My understanding is that Optical SFP/SFP+ transceivers have a finite lifetime and it's in years, not 10's of years. This would seem to mean that buying used and "refurbished" transceivers on eBay isn't all that prudent. Sellers seem to be pretty generous with their meanings of new and "New (Other)" too leaving you unsure if they're really new and unused so is it best to steer clear of eBay for optical transceivers?
Used / "reburbished" Optical SFP/SFP+ transceivers?
- Thread starter Stereodude
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I was using new Fiberstore modules as the comparison point, not new Intel/Mellanox/etc. They're $16 for 10gB SFP+ (-SR). Used comparable transceivers on eBay seem to be about $8 and if you're going to "new (other)" they're around $12.
For normal SFP+ modules I tend to buy new and 10+ at a time just because I don't want the hassle of going through and testing a pile of old ones, but YMMV. Either way I would buy a decent quantity so you have spares.
For older things (X2 / Xenpack etc) then I will get them from ebay and have had decent luck so far (knock on wood). If the used ones are 1/3 or less the cost of new you can get a few and increase the chance of success / have spares for when they are needed and still be ahead of the game.
For older things (X2 / Xenpack etc) then I will get them from ebay and have had decent luck so far (knock on wood). If the used ones are 1/3 or less the cost of new you can get a few and increase the chance of success / have spares for when they are needed and still be ahead of the game.
Even after 4 or 5 years I see very few fail or need to be replaced, of course at that point they are replaced anyway but I suspect if you find issues it’s probably more to do with handling rather than them failing on their own due to wearing out.
No real data of 40G/100G BiDi yet but assume they may be a little earlier to die than 10G which lasts not as well as 1G.
Of course I am talking about multi mode gear above, single mode over a distance gets more of s work out but can’t really tell you much due to the low numbers I have experience with.
No real data of 40G/100G BiDi yet but assume they may be a little earlier to die than 10G which lasts not as well as 1G.
Of course I am talking about multi mode gear above, single mode over a distance gets more of s work out but can’t really tell you much due to the low numbers I have experience with.
Bias current is a good predictor of end-of-life, as it goes up when the transmitter needs more input power to generate the same light levels. Here are year-long monitoring reports of a GigE LR SFP and a 10GbE ZR DWDM SFP+:
I have been running GigE and 10GbE optics for a very long time (up to 10 years) and haven't had any fail due to age, or for any other reason, really. Some get retired because we no longer use the technology (CWDM, GBIC / Xenpak / X2 optics, etc.)
BTW, there are a lot of mis-calibrated (or broken) Xenpak / X2 optics on eBay - an important test is to check the received power level ("show interface transceiver" on most Cisco gear) with no cable connected. It should read -40. There are loads of them out there that read in the minus-twenty-something range.
I've just grabbed mine on amazon from 10Gtek. For inner rack routing I use the passive DACs from them, not the "best" but they work well.
I have lots of 1G/10G optics that have been lit for 9-10 years plus and haven't replaced a single one because of a failure. Most of our optics are Enterasys/Extreme branded, JDSU, Intel and recently we've been deploying FluxLight optics.