Demystifying Fiber Optic Media Converters with Benjamin Hamlitsch RCDD from trueFIBER

So I want to cover today fiber optic media converters , one of the one of the biggest things that I see on social media . There's people out there let's say oh , forget about copper fiber , everything should be fiber . You know , people don't realize that you got to change that electron to a photon and then back again .

So while fiber does offer more bandwidth , while fiber can go further distances , fiber can be cheaper in some scenarios . It's not always the answer and sometimes one of the biggest limiting things in that decision making process is the fiber optic media converter .

So , since you guys are pretty good at this , I want to know can you just give us an overview what is a fiber optic media converter ? What does it do ?

So an application that's that's kind of common and maybe people can relate to is you have a main house with a Video server and you have a gate , maybe , let's say , a thousand feet away , that you want to put a camera on .

Well , that thousand feet obviously is going to be too long of a link to install for a copper cable and to get that video and to get the performance and everything you need . So that's where a media converter would come into play .

You'd have a media converter to go fiber optic between the house and the gate and then it would convert it back out to copper , and so it's basically a device that's going to convert one medium to another medium and that's and typically we're you know their coaxing is one of them , sometimes it's used , but typically it's fiber to copper , copper to fiber or

sometimes fiber to fiber . You they have media converters that go multi mode to single mode or vice versa . So , yep , so those are some different options .

You know , a lot of times maybe has a PoE functional functionality built into it , and then on the fiber side it's a transceiver that's plugged in there and that transceiver needs needs to be powered as well . So , yeah , typically powered .

Now there are sometimes and this is getting a little bit , maybe slightly off topic , but there are some things that can be used that are kind of considered a media converter , but they they call them balans . You may have heard of those , and those they do have is kind of a kind of a convert .

It's kind of a media converter because of making a conversion and basically it's sending over fiber optic cable from one point to the other and then it's taking the fiber and then converting it to copper and sometimes at that far end , it's not needed to have to have power but , depending on what the application , it really just depends on what the application is .

So , yeah , so the media converters are really designed for specific applications where you don't have the scenario we just talked about with with fiber optic transceivers on either end or or a device that has a fiber optic input , and it allows you to take that fiber optic cable signal and convert it back to copper .

And the reason that they're , and one of the reasons they're pretty popular still , is because most , most everything still has a copper interface , right ? So if you look at , you know , if you look at a camera , if you look at a switch , if you look at any device that's networkable , they still don't have fiber optic inputs .

There's still it's still a copper ethernet input on there . So that makes the media converter still pretty pretty , you know , choice in terms of use .

Between some two things , how much additional costs do I need to factor in because I need two fiber optic media converters ?

They can be as as as cheap as like 40 bucks on Amazon , up to you know 100 plus through a reputable you know place like a , like a distributor or somewhere like that . So it just really depends . The , you know the multi-mode ones , are usually a little bit cheaper than the single mode ones .

A lot of the newer transceiver , a lot of the newer fiber optic media converters have a slot that you can input , you know , the transceiver that you want to use . So usually you have to buy the converter and then you also have to get a transceiver . Sometimes they come together . Just kind of depends .

There's a lot of different kind of flavors out there in terms of what you can , what you can purchase and what are , depending on what your application is going to be .

I'm not saying Amazon's good or bad , I'm just saying I'd rather stick with distribution and and and . The reason I like to stick with distribution is because if something goes wrong with it , try calling Amazon . Yeah Right , try calling .

It's probably better known or easier to understand , maybe by calling it a transceiver , right Cause it's it's transmitting and it's receiving a signal , but small form factor pluggable is is what that stands for , and and that was really something that they kind of introduced early on .

You had the , you had the gigabit SFPs , and then it went to the SFP plus , which was the 10 gig SFPs , and then now they have the QSFPs , which is a 25 and 40 gig applications , and then it goes into the 100 gig .

So there's there's all kinds of different versions of of the SFP , but simply it just means small form factor pluggable and it's because it's just a really small form factor little device .

But a lot of times now you purchase the small form factor public plugable , the SFP , separately from the , from the fiber media converter , and that's because different applications , different types of use cases and stuff . It makes the , the fiber media converter , a little more versatile .

So you can change out the SFP if you need to , you can upgrade it , you can do different things in the body of the media converter doesn't need to be changed , so you can just change this device .

So there are two separate things SFP , which is this little device here , and then , which I don't have , but the media converter box itself and that's that's what gets powered and that also is what has the Ethernet jack output to go into your equipment . Like I mentioned earlier , a lot of times it could be PoE also .

So if you're running fiber from point A to point B and you have power at the far location , you can PoE into your device to make it , make it active , like a camera , for instance , like that , something like that . So , that's really the difference between those two .

So in an application that we just talked about , it could be a camera application where there's a long distance , Two different buildings , so building A , building B , they might be a thousand , two thousand , maybe a kilometer apart , depending on the distance .

Other applications can also be for utility type situations where again , the interface to the product is copper but they need a long distance run and fiber can facilitate that . So that's typically what they're used for .

Well , I'm running a fiber cable between the two buildings , right ? What do I need to know to make sure that I choose the right media converter ?

You need to be able to transmit maybe 1080p video over that , or 720 depending on the camera . That's going to be no problem with a gigabit SFP , so you could go with a gigabit SFP .

Now you might need to transmit output data , so like a 10 gig or 40 gig or something signal , maybe a backbone , from one building to another , and for some reason they're not using fiber interfaces . So you got to use media converters . So that would require specific SFPs that can transmit that kind of a backbone , a backhaul for that .

There's various different ways to kind of look at it .

And then the other thing sometimes that someone might have too is they might have a multi-mode fiber optic cabling system and they need to convert some aspect of it to single mode and they make fiber media converters that convert multi-mode to single mode or single mode to multi-mode goes both directions , and that's something that could be a particular application use

case as well . So determining really what exactly , first , it is that you want to do and then , once you know what that is , then kind of catering the media converter slash SFP transceiver accordingly to that application . And again , a lot of it's going to depend on what kind of bandwidth , what kind of speeds you need in order to make that choice .

It always slips my head because I'm a cable guy , I'm not a computer guy Physical . Physical ? Yeah , I'm there . One Exactly right . So what are some good questions that I could ask the IT person when I'm trying to , because I know you're going to ask me these questions when I call you to order one . So what questions should I ask the customer ?

So that way , when you and I talk , that conversation is going to go a lot smoother .

So maybe they come back it's 2,000 feet . Okay , so fiber optics would be the better way to go here . Now , in 2,000 feet really they could go either direction in terms of what they use . They could go multi-mode or they could go single-mode . Really either one would work .

I mean , we know multi-mode that's not a problem , single-mode definitely not a problem to go those types of lengths . So that could be a little bit of a preference thing , but it also could be a cost factor . So the multi-mode products are still a little bit cheaper on the media converters and the transceivers .

So that might be something to factor in is that if the length is totally fine , you probably just go multi-mode because it's going to be a little bit cheaper of a cost . Single-mode obviously much longer lengths and sometimes customers and people just want to put single-mode in because that's what they use . Future-proofing yeah , they're future-proofing .

They want to keep everything consistent . Maybe the rest of their installation is already single-mode . Different reasons like that . But back to the camera scenario . The other thing to ask is is that camera going to require a power connection or is it going to ? Will it accept PoE ?

That would be a big determining factor of the type of media converter that you choose to , because not all media converters have power ethernet built into them . Some of them are just a direct network connect out . So determining whether PoE is a factor , that's another question that you would want to make sure and answer .

And then , on the cabling side , if we just touch on that briefly , is this going in conduit ? Is it going to be direct burial ? What kind of connectors do you need ? Nine times out of ten and you've probably seen this is most SFPs transceivers are LC connectors , so that's a good thing to make sure that they match that up properly .

So the connection to the media converter itself , the connectors on the fiber optic cable that you're connecting , those need to be the same type of connector , obviously , lc being the most common . So those are some questions that you would kind of determine in terms of helping them figure out what the best media converter would be .

But I think the gigabit are right around that 10 to 15 dollar range when single mode you're looking at 40 to 50 dollars . In terms of what the cost difference is there . And then up from there on the single mode . So , yeah , the reason is you've got a laser versus a VIXL being used .

In terms of the internals , that's a whole other subject you could get into . But the internals of the transceiver itself and what's required to make that function is a lot of times the reasoning for the price difference there . And the cabling itself too .

A lot of times , although I will say single mode cable , the physical cable itself with the connectors , is not really that much difference of a price anymore In comparison yes , signal of cables come down tons , tons .

So what that tells me is Single mode still being used for your long-haul stuff , your backbones between floors , backbones between building stuff like that , and and multi mode still be using for your , your internal stuff right , yeah . So , if I understand you could , I need to ask them what is the interface right ? What is the interface I'm plugging into ?

What are they actually going to be using it for ? Is it a camera , or is it going to be a network or backbone ? And then I then I need to ask them what is their budget ? That way I know whether it's going to be multi motor or single mode .

That's a whole different ballgame because that's now you're interfacing with the service provider . So , yeah , then what a fantastic subject . Man , I I couldn't appreciate you coming on . I mean , I do appreciate you coming there . You go there . You see , just goes to show you Chuck messes up a lot .

He really does , I appreciate you coming on talking about the subject . man , I really do ?

I think fiber optic applications are coming to , to a town near you and so we're continuing to see , and we're continuing to see it more on the smaller end , smaller installer , contractor type applications where they're , where they're doing some of these types of Installations and they need a solution for for some of those really long applications .

I've had a lot who said , you know , hey , can I just use cop , can I just use copper as well ? What's ? You know what's the length and they're like well , it's a hundred fifty feet , absolutely , yep , no problem , I go with copper it because it has , like you said , maybe , maybe maybe what ?

You just got to look at all of the all of the criteria and pick the best media For that application and that might not be the same media as the next application that you're doing . Even though they might be similar , that might be totally different . Yeah , I couldn't agree more .