SFP Transceivers Features

SFP transceiver stands for Small Form-factor Pluggable transceiver. This transceiver is compact and hot-pluggable. It is widely used in the field of Data Communication and Networking. This transceiver mainly acts as an interface between a networking device and its interconnecting cable.  This networking device can be any switch, repeater, router, multiplexer etc. The interconnecting cable may be made of copper or it can be an optical fiber cable. This transceiver which interfaces a device in the network to the cable is highly popular and can support devices and cables of various network vendors.

SFP transceivers are compatible with a number of communication standards like Ethernet, SONET along with many other standards. SFP is an upgraded version of Giga Bit Interface Converter (GBIC) module. SFP uses LC fiber optic cable for its interface whereas SC cable interfaces are used in GBIC. SFP is more space saving than GBIC, since the former has only half the size of the latter. SFP has transmission rate ranging from 100Mbps to 4Gbps and it can work at distances ranging between 500 meters to hundreds of kilometers. The ‘hot-pluggable’ feature of SFP makes it flexible. Any future changes can be easily incorporated into the SFP module, while the maintenance of the module is also made easier by this hot-pluggable nature of SFP, thereby making it compact.