1000BASE-What?

There are many kinds of optical transceiver in the market. When looking at a transceiver module, you may see words like 1000BASE-CX, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-T, and so on. For example, the following picture shows a 3CSFP91 compatible SFP transceiver. You can see "1000BASE-SX SFP" on it. What do they mean? And what's the difference between 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-CX, and 1000BASE-T? In this post, a brief introduction to 1000BASE will be given.

What Does 1000BASE Mean?

The "1000" refers to the transmission speed of 1000Mbps. In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GE or 1GbE) is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second, as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. The cables and equipment are very similar to previous standards and have been very common and economical since 2010. You may wonder what the word "BASE" means. BASE refers to "baseband", meaning that this is an unfiltered line not requiring a digital modulation scheme. Back in the day, there was a 10PASS-TS version of Ethernet that used a signaling scheme similar to a modem, but baseband is dominant today. So 1000BASE refers to a Gigabit Ethernet connection that uses the unfiltered cable for transmission.

1000BASE-What?

The next part is the cabling used to carry the signals. The earliest forms of Ethernet used coaxial cable, but thin twisted-pair cabling became popular in the mid-1990s. Faster versions of Ethernet also often use fiber optics rather than electrical signals. There are a bewildering assortment of physical interconnects for Ethernet. But the naming system isn't as complex as it might appear. The first letter tells us which kind of wire we are talking about:

• "S" means short-range multi-mode optical cable (less than 100 m)
• "L" means long-range single- or multi-mode optical cable (100 m to 10 km)
• "E" means extended-range optical cable (10 km to 40 km)
• "Z" means long-range single-mode cable at a higher wavelength
• "T" means twisted-pair cable (e.g. the common Category 5 in use today)
• "K" means a copper backplane
• "C" means balanced copper cable
• "B" uses two wavelengths over a single optical cable

Next is the coding scheme for data on the wire: "X" means 8B/10B block coding for Gigabit Ethernet. Then, we have a number representing the number of parallel "lanes" for data: "1" would mean serial (non-parallel) but is omitted instead; "4" or "10" are available for copper wire; just about any other number could be used for optical lanes or wavelengths. As you can see, common unshielded twisted pair wiring is "BASE-T", optics are denoted according to their range ("S", "L", "E"), and backplanes use "K" copper.

Examples

1000BASE-SX standard is a variant coupled to a VCSEL laser with a short wavelength of 850nm. It has a maximum length of 550 meters. 1000BASE-SX technologies are being widely implemented in enterprise-level networks and primarily used between pieces of equipment within a building. 1000BASE-LX standard has a working distance of up to 5 km over single-mode optic fiber. And it can also be used to transmit data over common multi-mode fiber options with a maximum length of 550m. 1000BASE-EX standard is capable of transmitting up to 40 km over a single-mode optic fiber pair due to higher quality optics. 1000BASE-CX is an initial standard for Gigabit Ethernet connections with maximum distances of 25 meters using balanced shielded twisted pair. 1000BASE-KX standard is for Ethernet operation over electrical backplanes. It defines one to four lanes of backplane links, one RX and one TX differential pair per lane. The 1000BASE-KX variant uses 1.25GBd electrical (not optical) signalling speed. 1000BASE-T normally uses four pairs of the commonly installed Category 5 unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable or enhanced category 5 cabling version of UTP cabling to achieve gigabit data rates. The image below shows a Moxa SFP-1GLSXLC 1000BASE-LX SFP transceiver.

There are various 1000BASE SFP transceivers available depending on the your application and distance capability required. Fiberstore is a professional manufacturer and supplier, offering various kinds of 1000BASE SFP transceivers 100% compatible with major brands like Cisco, HP, Juniper, Force10, D-link, 3Com. They are backed by a lifetime warranty, and we also can customize optical transceivers to fit your specific requirements.

What Is 1000BASE-X?

Gigabit Ethernet is a term describing various technologies for transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second, as defined by the IEEE 802.3-2008 standard. 1000BASE-X is one physical layer standard for Gigabit Ethernet utilizing optical fiber. Using fiber interfaces on your network hardware is a choice that requires some thought based on your unique requirements. This post provides you with some basic information that you should understand before you decide which type you will choose for your 1000BASE-X Gigabit network connection.

Definition—What Does 1000BASE-X Mean?

1000BASE-X is a group of standards for Ethernet physical layer standards, specified within the IEEE 802.3.z standard. It is used for gigabit Ethernet connections that transmit data mainly over fiber optic cable, and sometimes over copper-shielded cable. The standards that apply to the term 1000BASE-X include 1000BASE-LX, 1000BASE-SX, 1000BASE-BX10, 1000BASE-LX10, as well as non-standard -ZX and -EX standards. The range of lengths for 1000BASE-X starts at a minimum of 25 meters for copper wires and a maximum of 70 km in the case of a single-mode optic fiber channel. All of the standards that are grouped at 1000BASE-X utilize a 8b/10b encoding where 8 bits are reserved for data transmission while 2 bits are used for error correction. The following are brief explanations of some of the standards grouped under the 1000BASE-X standard.

1000BASE-SX

1000BASE-SX Gigabit Ethernet is a variant coupled to a VCSEL laser with a short wavelength of 850 nm. 1000BASE-SX standard has a minimum length of 220 meters and a maximum of 550 meters. The letter "S" stands for short wavelength, and the letter "X" for local area networks (LAN) and an 8B/10B encoding. The SX in 1000BASE-SX indicates that this version of Gigabit Ethernet is intended for use with short-wavelength transmissions over short cable runs of fiber optic cabling. 1000BASE-SX technologies are being widely implemented in enterprise-level networks and are primarily used between pieces of equipment within a building.

1000BASE-LX

1000BASE-LX is a gigabit Ethernet fiber optic standard which has a working distance of up to 5 km over single-mode optic fiber. 1000BASE-LX can also be used to transmit data over common multi-mode fiber options in which case it has a maximum length of 550 meters. The "LX" in 1000BASE-LX stands for long wavelength, indicating that this version of Gigabit Ethernet is intended for use with long-wavelength transmissions over long cable runs of fiber optic cabling. 1000BASE-LX uses a long wavelength laser, and a maximum RMS (root mean square) spectral width of 4 nm.

1000BASE-LX10

1000BASE-LX10 is very similar to 1000BASE-LX, but achieves longer distances up to 10 km over a pair of single-mode fiber due to higher quality optics. 1000BASE-LX10, also known as 1000BASE-LX/LH or 1000BASE-LH. LX/LH stands for "long wavelength/long haul". LX is often used when networking a campus and LH can be used for runs across town to the local Internet service provider (ISP). 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP is single-mode by design, but when it gets together with its friend "mode conditioning patch cable", it can also be used for multi-mode application.

1000BASE-BX10

1000BASE-BX10 is capable of up to 10 km over a single strand of single-mode fiber, with a different wavelength going in each direction. The terminals on each side of the fiber are not equal, as the one transmitting downstream (from the center of the network to the outside) uses the 1490nm wavelength, and the one transmitting upstream uses the 1310nm wavelength.

1000BASE-EX

1000BASE-EX is one of the non-standard mediums that are still used in the industry. Like the other 1000BASE-X standards, 1000BASE-EX is a gigabit Ethernet standard which is capable of data transmissions on working distances of up to 40 km over a single-mode optic fiber pair. It is very similar to 1000BASE-LX10 but achieves longer distances due to higher quality optics, running on 1310nm wavelength lasers. It is sometimes referred to as LH (long haul).

1000BASE-ZX

1000BASE-ZX is also a non-standard but multi-vendor term to refer to Gigabit Ethernet transmission using 1550nm wavelength to achieve distances of at least 70 km (43 miles) over single-mode fiber. Some vendors specify distances up to 120 km (75 miles) over single-mode fiber, sometimes called 1000BASE-EZX. 1000BASE-ZX SFP supports link length of up to 80km on single mode fiber at 1Gbps.

There is a number of 1000BASE SFP optics that are available depending on the customer application and distance capability required. Fiberstore is a professional manufacturer and supplier, offering various kinds of 1000BASE SFP transceivers compatible for Cisco, Juniper, and Finisar, etc. For example, Cisco MGBLX1 1000BASE-LX SFP transceivers are cost-effective modules supporting 10km transmission distance with SMF; and Cisco GLC-ZX-SM 1000BASE-ZX SFP is fully compatible with Cisco devices.