HP ProCurve Tech Brief: 10-Gigabit Ethernet Cabling

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• XFP—the newest pluggable transceiver on the
market, XFP is the closest in size to the SFP pluggable
transceiver now used for gigabit technology. Because
it relies on a high-speed interface (10.3125 Gbps),
high-priced serializer/deserializer (SERDES) are
required inside the switch to support it. Over time,
the cost of such SERDES will decline, but today they
add an unacceptable cost to the base system. Still,
the positive aspect of the XFP form factor is it will
allow switch vendors to increase port density in a
smaller area for cost savings. A drawback of the XFP
will be its inability to support the current copper
(IEEE 802.3ak) or the 10GBASE-LX4 standards.
• SFP+—As the industry brings down the cost and
power of 10-Gigabit optical devices, effort to increase
the capacity of the existing SFP is being considered.
For many customers, the possibility of achieving 10-
Gibabit speeds and a mechanical form factor that
allows 1-Gigabit or 10-Gigabit to reside in the same
footprint might prove attractive. ProCurve continues
to evaluate SFP+ as an alternative for the future.
Summary
As organizations grow their networks and support
bandwidth-intensive applications and traffic types,
10-GbE technology is becoming evermore pervasive.
10-GbE functionality can provide immediate
performance benefits and safeguard a company’s
investment well into the future.
Just as there are many manifestations of the gigabit
and 10-GbE standards to suit various networking
environments, there are also many copper and fiber
cabling technologies to support them. Companies must
have a solid understanding of not only their
environment and need, but also the different
standards and cabling technologies available to them.
Doing so will help them develop a sound migration
and cabling strategy, enabling them to reap the
benefits of 10-GbE for years to come.