I have never used SFP before. So far everything I read about it makes zero sense to me. Hence I am being exceltionally cautious before I buy any. But I need the fibre because I cannot get my usual thick Cat6e though a tight spot in a wall surrounded by too much noise from other cables and fibre makes it work, and I do not want a massive black Cat6e cable running 20 metres along my lounge wall. A fibre cable is perfect.
I read the SFP fibre modules can be one of these - Ethernet SFP, FC SFP, SDH SFP/SONET SFP, SDI SFP, or PON SFP - and I worry that I will end up buy different ones. The sellers seem unwilling to be clear what each SFP actually does!
I can confirm that the FS 10gbit single mode fiber 10km SFP works. As for which one you need would depend on your setup really. If itās really just to link Ubiquiti to R4, I would probably look at a DAC instead. What you need for your ISP only your ISP can tell you. I donāt get what you would need a media converter for - if you want 10gbit copper, get a 10gbit copper SFP
I have not yet come across an SFP that truly did not work with the R4 - some of the 10gbit copper ones will only do 10gbit, though (but do not seem to support slower links in other hardware, either). Have not tried any GPON or similar, though.
Sfps for bananapi should be ethernet for indoor use. SDH/Sonet is completely different transmission format (fixed bandwith iirc max 2.5g=STM64,no packets like ethernet). Pon is for ftth (carrier connection shared for different customers via passive wdm). These had some problems with bootup and reusing pins for uart.
Do you already have that 20m of fiber in place because unless you have a really good reason to go fiber, 20m sounds very much like copper territory to me (especially if itās supposed to be gbit anyhow)ā¦
Either way, you need modules that match the fiber (single or multi mode) you have and matching modules on both sides. And you need the proper wavelengths on both sidesā¦
What modules and wavelength do I need? This is the bit I donāt get.
as for gbit speeds:
At some point we will want more gbits. I will not re-cable every five years. I am old enough to remember friends saying how amazing it would be to have 1 Mb of ram in a computer and I disagreed. They wrote me off when I said I thought a few Gigabytes would ideal, but still not enough. Yet here we are in the 21st century. Anyway, we digress.
Do you need colored sfps? Only needed for fibre-to-the-home (gpon/xpon) if you got fibre from your isp and shared with other users. If you need it only for indoor then you are free so far and do not take care of wavelengthā¦it just need to be same on both ends.
Dor indoor use multimode are mostly usedā¦singlemode are more for outdoor because of larger range (kilometers instead of meters). As i said for lan wavelength is not important as both sides use the sameā¦not sure if there are multiple wavelengths usedā¦my sfp does not tell wavelength on buyers pageā¦850 nm sounds a bit smallā¦i expect something like 1300 or 1500.
Fibre sfps are mostly (if not all) simple media converters as they have no phy for rateadaption like copper ones.