Industrial switches and industrial-grade fiber optic transceivers(https://hello-signal.com/fiber-optic-transceivers/) are both important components in network data transmission equipment. An industrial switch is an Ethernet connection device for data exchange within the network, while an industrial-grade fiber optic transceiver is a photoelectric conversion device that extends the transmission distance, and an Ethernet connection device for data exchange within the network. So what are the specific differences between them?
Industrial switches differ from fiber optic transceivers in:
- Industrial switches can be point-to-multipoint and have more interfaces than industrial-grade fiber optic transceivers.
- The industrial-grade optical fiber transceiver is a point-to-point industrial switch, which is just a photoelectric conversion device.
- The industrial switch is a high-speed network transmission (https://hello-signal.com/fiber-optic-transceivers/100g-qsfp28/)relay device. Compared with ordinary switches, it uses optical fiber cables as the transmission medium. The advantages of optical fiber transmission are fast speed and strong anti-interference ability.
- Industrial-grade fiber optic transceiver is an Ethernet transmission media conversion unit that interchanges short-distance twisted-pair electrical signals and long-distance optical signals. It is also called photoelectric converter in many places.
- Industrial switches use fiber channel with high transmission rate to connect with server network, 8-port industrial switches or internal components of SAN network. In this way, the entire storage network has a very wide bandwidth, which provides a guarantee for high-performance data storage.
- The optical fiber transceiver provides ultra-low latency data transmission and is completely transparent to the network protocol. A dedicated ASIC chip is used to realize wire-speed data forwarding. Programmable ASIC integrates multiple functions into one chip, and has the advantages of simple design, high reliability, and low power consumption, which can enable the device to obtain higher performance and lower cost.
If the Ethernet network is too large and the transmission distance has exceeded the distance that the electrical signal can transmit, the electrical switch port of the Ethernet switch needs to perform photoelectric conversion, so you need to use an Ethernet fiber optic transceiver to extend your transmission distance. Electrical signals are converted into optical signals for long-distance transmission. Of course, in either case of industrial switches and industrial-grade fiber optic transceivers, appropriate products should be selected.