I'm being told that the 55xx's won't work on 100/1000 past @1300ft on multimode fiber. I realize they wont work at Gb speed but I cant believe that they wont step down to 100 MB. We just upgraded all our old BPS 2000's to 5520's/5510's about 3 or 4 monthes ahead of a new fiber install. Please someone tell me they dont have to sit on the shelf for the time being.
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations Mike Lewis on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Nortel 5520's at 100Mbit...?
- Thread starter Blair72
- Start date
jimbopalmer
Programmer
No fiber ports anywhere from any vendor step down from gig to 100. Only one rare fiber standard includes a step down at all, 100 to 10 on the 100baseSX standard
5500 have SPF GBICs, so in theory one can just run single mode SPF GBICs, I suspect you only have multimode installed.
1000baseLX will drive 550 meters over laser quality 50/125 nm multimode, 1800 feet by the standard, how far over standard they will go is speculation.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
5500 have SPF GBICs, so in theory one can just run single mode SPF GBICs, I suspect you only have multimode installed.
1000baseLX will drive 550 meters over laser quality 50/125 nm multimode, 1800 feet by the standard, how far over standard they will go is speculation.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
jimbopalmer
Programmer
Transition has non standard SPFs, TN-SFP-ESX6, that can go 2km on 50/125 nm multimode when used as pairs. Do not mix them with standards based SPFs
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
- Thread starter
- #4
Thanks for the response. Yes at the moment we only have multimode installed, and the distance we need is 2200-2500ft(on the short run). We got 5520's with AA1419015 1000BASE-LX GBICS. I guess they were smart when they built the gbics, to make everyone go all the way to upgrade no in-betweens. I'll check out the transition sfp's not real sure from the link on how they work, I'll research some more. By the way do you know anyone that has every used any of the transition equipment?
anthonyanderberg
MIS
Many vendor's hardware won't recognize 'non-approved' SFP modules (ie: they'll pretend not to see other vendor's hardware.) I haven't tried this on the 5500 series though so your millage might vary.
You'll want to check what kind of multimode you've got, 62.5/125 (FDDI) and 50/125 are the most common these days. It doesn't matter to the SFP module optics but it'll help you have realistic expectations. As jimbo mentioned you can often go beyond the specs by a fair amount, esp if your run has very few bends and has good quality termination and connectors on both sides.
If none of the above works for you a pair of stand alone 100Mbps copper to fiber converters might be your least expensive option.
You'll want to check what kind of multimode you've got, 62.5/125 (FDDI) and 50/125 are the most common these days. It doesn't matter to the SFP module optics but it'll help you have realistic expectations. As jimbo mentioned you can often go beyond the specs by a fair amount, esp if your run has very few bends and has good quality termination and connectors on both sides.
If none of the above works for you a pair of stand alone 100Mbps copper to fiber converters might be your least expensive option.
jimbopalmer
Programmer
I have used a great many Transistion stand alone media converters, both gig and 100 meg. My gear (Passport 1200s and Baystack 450s) did not support SFPs, so I have not used them.
I would hold Nortel to this first sentence (page 19):
"Any Digital Diagnostic Indicating (DDI) SFP can be used in any Ethernet Routing Switch module that supports SFPs. The optical functions of the SFP are supported. Access to the DDI information will be provided in a future release.
The SFPs described in this section are all RoHS -E6 compliant."
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
I would hold Nortel to this first sentence (page 19):
"Any Digital Diagnostic Indicating (DDI) SFP can be used in any Ethernet Routing Switch module that supports SFPs. The optical functions of the SFP are supported. Access to the DDI information will be provided in a future release.
The SFPs described in this section are all RoHS -E6 compliant."
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
- Thread starter
- #7
This is the response I got from Transition.
Cisco is the only switch that has locked out 3rd party SFP. You should not have any issues with the
Nortel switch unless they made a change we are not aware of.
Best Regards,
Mike Kahler
Technical Support
Transition Networks
Eden Prairie, MN USA
1-800-260-1312
Phone 952-941-7600
Fax 952-941-2322
E-mail mikek@transition.com
We offer 24 hour Technical Support
Cisco is the only switch that has locked out 3rd party SFP. You should not have any issues with the
Nortel switch unless they made a change we are not aware of.
Best Regards,
Mike Kahler
Technical Support
Transition Networks
Eden Prairie, MN USA
1-800-260-1312
Phone 952-941-7600
Fax 952-941-2322
E-mail mikek@transition.com
We offer 24 hour Technical Support
jimbopalmer
Programmer
Sounds like if you have 50/125 fiber rather than the 62.5/125 fiber, you are good.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
- Thread starter
- #9
jimbopalmer
Programmer
Normal 1000baseSX goes 220 meters on 62.5 vs 500 meters on 50 nm. If that ratio holds, the TN-SFP-ESX6 might go 880 meters or 2800 feet on 62.5 nm.
It would be interesting to see if you could get a 30 trial to see.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
It would be interesting to see if you could get a 30 trial to see.
I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question