43
Figure 43 XFP transceiver module
Figure 44 SFP+ transceiver module
Fiber cable overview
You can use an optical fiber to connect a fiber Ethernet port or 10 Gbps Ethernet port. In addition, an
optical fiber can connect these types of interface modules: HIM-4GBP/HIM-8GBP,
HIM-CL1P/HIM-CL2P, HIM-CLS1P/HIM-CLS2P, HIM-MSP2P/HIM-MSP4P, HIM-PS1P,
HIM-AL1P/HIM-AL2P, HIM-RS2P, or HIM-1EXP.
Optical fibers feature low loss and long transmission distance.
Optical fibers can be classified into single-mode fibers and multi-mode fibers. A single-mode fiber
carries only a single ray of light; a multi-mode fiber carries multiple modes of lights.
Table 11 Characteristics of single-mode and multi-mode optical fibers
Item
Single-mode fiber
Multi-mode fiber
Core
Small core (10 micrometers or less)
Larger core than single-mode fiber (50
micrometers, 62.5 micrometers or greater)
Dispersion Less
dispersion
Allows greater dispersion and therefore,
signal loss exists.
Light source and
transmission
distance
Users lasers as the light source often
within campus backbones for distance
of several thousand meters
Uses LEDs as the light source often within
LANs or distances of a couple hundred
meters within a campus network
