Introduction

In this article, we will briefly introduce the 10GBASE-SW Ethernet standard and what are the difference between 10GBASE-SR and 10GBASE-SW, so that allows viewers to have a more profound understanding for 10GBASE-SW technology, better to understand the basic solutions to 10GBASE-SW. All the 10GbE standards are shown in the following table.

What is the 10GBASE-SW technology?

The 10GBASE-SW media types are designed for use over short wavelength (850 nm) multimode fiber (MMF). The design goal of these media types is from 2 meters to 300 meters of fiber distance, depending on the type and quality of the multimode fiber. Longer distances are possible depending on the qualities of the fiber optic cable used. The 10GBASE-SW media type is designed for use over dark fiber, meaning a fiber optic cable that is not in use and that is not connected to any other equipment. The 10GBASE-SW media type is designed to connect to SONET equipment, which is typically used to provide long distance data communications.

What are the Difference Between 10GBASE-SR & 10GBASE-SW?

In 10GBase-SR the S in SR is for ShortRange fiberoptic cable, which is evident with the fact that standard Multimode Fiber media will only let it transmit 26 or 82 meters before attentuation (signal corrupting and fading the point of unusability). But wait! With the right type of media (the 50µm 2000 MHz-km OM3 MultiMode Fiber), the same 10GBase-SR interface can run up to 300 meters.

10GBase-SR and 10GBase-SW is the same thing, and either can use the standard multimode fiber cabling (26 or 82 meter range) or the 50µm 2000 MHz-km OM3 MultiMode Fiber (300 meter range). If a router implements the WAN PHY mode than an extra sublayer of information is added to the packet and the interface is no longer a 10GBase-SR, it is now a 10GBase-SW.