My TN Connection

If you are reading this post and you are familiar with Transition Networks and the concept of media conversion, you are probably already aware of the Fiber to Copper conversion products that we provide. You may also be aware of the multimode to single-mode conversion products that we offer. But did you know that we also offer multimode to multimode converters and single-mode to single-mode converters? This may sound strange to you and you may be asking if both fiber types are the same, what sort of conversion would I need to do within my network. Well one example that we’ve written about before, is mixing 62.5 and 50 micron fiber within multimode environments. But the more prevalent example of where you would have the same fiber type - yet still need to do some sort of conversion for the equipment to “talk”, would be when you are connecting fiber with differing wavelengths, like single-mode at 1310nm and 1550nms.

There is an SFP based solution from Transition Networks that not only allow different types of fiber to be utilized, but also different wavelengths to be connected together. By using a product called xFMFF4040, which comes with 2 empty SFP slots, you are able to select an SFP that conforms to the first connection and another SFP that conforms to the second connection. An example would be if you needed to connect a piece of equipment running on single-mode fiber (1310nm) to another piece of equipment that was operating on long-haul wavelengths (1550nm). You would select an SFP for port 1 of the xFMFF4040 to run at 1310nm and would select a second SFP for port 2 to run at 1550nm. With these two pieces in place, you are able to make the conversion between the two wavelengths.

The only drawback with this solution, is that both SFPs or sides of the Transition Networks unit have to be at the same speed, meaning 10Mbps, 100Mbps, 1000Mbps, etc. However this drawback can easily turn into an advantage when you want to upgrade your network, from say 100Mbps to 1000Mbps, and all you need to do is change out the SFP. This alleviates the need for swapping out active equipment or creating dramatic network downtime.

The xFMFF4040 is a flexible product that also allows for the conversion of FDDI, ESCON, OC-3, OC-12, OC-24, Fibre Channel, and is able to be used with CWDM SFPs.

Keywords: connection, Copper, CWDM, Equipment, Fiber, Fibre, media conversion, Networks, Port, Products, SC, SFP, Single-mode Fiber, ST, Transition Networks, Wavelengths

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