Blog

This blog collects notes on optical transceivers, fiber cabling and network deployment, written from the catalogue on this site. Each note takes one practical question — a legacy speed, a format choice, a cable in a harsh environment, a connector that needs identifying — and works through it in plain terms, with the same honesty rule as the rest of this site: figures are stated only where a published specification sheet states them, and everything else is presented as a question to confirm during the inquiry.

The notes are organised around the jobs buyers actually face. Low-speed SFP notes cover the 2.5G and 155M families that keep legacy networks running. The XFP comparison notes work through the format choice between XFP and SFP+ in more depth than the guide page allows. The CPRI notes cover base station connections, where the cable matters as much as the electronics. The outdoor notes cover cabling that must survive weather and handling. The breakout notes cover splitting a 100G port into lower-speed links. The connector notes help identify LC, SC, ST and MPO connectors in an existing installation. The deployment notes cover 10G XFP rollouts, 40G QSFP+ selection, 1.25G SFP in access networks, and the basics of fiber cable assemblies.

A note on method: these notes are general engineering writing, not product claims. Where a note mentions a published figure for a model on this site — the XFP LR, the QSFP28 LR4, the QSFP+ SR4, the SFP+ SR, the 1.25G SFP series or the CPRI cable SM 60m — that figure belongs to that model alone, and the note says so. Where a note discusses a title without a published specification sheet, it discusses the title as a category, and it does not invent figures for it. Before ordering anything discussed here, confirm quantity, price and delivery time during the inquiry. Certificates are available upon request.