Question 10GBase-T / SFP+ transceiver for more than 30 meters

[Collider]

Hello - I'm looking for 10 GBase-T / SFP+ transceiver to connect 2 separate SFP+ switches over CAT6 distance of ~40-50 meters. However I could only find transceivers that do up to 30 meters similar to this product. Does anyone know of any transceivers that can do over 30 meters?

If 30 meters is the limitation of these transceivers, as a possible workaround I was thinking of splicing the the cable somewhere in the middle and putting a MirkroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN, its not the most elegant solution, but the best could come up with. Not sure if this would work or if it would cause problems.

If you have any feedback or additional ideas of how to connect these 2 switches, please share. Thanks!

 

[SamirD]

Have you tried running 10GB over the cat6? It may handle it fine.

 

[Collider]

Have you tried running 10GB over the cat6? It may handle it fine.

You're right and it should, but the switches that I'm using are SFP+, they are on different floors and the only link between is a cat6 run.

 

[mxnerd]

Cisco SFP-10G-T-80 Compatible 10GBASE-T SFP+ Copper RJ-45 80m Optical Transceiver Module - FS.com

Cisco SFP-10G-T-80 Compatible 10GBASE-T SFP+ Copper RJ-45 80m Optical Transceiver Module, Product Specification:Cisco Compatible - SFP-10G-T-80 , Vendor Name - FS , Form Factor - SFP+ , Max Data Rate - 10Gbps, Power Consumption - ≤2.5W , Cable Distance (Max.) - 80m@Cat6a/Cat7 or Better

www.fs.com

Up to 80 meters, it says cat6a though.

 

[SamirD]

You're right and it should, but the switches that I'm using are SFP+, they are on different floors and the only link between is a cat6 run.

I think your only option will really be to try it as most SFP+ are going to be rated for cat6a vs cat6 as they were probably never tested on cat6.

My hunch is that it will work fine if your terminations are good, but definitely let us know what you find out as that's the bleeding edge.

 

[Collider]

Cisco SFP-10G-T-80 Compatible 10GBASE-T SFP+ Copper RJ-45 80m Optical Transceiver Module - FS.com

Cisco SFP-10G-T-80 Compatible 10GBASE-T SFP+ Copper RJ-45 80m Optical Transceiver Module, Product Specification:Cisco Compatible - SFP-10G-T-80 , Vendor Name - FS , Form Factor - SFP+ , Max Data Rate - 10Gbps, Power Consumption - ≤2.5W , Cable Distance (Max.) - 80m@Cat6a/Cat7 or Better

www.fs.com

Up to 80 meters, it says cat6a though.

Great find. I checked FS.com before posting but did not find this one. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Collider]

Quick update: finally got around to setting this up, figured it would be interesting to share results.

Setup details:
- 2x Cisco SFP-10G-T-80 Compatible 10GBASE-T SFP+ Copper RJ-45 80m Transceiver Modules
- 2x Mellanox ConnectX-2
- Cat6 Plus ~60 meter run (Plus is not an actual spec, rather Honeywell's branding, cable itself is rated at 500Mhz so effectively Cat6)
- Jumbo frames enabled
- Interruption Moderation disabled (this bumped up speeds a bit, and made them more consistent)

Results Running iPerf3 10 times:
- 1 Parallel stream - 1.01 Gb/sec
- 2 Parallel streams - 1.58 Gb/sec
- 3 Parallel streams - 2.04 Gb/sec
- 5 Parallel streams - 2.7 Gb/sec on some runs, and some ~8 Gb/sec
- 10 Parallel streams - 8.7 - 9.34 Gb/sec
- 15 Parallel streams - 8.7 - 9.6 Gb/sec
- 20 Parallel streams - 8.7 - 9.5 Gb/sec

What I've noticed when running iPerf with 10 reps (-t 10) is that it will start out slower in first 1 or 2 reps and ramp up in speed as it continues, I'm assuming this has to do with CPU starting to scale up its frequency and turbo kicking in.

Highest throughput I'm able to achieve is 9.6 Gb/sec. Overall pretty happy with results considering its a Cat6 run of ~60 meters.

 

[Fallen Kell]

9.6Gbps seems very reasonable given various overheads. I know for non-jumbo frames, the theoretical max efficiency is ~97%.