Factors that determine compatibility of SFPs with new fibre services?

Question

Whilst I understand that product recommendations are off topic can anyone help by explaining what the critical factors are when looking for SFPs that are going to be compatible with a new service?
Is wavelength a defining factor that should be considered/matched or should anything else be used to guide selection?

Sorry I am new to 10G BASE-SR and I can't seem to find a good resource that can confirm if an SFP supported in a Cisco Nexus 5548UP will be compatible with a new service The new service is described as '10 Gigabit Ethernet LAN PHY IEEE 10G BASE-LR10.3125 Gbps +/- 100 ppm 1310nm'
Ultimately I need to understand if a 'cisco sfp-10g-sr' for which the transmitter wavelength spec is described as 850nm is usable.

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 19 '13 at 20:09

10

Wavelength and rate are the two big ones. As you're dealing with 10G ethernet, rate isn't in question. (if we were talking about fibre channel, or SONET, then it would matter.)

For your specific case, they are providing service through a 1310nm "LR" (long-reach) interface. The "SR" (short-reach) optics will not work -- wrong wavelength (850nm) and wrong mode (SR will be multimode (62.5 or 50 micron fiber) vs. singlemode (9 micron))

answered Dec 19 '13 at 20:09

Ricky

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Since we are talking 10G optics, do they even make OM3 62.5u fiber? – Mike Pennington Dec 19 '13 at 20:15
@MikePennington, according to the specs, you can run at least 10GBASE-SR and 10GBASE-LRM on 62.5. – YLearn Dec 19 '13 at 21:29
correct, I made the bad assumption that everyone needs the distances my company does (i.e. 62.5u limits 10G-SR optics to 100ft). However, nobody makes OM3 62.5u fiber AFAIK – Mike Pennington Dec 19 '13 at 21:35
All OM3 (and OM4, and OM2) is 50/125. 62.5 is a dinosaur (or OM1) – Ecnerwal Dec 26 '13 at 23:36

Factors that determine compatibility of SFPs with new fibre services?

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