SFP Transceiver technical info and data sheets
The SFP transceiver is specified by the SFP Transceiver Multisource Agreement (MSA), which was developed and is followed by different transceiver manufacturers. A small form-factor pluggable (SFP) transceiver is a compact, hot-swappable, input/output transceiver used in data communication and telecommunications networks. SFP transceivers support communications standards including synchronous optical networking (SONET)/synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH), gigabit ethernet and fiber channel. They also allow the transport of fast Ethernet and gigabit Ethernet LAN packets over time-division-multiplexing-based WANs, as well as the transmission of E1/T1 streams over packet-switched networks.
Due to its smaller size, SFP obsolesces the formerly ubiquitous gigabit interface converter (GBIC); the SFP is sometimes referred to as a Mini-GBIC although no device with this name has ever been defined in the MSAs.
SFP Transceivers have a wide range of detachable interfaces to multimode/single-mode fiber optics, which allows users to select the appropriate transceiver according to the required optical range for the network. Optical SFP modules are commonly available in several different categories:
for multi-mode fiber, with black or beige extraction lever SX - 850 nm, for a maximum of 550 m at 1.25 Gbit/s (Gigabit Ethernet) or 150m at 4.25 Gbit/s (Fibre Channel)
for single-mode fiber, with blue extraction lever LX - 1310 nm, for distances up to 10 km
EX - 1310 nm, for distances up to 40 km
ZX - 1550 nm, for distances up to 80 km, with green extraction lever
EZX - 1550 nm, for distances up to 120 km
BX - 1490 nm/1310 nm, Single Fiber Bi-Directional Gigabit SFP Transceivers, paired as BS-U and BS-D for Uplink and Downlink respectively, also for distances up to 10 km.
Variations of bidirectional SFPs are also manufactured which use 1550 nm in one direction.
1550 nm 40 km (XD), 80 km (ZX), 120 km (EX or EZX)
SFSW – Single Fiber Single Wavelength transceivers, for bi-directional traffic on a single fiber.
Coupled with CWDM, these double the traffic density of fiber links.
CWDM and DWDM transceivers at various wavelengths achieving various maximum distances
for copper twisted pair cabling 1000BASE-T - these modules incorporate significant interface circuitry and can only be used for Gigabit Ethernet, as that is the interface they implement.
SFP casing (mm)