SFP+, DAC, RJ45 or all together?

The most popular and well known connector-type is now available for 10GBase-T SFP+ Transceiver modules: RJ-45 for Cat6a cabling

There are three solutions connecting two devices:

1.SFP+ Direct Attach Cable (DAC)

2.SFP+ Optical Transceiver Module

3.Fix 10GBase-T RJ45 ports

1.SFP+DAC

Beside low power consumption and low latency DACs became popular in datacenter cabling between server and switches or storage for short distances. Pricing is quite low compared to optical modules and complexity is less. But this cable ends typically in 7m – so for distances above you have to chose active DACs which are not that price sensitve any more. And cabling across several racks with SFP+ transceiver at each side becomes a bit awkward.

2.SFP+ OPTICAL TRANSCEIVER

Multimode 850nm transceivers - like our SFP+ SR are typically used for short distances um to 300m at 10G data-rates. In comparison to Cat6a cabling multimode is quite expensive. And not every technician has knowledge regarding optical communication. So the operational costs might increase.

3.10GBASE-T RJ-45 PORTS

10GBase-T ports became more popular while it was possible to cut down the power consumption for these ports. But using only fixed ports resulty in less flexibility. For optical transceiver ports there are different optics which lets you decide the application or link length. In addition fixed unused ports are not shut-down in contrast they are consuming at much power as a used port.

To fill the gap in between a 10G SFP+ transceiver is available now

There are several advantages using this type of transceiver:

·Link length: Up to 30m using Cat6a/7

·Backwards-compatible to 100/1000Base-T

·MDI/MDIX crossover

·Auto-negotiation with other 10Gbase-T

·Hot-pluggable

·The RJ45 connector is well known and proven technology

·3Coptics coding board ready: Universal 10G SFP+ RJ45 – flexible use over different platforms