If you’re ever confused about which optics work with which systems and other optics, check out Cisco Optics online tools. You’re not alone, and it’s certainly not your fault. Pluggable optics nomenclature and compatibility are inherently complicated, which is why we created these online tools to help make your life easier.
There are two Cisco Optics online tools currently available, with more on the way. The first one we released is the Optics-to-Device Compatibility Matrix, which tells you which Cisco Optics products are fully qualified and supported on which Cisco networking products such as switches, routers, and servers. The second one is the Optics-to-Optics Interoperability Matrix. When given a specific Cisco Optics product, it tells you which other Cisco Optics products or optical standards are optically interoperable with it. In other words, it tells you which pluggable transceivers it can talk to through the fiber cable.
Both the Compatibility Matrix and Interoperability Matrix offer the user an interactive experience by providing specific search or query options, as well as dynamic output filters. They also provide additional information such as technical specifications and breakout requirements. Together, the two online tools allow the user to have an end-to-end view, whether it is for planning or deployment.
The genesis of the user interactive online tools began with the Compatibility Matrix. The previous reference was a set of static tables in webpages. They were adequate when there weren’t that many products in the portfolio. But over the years the tables expanded as Cisco released new product families, for both networking products and pluggable optics. In parallel, with the introduction of product families such as QSFP100, we began to see breakout interoperability with other product families, and a proliferation of 100G PMD (Physical Medium Dependency) standards in the industry. The end result was that the static tables were so large that they were unreadable.
Since its introduction two years ago, the Compatibility Matrix has averaged over 1000 page views daily. The Interoperability Matrix has been receiving around 100 page views daily since its launch in August 2020. Stay tuned for more Cisco Optics online tools!
For a video introduction of the Cisco Optics Compatibility Matrix, please click here.
For a video introduction of the Cisco Optics Interoperability Matrix, please click here.
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Very useful, which is evident with the fact by number of views everyday. Both tools are indeed flexible and much helpful to identify the ideal match.
Thanks for your comment Amit! Glad you find the tools helpful.
Hi Pat and Peter,
Thank you for the post. I do much prefer these tools to the old reference web pages. Especially as I can create tables based on the host devices I need and export in different formats.
The one thing I would add is an “advanced” option to show data such as whether the transceiver is Linear or Limiting, which modes of FEC they support and perhaps OMA/Power Budget. I’m guessing this data exists in the backend data source.
Thanks again,
PS. Very much hoping to see Cisco having a 10G Limiting ZR soon which we can use with Bearvalley PHY!
Hi Anonymous,
We are currently working on a tool which provides more transceiver information. Stay tuned. As for a 10G Limiting ZR, I shall let our 10G transceiver PM know there is requirement.
This is Life saver for most of solutions and systems engineers while we are designing our solutions .
Hi Ajay,
Thanks for the feedback. We are glad that the Tools are making a positive feedback to your work.
Regards,
Peter