Good evening,
In our new build, we plan to install two physically separate switches: one on the ground floor and the other on the upper floor.
Until now, I thought I would simply connect the two with the standard CAT cable that I have also run to the outlets.
Now I’ve come across the terms SFP and SFP+.
The two switches I want to use have these SFP ports.
My questions:
- What are SFP and SFP+?
- Why should one use them? Do they enable faster connection between the two devices?
- The two switches I want to use have these SFP ports. Do I just need the appropriate SFP cable, and it will work?
I’ve already searched online but haven’t really figured it out…
Thank you!
In our new build, we plan to install two physically separate switches: one on the ground floor and the other on the upper floor.
Until now, I thought I would simply connect the two with the standard CAT cable that I have also run to the outlets.
Now I’ve come across the terms SFP and SFP+.
The two switches I want to use have these SFP ports.
My questions:
- What are SFP and SFP+?
- Why should one use them? Do they enable faster connection between the two devices?
- The two switches I want to use have these SFP ports. Do I just need the appropriate SFP cable, and it will work?
I’ve already searched online but haven’t really figured it out…
Thank you!
Yes, but for what purpose? Why add more complexity if it’s not necessary? Honestly, I still don’t understand. So now I have to buy additional hardware just to take advantage of my 10Gbit network infrastructure?
You’re free to spend as much money on it as you want, but I wouldn’t seriously recommend it to anyone who is asking whether they even need it and doesn’t own the items you mentioned (10Gbit adapter for a laptop, large NAS with 8 or more hard drives) or at least didn’t mention them.
You’re free to spend as much money on it as you want, but I wouldn’t seriously recommend it to anyone who is asking whether they even need it and doesn’t own the items you mentioned (10Gbit adapter for a laptop, large NAS with 8 or more hard drives) or at least didn’t mention them.
A
Appel200026 May 2020 13:09Let me summarize:
As long as I don’t have any devices that support 10 Gbit (which I don’t), using SFP/SFP+ cabling between the switches doesn’t make sense.
Furthermore, if possible, bring everything to one location and avoid having two separate units (setting aside future rental, which is excluded to third parties anyway).
Is this correct?
As long as I don’t have any devices that support 10 Gbit (which I don’t), using SFP/SFP+ cabling between the switches doesn’t make sense.
Furthermore, if possible, bring everything to one location and avoid having two separate units (setting aside future rental, which is excluded to third parties anyway).
Is this correct?
10 Gbit is only partially related to SFP+. You are focusing too much on SFP and SFP+. You might as well just connect the switches using regular RJ45 ports...
Yes, keep everything centralized. Whether you rent out later doesn’t change the situation. In your initial plan, your second switch was also connected to the first one. With a central setup, it’s just as easy or difficult to split the network. So please go with a centralized solution. It is the best practice for a single-family house and is the right choice for a relatively inexperienced user like you.
Yes, keep everything centralized. Whether you rent out later doesn’t change the situation. In your initial plan, your second switch was also connected to the first one. With a central setup, it’s just as easy or difficult to split the network. So please go with a centralized solution. It is the best practice for a single-family house and is the right choice for a relatively inexperienced user like you.
@Appel2000: Just do what @rick2018 said clearly and concisely:
Also
So, if for some reason you absolutely must have two switches on two different floors, just run a standard Cat7 duplex cable between your switches. With that, you can already achieve 10Gbit for a low cost today. I predict that in 10 years, you will easily be able to run 40Gbit or even 100Gbit per cable. The feasibility has been proven and it’s definitely coming. The demand and market for it is huge.
Whether you use an SFP+ port or a native Ethernet port doesn’t matter at all. Just avoid fiber optic—it only complicates things. Use Cat7 duplex everywhere, and both the single-switch and two-switch solutions can be implemented effortlessly.
@FloHB123: I can only wholeheartedly agree with you as well.
rick2018 schrieb:
Centralize everything and distribute from there. Anything else doesn’t make sense in a single-family house.
Also
rick2018 schrieb:
10Gbit has only a limited connection to SFP+.
You are totally focused on SFP and SFP+. You might as well just connect the switches with regular RJ45 ports...
So, if for some reason you absolutely must have two switches on two different floors, just run a standard Cat7 duplex cable between your switches. With that, you can already achieve 10Gbit for a low cost today. I predict that in 10 years, you will easily be able to run 40Gbit or even 100Gbit per cable. The feasibility has been proven and it’s definitely coming. The demand and market for it is huge.
Whether you use an SFP+ port or a native Ethernet port doesn’t matter at all. Just avoid fiber optic—it only complicates things. Use Cat7 duplex everywhere, and both the single-switch and two-switch solutions can be implemented effortlessly.
@FloHB123: I can only wholeheartedly agree with you as well.
untergasse4327 May 2020 13:34To summarize:
SFP = enables 1 Gbit transmission over copper OR fiber optic cable. For longer distances or between buildings, use fiber. For shorter distances and inside buildings, copper is sufficient (and you can simply use a standard RJ45 port). Be aware that often SFP ports share bandwidth with a normal RJ45 port, meaning you lose one RJ45 port when using the SFP.
SFP+ = typically enables 10 Gbit transmission over the same media in the same scenarios.
How to set this up structurally—that is, whether to have a central 10 GbE (core) switch that connects to two other switches and, for example, a NAS with 10 GbE, or just connect both switches with 10 GbE—can be decided once you know your planned usage.
If I were building new anyway, I wouldn’t create any bottlenecks between the switches and would go directly with SFP+ using fiber or copper. No one knows what requirements may come up later. Maybe you want to use MoIP at some point, and then you’re already set. There are many applications. We used to think 64 kbit ISDN internet was enough for everything. My work computer has a 10 GbE card and is connected directly to the core switch because I mainly work with data stored on the NAS. But everyone can decide based on their preferences.
SFP = enables 1 Gbit transmission over copper OR fiber optic cable. For longer distances or between buildings, use fiber. For shorter distances and inside buildings, copper is sufficient (and you can simply use a standard RJ45 port). Be aware that often SFP ports share bandwidth with a normal RJ45 port, meaning you lose one RJ45 port when using the SFP.
SFP+ = typically enables 10 Gbit transmission over the same media in the same scenarios.
How to set this up structurally—that is, whether to have a central 10 GbE (core) switch that connects to two other switches and, for example, a NAS with 10 GbE, or just connect both switches with 10 GbE—can be decided once you know your planned usage.
If I were building new anyway, I wouldn’t create any bottlenecks between the switches and would go directly with SFP+ using fiber or copper. No one knows what requirements may come up later. Maybe you want to use MoIP at some point, and then you’re already set. There are many applications. We used to think 64 kbit ISDN internet was enough for everything. My work computer has a 10 GbE card and is connected directly to the core switch because I mainly work with data stored on the NAS. But everyone can decide based on their preferences.
untergasse43 schrieb:
My work computer has a 10 GbE card and is connected directly to the core switch because I mostly work with data on the NAS.Hopefully, the NAS is not the bottleneck then...
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