper transceiver is larger than the fiber counterpart it has a connector that will interface to the same sfp or sfp plus connector in your pc nas or switch and on the other side you have a standard rj45 connector that allows you to hook up your ethernet cable there's a couple things that you need to consider when you're using these the first and most important is they come in two types there's a one gig version and a 10 gig version so make sure that you verify which version you need before buying it there's also some other differences such as distance the one gig version has a limit of 100 meters and the 10 gig version has a limit of 30 meters the other thing to consider is the power and heat especially of the 10 gig version compared to the fiber module they draw more power and run about 20 to 25 degrees hotter so you need to check your switch manufacturer to see how many of these you can attach to your switch for example the unified 10 gigabit aggregation switch has a limit of four copper modules that can be used and other switches like the qnap can handle more as they run hotter you need to make sure you have good ventilation lastly they cost two to three times the price of the fiber versions so let's take a quick look at how rj45 transceivers work and take some temperature measurements as well the installation is pretty straightforward all you have to really do is insert the copper transceiver into the sfp plus port and attach your rj45 cable to it i used a matching copper transceiver on my 10 gigabit thunderbolt laptop adapter just to do some quick testing of communication and performance the performance is currently limited to my write speed of my network but as you can see the performance is very solid matches to what i'm getting on my pci express card in my desktop this brings us now to the fiber transceivers these offer a couple of advantages over the rj45 versions with the first being cost as these can be around two or three times less expensive depending on the application though it will cost you more to get fiber versus a cat 6a and ethernet cable there still can be an overall savings using fiber transceivers secondly as the fiber transceivers are available in a variety of different type such as long reach or the lr versions which can get you distances up to 10 kilometers or the short reach version which can get you distances of 300 meters fiber can provide a better choice for long range projects such as running connection between two buildings at work i use an sr fiber connection to go from the front of our main building to the rear building with absolutely no issues in addition fiber can also be useful for interconnecting devices such as a nas unit or other device directly to a switch located on the same rack nics and switches that use sfp plus connectors can be significantly cheaper as well making fiber transceivers a good overall value the installation of the fiber transceiver is pretty much the same as the copper transceiver and all you have to do is just insert the transceiver into the sfp port and just plug your fiber into it as i did with the copper transceiver i just put a matching one into my laptop and made sure that there was communication to my network i tested the performance but as expected it was exactly the same as the copper transceiver at around 20 meters the performance is indistinguishable between copper and fiber you don't really see much difference until you get into the longer lengths let's take a closer look at the qsfp tech fiber modules like the rj45 counterparts the fiber transceivers come in both a 1.25 gig and 10 gig version as well as the sr and lr versions for longer range applications so you need to look at what you're buying very carefully to make sure that you get the correct one for your application with the 10 gig version you get a broad compatibility with many manufacturers such as cisco ubiquity netgear microtech as well as most major brands i'm currently using them with my unifi and qnap switches with absolutely no issues having had issues in the past with cheaper brands make sure that you have a good reputable quality transceiver as it can save you a lot of grief these transceivers are also hot swappable in plug and play so there's no real configuration that has to be done with the 1.2 gig version you get the same wide compatibility as well as the choice of ranges from 550 meters to 10 kilometers and you get the same three-year warranty as the 10 gig counterparts so there's a couple things that you need to understand when buying or planning your network components especially with 10 gig with all but a couple of exceptions almost all the transceivers sold today both fiber and rj45 are single speed meaning that if you need a transceiver at your switch and one at your nas or computer or other device they both need to be the same speed because you can't intermix speeds in most cases transceivers will not auto negotiate from one speed to another and this is true for all manufacturers there's only one copper 10 gig transceiver i've ever tested that was able to auto negotiate different speeds and it was really expensive the exception to the rule is if your switch itself is a 10 gig rj45 type then you can plug in any one gig or 10 gig copper transceiver into the switch itself and it will auto negotiate to the any speed that you have to match the transceiver but the transceiver itself won't auto negotiate i really want to thank the team at qsfp qsfptech for sending me a variety of devices to round out my own selection and help me make this video i'll leave links and descriptions below to any of the products that we discussed today in case you need to purchase any of them or you want to find out more information about any of them that's about it for today's video and if you found this useful please give it a like as it really does help support the channel thanks for watching and i'll see you on the next video [Music] you

Channel: Mike Faucher

Views: 10,031

Keywords: QSFPTEK transceiver, SFP+ transceiver, sfp transceiver, sfp transceiver explained, sfp transceiver and ethernet cables, 10gbase-t sfp+ transceiver, sfp+ transceivers, rj45 transceiver, home network, sfp transceiver rj45, sfp transceiver 1000base sx, sfp+, sfp+ to rj45 10gbe, sfp+ cable, sfp+ switch, sfp+ pcie card, sfp fiber, sfp fiber connector, sfp+ fiber module, sfp module types, sfp plus module, sfp, sfp transceiver module

Id: 5KEkNKCXaBs

Length: 8min 13sec (493 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022