What connection/cable could I buy to connect to my Cisco switch?

fmt_cisco · ‎06-11-2008

I'm in a purchase project of a new Gigabit switch for my company.

Currently my company has a "Catalyst 3560G-48TS". It has four additional ports called SFP that I supposed can be used to connect to another switch to constitute a sort of "backbone", right? I want to connect the current switch to the new one with as much transfer rate as possible. Ideally at least 5Gbps (yeah, if I use a single 1gbps cable, it's certainly not enough). Both switches will be separated at a distance of about 15m.

I know nothing about this SFP. Could someone tell me what are supported or supporting this? What cables should I buy? Optical fibers? What's the transfer rate could I expect from EACH SFP port?

Of course, I'm more interested to not so expensive solution, or at least a good quality/price ratio solution.

Thanks in advance.

Tom Randstrom · ‎06-11-2008

SFP is a small form factor pluggable interface module (transceiver). The SFP port on the switch allows a user to insert a SFP module to meet the distance requirements between the interconnecting equipment.

According to the 3860 datasheet, the SFP ports are 1Gbps. The ports can be outfitted with a copper-based SFP module (100m maximum distance) or optical modules (short reach and long-reach, with wavelength dependent options as well). The copper-based SFP uses standard CAT 5 cabling with RJ45s. The optical SFPs will use optical jumpers with LC-type connectors, either with single- or multi-mode types of fiber, depending on the selected SFP.

The list of supported SFP modules is listed in the data sheet (link below).

Your network could use the CAT5 copper module (probably the lowest cost).

Hope this helps!

3560 Data Sheet:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps5528/product_data_sheet09186a00801f3d7d.html

SFP Data Sheet

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6577/product_data_sheet09186a008014cb5e.html

fmt_cisco · ‎06-11-2008

Thanks for your reply.

If I understand it correctly, I could only get 1Gbps with each port. And with a short distance of 15m, I'd better use normal port and normal copper cables, right?

Tom Randstrom · ‎06-11-2008

Oops, I linked to the GBIC modules, not the SFP modules:

SFP Data Sheet, Optical (1Gbps)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/ps6577/product_data_sheet0900aecd8033f885.html

SFP Data Sheet, Copper (1Gbps)

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/modules/ps5455/product_data_sheet0900aecd8040bd01.pdf

Sorry....

fmt_cisco · ‎06-11-2008

It's ok, it doesn't matter.

It seems like I was mis-informed. I was told that I could get about 3 or 4 Gbps per port.