The Difference Between the Fiber Transceiver and Fiber Switch

1. Definition of the fiber transceiver and fiber switch

The fiber optic transceiver is a very cost-effective and flexible device, and its common use is to convert the electrical signal in the twisted pair into an optical signal. It is generally used in the actual network environment where the copper cable of the Ethernet cannot be covered and the optical fiber must be used to extend the transmission distance. At the same time, it plays a key role in helping connect the last mile of the optical fiber to the metropolitan area network and the outer network.

The optical fiber switch is a kind of network equipment used for electrical (optical) signal forwarding. It plays a core role in the mutual communication between wired network equipment (such as computers, printers, computers, etc.). It is usually connected to a router so that you can access the network through an optical modem.

2. The transmission rate of the fiber transceiver and fiber switch

At present, fiber optic transceivers can be divided into 100M fiber optic transceivers, Gigabit fiber optic transceivers and 10G fiber optic transceivers. Among them, the most common are 100M and Gigabit fiber optic transceivers, which are economical and efficient solutions in homes and small and medium-sized enterprise networks. Fiber optic switches include 1G, 10G, 25G, 100G and 400G switches. Taking large data center networks as an example, 1G/10G/25G switches are mainly used at the access layer or as ToR switches, while 40G/100G/400G switches are mostly used as core or Backbone switch.

3. Difficulties in installating the fiber transceiver and fiber switch

Fiber optic transceivers are relatively simple network hardware devices with fewer interfaces than switches, so their wiring and connections are relatively simple. They can be used alone or installed on a rack. Since the fiber transceiver is a plug-and-play device, its installation steps are also very simple: just insert the corresponding copper cable and optical fiber jumper into the corresponding electrical and optical ports, and then connect the copper cable and optical fiber to the network device Both ends are fine.

The fiber optic switch can be used alone in a home network or small office, or it can be installed on a rack in a large data center network. Generally, you need to insert the module into the corresponding port, and then use the corresponding network cable or optical fiber jumper to connect to the computer or other network equipment. In a high-density cabling environment, patch panels, fiber optic boxes, and cable management tools need to be used to manage cables and simplify wiring. For managed network switches, it needs to be equipped with some advanced functions, such as SNMP, VLAN, IGMP and other functions.

4. Functional configuration of the fiber transceiver and fiber fiber switch

Electrical-to-optical and optical-to-optical are two common types of optical fiber transceivers. The former can convert electrical signals into optical signals to realize the connection of devices based on copper cabling to extend the transmission distance. The latter can achieve single-multimode conversion, single-fiber and dual-fiber conversion, and wavelength conversion.

Compared with the optical transceiver, the function of the optical switch is much more complicated, which is determined by its network operating system. According to the network layer, they can be divided into layer 2, layer 3, and layer 4 switches. Normally, the layer 2 switch is the basic switch used to transmit data and perform error checking on each frame sent and received. Layer 3 and Layer 4 switches have routing functions that can actively send data packets to the destination in the best way. In addition, they also have some advanced features.