How to Solve the Problems When Using SFP Optical Transceiver

The small form-factor pluggable (SFP) optical transceiver is one of the protagonists of modern networking, which is a hot-swappable, compact media connector used for telecommunication and data communications. It is designed to provide instant fiber connectivity for your networking devices, such as routers and switches. It is a cost-effective way to connect a single network device to a wide variety of fiber cable for different distances and fiber types, including Ethernet, SONET, single-mode fiber, and multi-mode fiber. Therefore, most people are using SFP optical transceivers for their 1G transmission, especially Cisco SFP optical transceiver. At the same time, there are many problems when using these SFP optical transceivers. This article may summary the problems that may occur and provide the guided solutions for you, as well as give you some notes for maintaining the quality of SFP optical transceivers.

SFP Transceiver

Problems & Solutions

Some problems may appear when we are using SFP optical transceiver. Now let’s talk about why these problems happen and how to solve these problems. The problems are classified as transmitting failure and receiving failure. The problems and solutions are as follows:

Optical Interface Is Polluted and Damaged

Owing to the pollution and damage of the optical interface, its optical link loss become higher, resulting in the optical link fails.

Solutions
  • Testing the environment of the exposed optical interface, some dust and pollution may enter into the structure.
  • Testing the link ending of optical fibers, because the optical interface may experience second pollution.
  • Testing the interface of the optical connector with pigtail, it may have some improper uses.
  • Testing the quality of fiber optic connectors, you could use the inferior optical fiber connectors.
Damage of ESD(Electro Static Discharge)

Static electricity will absorb dust, which may change impedance line and affect the life and function of the product. The ESD will damage components, which may work in short-term, but their life is still affected.

Solutions
  • Avoiding the dry environment, for which easily produce the ESD.
  • Avoiding the abnormal operation. For example, operating the non-hot-swappable optical modules with electricity; directly touching the pin of transceiver module by hand without ESD protection; there is not anti-static packaging during the transport and storage process.
  • Avoiding non ground-connection or bad ground connection.
  • Improving the ESD immunity of electronic components, because the ESD is inevitable.
Incompatibility

While SFP transceivers are fully-compliant with IEEE 802.3 and the SFP multi-source agreement (MSA), they may not be compatible with some network switch equipment. Because some switch manufacturers program their equipment to accept only their own brand of SFPs.

Solutions

Each SFP module holds its own memory in Electrically Erasable Programmable Read – Only Memory (EEPROM). This memory is coded with unique identifiers. The firmware of the host device will check the memory for the correct information to confirm compatibility. A SFP transceiver will work in any host device as long as it has the correct coding. Advance transceivers are coded specifically to suit each host device to avoid this problem.

Notes for Maintaining the Quality of SFP Optical Transceiver

Quality is also very important for SFP optical transceiver, for which is the top priority of customers. Here are some notes:

  • Finding the failure product in advance before shipment
  • Prohibiting the faulty module to leave the factory
  • Decreasing reject rate
  • Guaranteeing the working stability of the products after leaving the factory
Summary

SFP optical transceiver provides a cost-effective and flexible solution for network designs. I hope this article can help you solve the problems when you are using the products and learn how to avoid these problems.