Thursday, August 19, 2021

Mikrotik 10GBase-T RJ45 Copper SFP+ Link speeds

Hey guys. I have a Dell Power Connect 8024F 24 port SFP+ switch. Most of my clients are 10Gig fiber, a few are 10gig copper but i have these new little quirky 2.5Gig USB NICs that are goddamn dirt cheap and making me tempted to re-NIC all my existing 1gbps NICS if it didn't require some special switch that supports NBASE-T . I would have thought Dell / Cisco / Netgear / etc would have been able to just push out some small firmware upgrade that allow the SFP and 4x RJ45 ports to link at 2.5 & 5gbps along with the existing 10/100/1000/10000mbps. Its driving me nuts that an slower tech is going to make me have to purchase a special (possibly) unmanaged workgroup switch. Then i read some post online that said the Mikrotik 10gbase-T RJ45 transceivers can actually link up at 2.5/5gbps . Low and behold on their website the v2 model of the transceiver mentions 2.5/5gbps on a 10Gbase-T SFP. So im wondering if this is a special kinda SFP that is different then all the rest of the over priced 10Gbase-T Transceivers that only link 1000/10000mbps? Will my Dell Power Connect switch even support the 2.5 gig SFP if it does support that link speed? I find this whole multi-gigabit / nbase-t specification to be a bit of fustercluck if you ask me. Some mfg's support 2.5 while others support 2.5/5 . Im personally a bit insulted and disappointed with Dell . The 8024F switch is not a workgroup switch or even a smart /web switch.. It's an enterprise grade Layer 3 switch with FCoE and iSCSI capabilities along with the layer 3 switching. It's a bloody router! The signalling mechanisms aren't physically any different in 2.5/5gbps AFAIK. Its the same hardware more or less... Just slightly different firmware to handle to linking at those 2 speeds. No?

TL;DR WILL this (https://mikrotik.com/product/s_rj10) Mikrotik S+RJ10 10Gbase-T *6 SPEED RJ45 transceiver* work with my Dell power connect 8024F SFP+ switch to support linking up at 2.5 (or 5)gbps which is a newer ethernet specification then the 1000/10000mbps phy speeds that the switch was designed with? Can a SFP bring added 2.5/5gig functionality to my managed switch with out having to buy a whole separate RJ45 switch that is super expensive and i would have to decide upon giving up managed functionality or not depending on the price point just to get a few 2.5gpbs clients connected?

While researching the proper part # of the mikrotik SFP i came across this Marvell SFP (https://www.marvell.com/content/dam/marvell/en/public-collateral/transceivers/marvell-phys-transcievers-alaska-x-88x33x0p-product-brief-2018-01.pdf). It almost looks like Mikrotik ripped Marvell off using their chipset. so maybe i was wrong about the physical part being different. Same questions about this SFP as the Mikrotik? Can i use in my switch to get 2.5/5gbps speeds?

Thanks!



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