SFP Fiber Optic Transceivers

June 7, 2021 0 By admin

SFP stands for Small Form-factor Pluggable is a hot-pluggable fiber transceiver. The mechanical, electronic, and optical design and performance are based on a Multisource Agreement (MSA) in the fiber telecom industry.

The MSA is an agreement among fiber optic industry leaders including Agilent, IBM, Lucent, Infineon, Tyco, Molex, Finisar, etc. The specification is maintained by the SFP committee.

SFP specification is compliant with GR-253-CORE, ITU-T G.957, SFF-8472, etc. It provides a fully standard compliant interface between the photonic layer and the electrical layer.

The main parts in a transceiver include a FP laser (or uncooled DFB laser), a PIN optical receiver with TIA built in, a post amplifier, a laser driver, and a microprocessor.

>> Where is it used?

SFP fiber optic transceivers are used for both telecommunication and data communication. It connects a switch, router, or other network devices to a fiber cabling plant.

Transceivers have been designed for most of the fiber networking fiber optic transceiver module standards such as SDH/SONET, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, etc.

SFP can be found in metro access network, metro core network, Wide Area Networks, etc.

>> SFP transceiver types

In addition to supporting the fiber optic communication standards mentioned above, transceivers are available for all types of physical cabling: multimode fiber and single mode fiber, 850nm VCSEL, 1310nm and 1550nm laser, etc. Here lists just a few.

1. 1000Base-SX

2. 1000Base-LX/LH

3. 1000Base-ZX


5. SFP+ 10G

6. 1000Base-EX

7. 1000Base-BX10

8. Fibre Channel shortwave SFP

>> Benefits

SFP transceiver is fully compliant with most networking standards such as SONET, Fibre Channel etc. It has a Digital Diagnostic Monitoring Interface. It can also automatically control output power and extinction ratio over a wide temperature range to compensate for laser degradation.

SFP+ is an improved version of SFP and is intended for higher data rates, lower cost, and improved thermal performance.