While looking through my big box of random optics I suddenly realized that I’d never seen a GBIC with an LC connector, and I started wondering if anyone else had / if such a thing actually exists.
Yes, I realize that this would be a fairly niche device - if you arrived somewhere with a device that took GBICs and there was existing fiber with LC connectors you could just replace the patch cable or use an LC-SC convertor, but that doesn’t really satisfy my curiosity.
A quick look through the GBIC MSA / SFF documentation implies that such a thing could probably exist (there is a defined value for the ‘LC’ connector), but I wasn’t able to actually find any. It might not actually be compliant with the specs (the document I found only lists SC fiber or copper (coax with BNC, TNC or DB-9?!)), but that doesn’t mean that no-one made them.
So, has anyone seen a regular (30mm/1.2") GBIC with LC connectors? And, if so, “pics or it didn’t happen”…
Obviously I don’t have an actual use for this, it’s just to satisfy my (OCD) curiosity…
W
I feel like I’ve seen GBIC sleeves that accept SFP modules very similar to QSFP+ CVRs, but I can’t seem to find any evidence of these ever existing, so perhaps I’m misremembering.
Those are Twin Gig Converter Modules. They went in the 3560 series (and probably others). You could either insert a 10 gig module, or the converter module and get 2 1-gig sfp slots.
Maybe you're thinking of X2, looking similar to GBIC but even bigger?
There were converters taking 2 gig SFPs in one X2 slot.
Don't think either GBIC to SFP or GBIC with LC makes much sense. The
alternatives were dirt cheap and easily available by the time these
could have been products.
LC is Little Click. As opposed to ST = Stab and Twist and SC = Stab and Click.
I haven't seen such a thing for GBIC to SFP and the height may be insufficient to do so, but in the 10G realm there are adapters that convert an X2 slot to accept SFP+.
I’ve also somewhere seen an “F-style” coax GBIC to allow reuse of in-building coax - basically looked like a GBIC form factor version of http://www.mdslink.com/magic-sfp/
There’s a lot of things here that are feasible, because many modules are in the same form factor, eg XFP that is EDFA etc.
The specs (SFF-8024) have a variety of types and encodings with GBIC 2.4.2 and table 4.2
The SFF-8024 is being revved to v4.9.2 right now, so there’s always enhancements.
The SFP can be used to do SDI or other types of output that are non-IP.
It is nice to seeing things move to CMIS if you’ve dealt with all the lack-of-clarity in the hardware and software specifications for what bits are set or required to be set, which is why some optics haven’t always worked because the EEPROM had TX_Disable set or similar.
