Is anyone aware of any switches (or media converters) with SFP+ ports capable of negotiating 2.5Gbit speeds that don’t cost an arm and a leg?
I have the Google Fiber 2 gig plan and I’d like to get rid of the fiber box since they’ve been extremely unreliable and our 4th one has just died. Unfortunately in order to get the full speeds I need something that can take a 2.5 gig SFP+ connection. 10 gig will not work, and 1 gig obviously only gets me half the speed.
I’ve found a few Unifi compatible switches, but they’re between $600 and $900 which is just insane for all we need.
Media converter wise everything I’ve found is 2.5gig on the rj45 side and 10 gig only on the SFP.
Something has to exist out there right? It can’t only be Google who are the freaks using 2.5 gig SFP modules.
10G SFP+ devices should be able to negotiate down to 2.5G. It’s 10G SFP devices that aren’t able to negotiate lower speeds, as 10G actually came a generation before 2.5 & 5G. I think it was something like it was realised that it was overkill in many cases.
SFP+ is 10Gb/s not SFP. The ASIC needs to be capable of the speeds for the transceiver to work. SFP+ is the name given for 10Gb/s module and transceivers.
So if a device supports SFP+ it supports 10Gb/s. It doesn’t automatically mean it will work with 5 or 2.5Gb/s transceivers.
The whole point of 2.5 and 5 is to support higher speeds over existing lower-rated cabling so I don’t see the point of multigig fiber connections when 10g fiber runs on the same cables that 1g fiber does
They make make it but it seems silly.
Ah, you’re correct, my apologies. I was thinking of Ethernet standards, not SFP.
See: Ubiquiti devices. No 2.5/5 to be found if I’m not mistaken.
Their enterprise line has switches with 2.5Gb ports. They’re particularly popular among the rack-porn crowd as they have all their ports in a single line instead so they can have just one patch panel and all the ports line up nicely. It only does POE+, not ++, which would be nice for running a POE switch in the garage that could drive both an access point and some cameras.
They also sell SFP+ modules that do 10/5/2.5 Gb
Well now I never looked at those. Good to know.