SFP GBIC XFP The Pluggables Advantage interfaces in the same general vicinity. For example, most major data centers have large Ethernet (and Gigabit Ethernet) networks with copper, multimode and single-mode fiber, and also have Fibre Channel, FICON or ESCON networks as well. Many Metro-Area Networks have both SONET and Ethernet, as well as storage protocols. SFP (Small Form Pluggable) modules are extremely small, hotswappable transceiver components that can be plugged into a variety of networking equipment. MRV produces both fiberoptic and copper SFP modules for a variety of protocols. SFP modules conform to a Multi-Source Agreement (MSA), which specifies physical and electrical characteristics, ensuring wide vendor support for the SFP form factor. Most SFP modules are optical transceivers, multimode (850nm) or single-mode (1310nm). MRV supplies these modules in addition to optical transceivers at other wavelengths for use in CWDM (Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing) applications, and a wide variety of copper SFPs for various protocols. Optical SFPs often include Digital Diagnostics (according to SFF-8472) that provide a powerful optical management tool. MRV provides a wide range of SFP-based systems with powerful features for physical network connectivity, including media converters, distance extenders, cross-connects, Ethernet switching and routing equipment, and wave division multiplexing solutions. The power of the SFP is in the density, flexibility, management and cost savings. Density SFP modules provide high port density, as many as 32 ports in a 1-RU space. Such a density is extremely difficult to accomplish using any other method, and is impossible in any mixed environment, where ports of different kinds are required in a high-density system. Flexibility SFP modules provide unmatched flexibility. It is often a requirement to use many types of networking protocols and Delivering all of these protocols at the same time has, in the past, been an extremely difficult task. With SFPs, though, the physical interface-specific part of the equipment is a tiny, hot-swappable module, allowing a simple, flexible equipment configuration supporting an enormous variety of protocols, interfaces, and distances. SFPs provide flexible solutions for: Virtually any protocol in existence: Ethernet (10, 100, 1000) SONET/SDH (OC3/12/48 and STM-1/4/16) Fibre Channel (1G, 2G) ESCON, FICON Digital Video (SDI SMPTE 270Mbps, HDTV) Virtually any physical interface in existence: Copper (RJ-45, BNC) or Fiber-Optic (DSC/LC) Multi-mode or Single-mode Single Fiber Colored optics for CWDM and DWDM applications Cost Savings Initial Cap-Ex MRV vertical integration passes on the savings to the customer. MRV is the only manufacturer of both systems and the optical and copper interfaces that plug into the systems. We can leverage our expertise to yield superior products and quality, for lower overall cost. Ongoing Savings SFP-based equipment is simple to use and reconfigure, allowing transceivers to be replaced without taking the rest of the network out of service. This feature dramatically reduces operating expenses, by eliminating downtime for parts of the network that are not in the line of a fault. MRV systems also allow redundant physical pathways to create carrier-grade network reliability. Furthermore, when parts of the network need to be upgraded in speed or distance, the same principle allows the network to be upgraded one component at a time, without any need to interrupt other service, and with minimal wasted equipment.
Inventory Control SFP-based systems from MRV allow an enormous advantage in inventory control. Many SFP systems are used in mission critical activities, such as WDM or long-distance networks. In these scenarios, customers will generally have on-hand spares inventory in order to reduce network downtime to the minimum possible level. With SFP-based systems, these onhand spares can be kept to a minimum. For example, consider a common network with 10 copper-to-fiber media converters, where the fiber-optic interfaces were of 3 different kinds (multimode, single-mode 20km, and single-mode 80km). With SFP products, a full spares network can be maintained with a single SFP-based media converter as a spare, a single copper SFP, and one of each fiber-optic SFPs. Without the SFPs, the spares inventory would have to contain 3 separate media converters, which is much more expensive and cumbersome. Additionally, in many networks that are geographically spread out, the spares need to be kept in each physical location. This duplication of spares exacerbates the problem, and highlights even more the advantage of SFPs. Management Many optical SFPs provide a powerful Digital Diagnostics tool for managing the optical interface. Digital Diagnostics is a Multi-Source Agreement (SFF-8472) that includes a large number of manageable parameters. Optical Transmit and Receive Power This feature allows the administrator to see the power being transmitted by the laser in real-time. Digital Diagnostics also allows thresholds to be set for alarms when the transmitter power is too low or high. SFPs also measure the power being received by the laser in real-time. This feature, together with alarm and warning thresholds allows the administrator to take preemptive action when a fiber-optic line is starting to behave badly the administrator can switch to a backup link before the actual communications fail. Voltage & Temperature Measurement Environment monitoring is an important part of network management. Digital Diagnostics provides real-time monitoring of voltage and temperature of each optical component, together with thresholds and alarms. Administrators can easily use these tools to watch over air conditioning and power management systems, to keep the optical devices healthy. Vendor Code, Wavelength, Serial Number and other factory parameters Inventory management can be a significant operations expense for a large network. SFP optical and copper interfaces all provide a database of information about the component itself, which allows administrators to easily track changes and replacements of components, and to always know which part is where, reducing operating expense when change is necessary. Gigabit Interface Converter (GBIC) With all the features of SFP form-factor interfaces, one might well wonder why another pluggable form factor? The answer is in the tiny size of SFP transceivers. SFPs are occasionally too small to host all the features or physical connectors that are useful in physical networking. The answer is the Gigabit Interface Converter form-factor. MRV has employed the GBIC form-factor, originally a Gigabit Ethernet-only standard, as a method of providing even more features and flexibility in our pluggable interface product line, including GBIC interfaces for Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and Video protocols. XFP: What about 10-Gig? SFP optical and copper interfaces are able support up to OC-48 (2.5 Gbps) signals. Higher rates, including 10-Gig are available using XFP technology, which is a slightly larger form factor. The XFP module and host also includes a built-in heat sink for better cooling, allowing 10Gb Ethernet and OC-192 SONET interfaces. Transceiver Modules from MRV Multimode Fiber-Optic Modules MRV provides a wide variety of SFP and GBIC modules for fiberoptic communications, including data and video support.
Multimode optical interfaces (generally 850nm) are designed for short distance, low cost communications. Multimode SFPs are used in several applications: Copper-to-Fiber: using an pluggables-based media converter, a switch or router with copper interfaces can be attached to multimode fiber-optic cabling to reach longer distances (for example up to 500m for Gigabit Ethernet, as opposed to 100m for copper) Connect to a switch or router with a multi-mode interface, and then, through a Media Converter, convert to singlemode. This allows traditionally short-distance systems to extend to long distances. In WDM systems, it is required to convert the signal from the host system (switch or router) to a specific wavelength. Since the host system is often a multimode fiber (especially in high-speed Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and SONET applications), it is important to have a multimode fiberoptic connection option to the WDM system. MRV provides multimode pluggable optics for: Ethernet 10Mbps, 100Mbps and Gigabit (SFP, GBIC), and 10-Gigabit (XFP) FibreChannel 1Gbps and 2Gbps (SFP, GBIC) and 10-Gigabit (XFP) SONET OC-3/12 (SFP) Extended Multimode (MMX) Fiber-Optic Modules MRV provides a unique Multimode Extension (MMX) solution to extend the reach of high-speed data networking protocols over traditional multimode fiber. FDDI networks (100Mbps) allowed up to 2km rings to be created, which led to a large number of 2km fiber plant installations in campus environments. MMX technology can extend Gigabit Ethernet beyond 2km, allowing simple upgrades of FDDI backbone networks to Gigabit Ethernet. The typical usage of MMX pluggables would be in a media converter to connect a copper or standard multimode system to 2km fiber link. MRV provides Extended Multimode pluggable optics for: Gigabit Ethernet/Fibre Channel (SFP, GBIC) SONET OC-48 (SFP) Single-Mode Fiber-Optic Modules MRV provides an enormous range of single-mode fiber-optic interfaces in the SFP form factor, including solutions for virtually every known data and video protocol, and even protocolindependent solutions. Single-mode SFPs and GBICs are used in a variety of applications: Copper-to-Fiber: using an SFP-based media converter, a switch or router with copper interfaces can be attached to single-mode fiber-optic cabling to reach extremely long distances (for example up to 80km for Gigabit Ethernet, as opposed to 100m for copper or 500m for multimode fiber) Distance extension: in an SFP-based signal repeater/ regenerator, two single-mode SFPs are used to extend the distance of fiber-optic links up to hundreds of kilometers. Connect to a switch or router with a multi-mode interface, and then, through an SFP-based Media Converter, convert to single-mode. This allows traditionally short-distance systems to extend to long distances. In WDM systems, it is required to convert the signal from the host system (switch or router) to a specific wavelength. In some cases, the host system is a single-mode fiber (especially in SONET OC-48 applications), so it is important to have a single-mode fiber-optic connection option to the WDM system. MRV provides single-mode pluggable optics for: Ethernet 10Mbps up to 120km (SFP, GBIC) 100Mbps up to 120km (SFP, GBIC) Gigabit up to 80km (SFP, GBIC) 10 Gigabit up to 40km (XFP) Fibre Channel 1/2Gbps up to 80km (SFP, GBIC) 10Gbps up to 30km (XFP) SONET OC-3/12/48 up to 80km (SFP) OC-192 up to 30km (XFP) Multi-rate interfaces 100MHz to 2.5GHz for any protocol, including Digital Video, up to 100km (SFP, GBIC) Single Fiber Options MRV provides a unique capability of both transmitting and receiving data on a single fiber. This feature is critical for many Fiber-to-the-X (FTTX) environments, where a single fiber is laid to each customer. MRV s single-fiber solutions cover a range of protocols and distances, and even include singlefiber WDM:
Ethernet 100Mbps and Gigabit, including WDM up to 80km Fibre Channel SONET Digital Video Wave Division Multiplexing MRV provides a highly flexible 16- wavelength Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing solution using SFP and GBIC interfaces. In this solution, the pluggable interface itself contains a laser and receiver that operate at a specific CWDM wavelength, for example 1570nm. To create a full WDM system, only external multiplexers, de-multiplexers and potentially optical amplifiers are necessary (all provided by MRV). Additionally, MRV provides a unique do-it yourself WDM optical patch cable, which contains within the optical connector an add/ drop multiplexer. MRV provides 16 wavelengths CWDM interfaces for: Ethernet 10Mbps up to 120km (SFP, GBIC) 100Mbps up to 120km (SFP, GBIC) Gigabit up to 80km (SFP, GBIC) 10 Gigabit up to 40km (XFP) Fibre Channel 1/2Gbps up to 80km (SFP, GBIC) 10Gbps up to 30km (XFP) SONET OC-3/12/48 up to 80km (SFP) OC-192 up to 30km (XFP) Multi-rate interfaces 100MHz to 2.5GHz for any protocol, including Digital Video, up to 100km (SFP, GBIC) And DWDM interfaces are coming soon! Copper Data and Storage Networking For many networking systems, both data and storage, copper interfaces provide the best value. However, it is often necessary (as described above) to convert these copper interfaces to fiber, and it is extremely useful to be able to connect the copper interfaces directly to the same cross-connect that fiber optics would plug into. For this reason, copper SFP and GBIC interfaces are a critical component of MRV s pluggables solution. MRV provides a wide range of copper interfaces, including: Ethernet 10/100 Physical purely physical-layer SFP interface, designed to allow either 10Base-FL or 100Base-FX data with the same physical infrastructure. 10/100 Switch-based Layer-2 system that includes buffering, duplex conversion, 802.1p ToS, 802.1q VLAN, 802.3x flow control. This module always transmits to the system at 100Mbps Gigabit standard 1000-BaseX interface (GBIC, SFP) for use in switches & routers SFP-EFG provides 10/100/1000 copper connectivity. This SFP uses a proprietary system interface at 1Gbps and must be used in pairs. Multi-Rate dual-smb with adaptive equalizer, for use in SONET and storage applications Digital Video Coax MRV provides a unique solution for Digital Video distribution (both SMPTE 270Mbps and HDTV) with SFP and GBIC-based Video transceivers. These transceivers can be used together with MRV media converters, cross-connects and fiber optic SFP and GBIC interfaces for a wide range of digital video applications: Coax to Fiber: Most Digital Video systems are made up of Coax connections to video servers and video switches. With MRV s Coax SFP and GBIC interfaces, these copper video streams can be converted to fiber and transmitted up to 80km. Multi-Service WDM: Along with converting to fiber for long-distance transmission, Digital Video streams can be converted to colored optical transmission, and combined with any other video, data or storage protocol in a wave division multiplexing solution to provide multiple services over the same fiber. Video Switching: MRV s cross-connect solutions may be used with Digital Video pluggable interfaces to provide video switching solutions. A video switch is a device that allows a stream of video input on one port to be sent to one or more destination ports programmed by the administrator.
Video Conferencing: Together with MRV s cross-connect, Digital Video pluggable interfaces allow video conferencing, enabling multiple, secure video domains to be established with a simple physical wiring solution. When coupled with pluggable fiber-optic interfaces that can carry Digital Video, these solutions can extend to campus or Metro environments. Media Conversion MRV provides a range of digital video pluggable interfaces in both SFP and GBIC form-factors (all modules support 270Mbps and HDTV): Single-Directional SFP-based Digital Video with a single BNC connector, compliant with SMPTE292M, SMPTE344M, and SMPTE259M standards, and providing adaptive equalization. Bi-Directional SFP-based Digital Video with a dual SMB connector with adaptive equalization GBIC form factor Unidirectional and Bi-Directional Digital Video Using SFP Modules SFP-based systems MRV provides a variety of systems that our SFP interfaces plug into: The primary application for SFP, GBIC, and XFP technology is in media conversion applications. Here, we see various protocols converted from copper to fiber, or multimode to single-mode fiber with the same physical infrastructure. The use of SFPs simplifies the design and dramatically reduces on-hand spares inventory, providing a major cap-ex and op-ex savings to the customer. Distance Extension Media Converters (SFP to GBIC, SFP to SFP, and GBIC to GBIC, up to 32 ports) Distance Extenders (SFP to SFP with 2R and 3R) Electrical Multiplexer systems (SFP) Cross-Connect Systems (from 4-port to 144-port) Ethernet Switches and Routers (SFP and GBIC interfaces) Wave Division Multiplexing systems (both purely SFP-based and using SFP for host interfaces, and fixed optics for CWDM and DWDM interfaces) Another key application for SFPs is in distance extension. Here we see an SFP-based signal regenerator extending fiber-optic cabling to long distances for very low cost. With 3-R signal regeneration the number of hops in a Gigabit Ethernet network is virtually unlimited, and SONET/SDH networks can be extended for long distances as well. MRV provides a range of single-mode pluggable optical interfaces to enable the widest variety of network configurations.
Redundant Links Wire-Once Networking The MRV EM316-DMR, together with SFP copper and optical interfaces provides a fully redundant link between two systems, both on the host side and on the long-distance data side. This feature can be used to provide resiliency for mission-critical links between buildings for disaster recovery, or non-stop networking. Time-Dependent Bandwidth and Configurable Networks This example shows a Media Cross-Connect with SFPs connecting Ethernet and Fibre Channel networking equipment to servers, switches, routers, and storage equipment. This network, once wired can easily be reconfigured to add new elements or change the topology by simply reprogramming the cross-connect. Test Lab & Network Simulation Environments The example below shows a Wave Division Multiplexing configuration in a campus environment. Here there are 4 wavelengths between buildings. The media cross-connect is used to reconfigure which switches, routers, or storage equipment makes use of these wavelengths. Here, the network can be programmed to use 3 Gbps for Ethernet and 1 Gbps for storage during business hours, and use 3 Gbps for storage and 1 Gbps for data during the data-backup operations on nights and weekends. This example shows re-use of expensive test equipment amongst several stations in a test lab. Each workbench may need access to the various types of test equipment at different times. Instead of changing the wiring all the time, the media cross-connect with SFPs allows a simple management tool to program the test equipment-to-work bench connectivity.
Application Note Video Conferencing and Remote Video This application shows a media cross-connect with Digital Video SFPs for a video-conferencing application. Each conference room is connected with both a camera and monitor to the cross-connect, and a manager can easily program one camera to be broadcast to the group of monitors, or to subgroups. Remote users can easily be connected via a fiber-optic cabling to the video system. Wave Division Multiplexing SFPs provide an extremely powerful, low cost and flexible WDM system. Since SFPs come in each CWDM wavelength, a full WDM system is easy to construct using the media converter or cross-connect systems for any protocol. For Ethernet WDM, MRV provides a powerful ewdm solution, where SFP or GBIC optics with CWDM wavelengths plug directly into OptiSwitch modules designed for WDM use. This allows a truly simple-to-configure WDM system for sending large amounts of Ethernet data over a few fiber-optic cables. Wave Division Multiplexing