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What Is SFP Slot?

What is SFP port / slot?

To figure this out , you must know what SFP is in the first place .

SFP, an acronym of small form-factor pluggable , is a compact and hot-pluggable Transceiver Cables used for both telecommunication and data communication applications .

It connects motherboards of network devices (such as switches and routers) with optical or copper cables .

By doing this , it converts Gigabit electrical signals into optical signals, and vice versa .

Therefore, just as its name implies , SFP slot is designed for use with SFP Transceiver Cables or modules .

It offers a place where a SFP Transceiver Cables can plug into and then support fiber connection or copper cable connection .

Different connection can support different transmission speed and distance .

Normally, a Gigabit SFP inserted into a SFP port can reach a speed of up to 1 Gbps !

How to Use the SFP Slot and Transceiver ?

SFP slot is also known as SFP port and Transceiver Cables .

Thus, this question can be referred to as how to use SFPs with SFP ports.

SFP and SFP port usually work in pairs.

That is to say, you should use SFP slot with a corresponding SFP With Transceiver Cables.

Normally, optical Transceiver Cables used in SFP slots can be divided into optical and copper SFPs.

The common match for SFP ports are copper SFP module applied with network cable and fiber SFP module applied with fiber optic cable.

Network cable or copper cable includes Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, etc.

While, fiber optic SFP Transceiver Cables includes single mode fiber and multimode fiber.

Therefore, if you want to know how to use SFP slot, you need to know how to choose right copper SFP modules or fiber SFP modules for SFP slots.

RJ45 and SFP Transceiver Port

Which Should I Use to Connect Two Switches?

When switches have both SFP port and RJ45 Ethernet port for 1000Mbps connections, it is always the case for us to decide whether to use SFP fiber optic module or RJ45 Ethernet cable solution.

So RJ45 vs SFP, which shall we use for connection two switches?

It really depends on many factors, but there are some principles that we could follow in our situation so as to meet our requirements.

Common Principles for Using RJ45 vs SFP Transceiver Port

The first principle is appropriate for any cases of 1000Mbps deployment.

That is when the distance of the run is over 328 ft/100 m, fiber SFP Transceiver module must be considered instead of copper RJ45 port or copper SFP RJ45 module.

Since 1000Mbps could only go as far as 100 m over copper cabling.

When the link distance is under 100 m, there are some other principles that we should follow when we decided to use RJ45 or SFP.

1. Considering security issue, using fiber SFP module is better than Cat5e/6 RJ45 Ethernet cable or SFP RJ45 module in some of the worst circumstances.

RJ45 is using electric current so it is easier to catch on a fire/lightning while fiber SFP transceiver module has no such problem.

Also using fiber optic module is safer in terms of Internet security, because intercepting data

So when security could be a problem in the connection, using fiber transmissions by tapping copper cable is less complicated than tapping on fiber optic cable SFP Transceiver is better than RJ45 port.

2. Reliability is also a key factor in transmission.

Fiber is often considered more reliable due to its properties.

Copper RJ45 Ethernet cable has the risk of interference since it uses electric signal.

The issue is usually called EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) when the electric signal is affected by some external elements, such as something with high voltage.

So when the cable run is going through some places that the electric signal can be interfered, choose fiber rather than copper RJ45 cabling.

3. Future consideration.

If you’re planning to move to higher bandwidth, e.g. 10Gbps, in the near future, fiber optic cable is more future-proof compared with Cat5e/Cat6 RJ45 Ethernet cable.

4. Cost is also important in deployment. When the three issues above do not matter in our situation, cost is what we care.

Since Rj45 Ethernet port and the SFP Transceiver port actually run at the same speed, choosing the RJ45 ports to connect the switches might be more economical since Cat5e/6 cable is lower-priced than the SFP transceiver module.

RJ45 and SFP Transceiver Port

Go to the Real Cases for 1000Mbps Switch Connections

These rules are found on the basis of some typical cases.

If it is right the situation we’re in, we might feel lucky to get the direct answer.

But most of the time even if we have known the principles for 1000Mbps deployment,

it will still be confusing in real cases.

Let’s see some cases of our fellows.

RJ45 and SFP Transceiver

Latency Makes a Difference

Case description :

Right now my Ethernet switches are connected on Gigabit Ethernet ports over about 300 ft or so.

Would it be better to replace that line with a fiber line even though my port is only SFP transceiver and not SFP+ and locked at 1Gb?

One switch houses 24 heavy active users and the other houses about 80 active devices and is my core switch.

My goal is to clear any/all latency that I can between the two buildings.

Case analysis :

The two switches, in this case, are in two different buildings.

The link distance is around the maximum transmission distance (100 m) for Cat5e/Cat6 Ethernet cable but does not exceed it, so that’s why the transmission was going well with the Rj45 Ethernet ports.

The key purpose is about minimizing the latency.

But in fact, the latency difference for using fiber will not be significant.

Other factors are what should be considered since the switches are in two different buildings.

Firstly, if the two buildings have separate electrical power inputs, then running copper between them could cause ground loop issues, so go fiber.

Secondly, lightning strike might matter when using copper cable across the buildings, so go fiber.

If neither of fiber or copper run is feasible, go wireless.

we do provide all type of Networking Switches devices including Cisco Switches & Cisco Catalyst Switches & Cisco Access Switches & Aruba & Dell Network Switches & Juniper Network EX Switches and other Networking Devices  Which you can link them via SFP and Transceiver Cables

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