August 31, 2006 -- Transition Networks has announced a significant expansion of its small form-factor pluggable (SFP) media converter product line.
To the product offering, the company has added both pluggable optics and an expanded range of SFP-based converters for enabling protocol-independent connectivity between fiber-optic or copper links. The company says the products now allow customers to leverage a range of networking applications including Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, FDDI, ESCON, SONET OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, and Fibre Channel.
Additions to the company's SFP pluggable optics line include extended distance multimode 1000Base-SX models, which allow for optical transmission up to 2 km over multimode fiber, as well as multi-rate Fibre Channel 2X models. All models are Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) standard-compliant and include a lifetime warranty. All models also feature an enhanced Digital Diagnostic Monitoring Interface (DMI) for providing access to crucial real-time information such as transmit power, receive power, bias current, and operating temperature of the SFP, via compatible management software platforms. The new SFP releases are available immediately and complement the company's existing SFP offering, which now supports protocols including: 100Base-FX; OC-3; STM-1; OC-12; STM-4; 1000Base-SX/LX; OC-48; STM-16, and Fibre Channel 1X and 2X.
To compliment the SFP pluggable optics additions, the company has also released a number of additional SFP-based media converters, all of which provide an empty SFP slot to allow users to simply plug in the appropriate SFP optics to suit their application. The converters include Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet models, as well as a universal model in which any of the company's SFPs can be inserted into the two SFP slots. All models will accept any MSA-compliant SFP and are also compatible with the DMI capability incorporated into the SFP optics.
"Transition's media converters and switches help protect the integrity and investment of today's networks while looking ahead to tomorrow," comments Bill Schultz, vice president of marketing for Transition Networks. "The ability to quickly change those SFP optics as needed in the future allows our customers to meet the challenge they face with rapidly evolving network topologies. Small form-factor pluggable optics combined with SFP-based media converters and switches allow for the utmost in product configuration, flexibility, and convenience."