Introduction of Optical Modules on Huawei Switches

On an optical network, a sender needs to convert electrical signals into optical signals before sending them to a receiver, and the receiver needs to convert received optical signals into electrical signals. An optical module is a component that completes electrical/optical conversion on an optical network.

Types of Optical Modules：

Check Optical Module Parameters:

If an optical module is installed in a running switch, you can run the display transceiver command to view parameters of the optical module, including the center wavelength, transmission distance, fiber types supported, receive optical power, and transmit optical power.

Rules for Optical Module Interoperation:

Optical modules with the same standards can interoperate with each other. The standards define the rate, wavelength, and transmission distance of optical modules, but not their encapsulation modes (two interoperated optical modules can have different encapsulation modes).

If you need to achieve interoperability between optical modules with different standards, contact technical support personnel.

When Huawei switches are connected to other products such as routers, comply with the preceding optical module interoperation rules.

The following describes the standards, using 1000BASE-LX10 as an example:

• 1000 indicates the rate (1000 Mbit/s, in this case). Other rates include 10 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s, 10 Gbit/s, 40 Gbit/s, and 100 Gbit/s.
• BASE indicates baseband transmission.
• L represents a center wavelength of the laser. Currently, the following center wavelengths are available: S (short wavelength: 850 nm), L (long wavelength: 1310 nm), E (extra long wavelength: 1550 nm), and B (single-fiber bidirectional long wavelength).
• X represents the encoding format. The encoding formats include T (twisted pair), X (8B/10B), R (64B/66B), and W (WIS).
• 10 indicates the number of channels. Currently, the value can be 4 or 10. If there is no number, the value is 1.

NOTE: This example provides the definitions in IEEE standards, which are not applicable to all optical modules, for example, non-standard optical modules.

The following organizations or agreements define standards related to optical modules:

• IEEE 802.3, which defines MAC and PHY standards
• Small Form Factor (SFF) committee or Multi-Source Agreements (MSAs), which define optical module hardware, software, and structure standards

Huawei S series switches support the following types of 40GE and 100GE optical modules:

• 40GE QSFP+ optical modules
• 40GE CFP optical modules
• 100GE CFP optical modules
• 100GE QSFP28 optical modules

Figure 1 Interoperability of 40GE optical modules in different encapsulation modes

Figure 2 Interoperability of 100GE optical modules in different encapsulation modes

NOTE: Optical modules complying with the standards connected in the preceding figures can interoperate with each other.

iSR4 and eSR4 are non-standard formats derived from SR4, and support interoperation with SR4.

A 40GBASE-PAM4 optical module can interoperate with a 40GBASE-ePAM4 optical module.

A 100GBASE-CLR4 optical module can interoperate with a 100GBASE-CWDM4 optical module.

A 100GBASE-ER4-lite optical module can interoperate with a 100GBASE-ER4 optical module, at a maximum distance of 30 km.

You may learn how to classify and check the optical modules from this article, thunder-link.com sales team will assist you for further questions about optical modules.