Pluggable interfaces are small, hot-swappable, managed port interface modules that provide physical layer (copper or fiber) signaling for data, voice, storage and video transport networks.

Pluggable Solutions & Applications

MRV provides pluggable interfaces for a wide variety of applications from Enterprise to Carrier, from campus to Metro:

The primary application for SFP, GBIC, and XFP technology is in media conversion applications. Here, we see various protocols converted from copper to fiber, or multimode to single-mode fiber with the same physical infrastructure. The use of SFPs simplifies the design and dramatically reduces on-hand spares inventory, providing a major cap-ex and op-ex savings to the customer.

Distance Extension

Another key application for SFPs is in distance extension. Here we see an SFP-based signal regenerator extending fiber optic cabling to long distances for very low cost. With 3-R signal regeneration the number of hops in a Gigabit Ethernet network is virtually unlimited, and SONET/SDH networks can be extended for long distances as well. MRV provides a range of single-mode pluggable optical interfaces to enable the

Redundant Link Networks



The MRV EM316-DMR, together with SFP copper and optical interfaces provides a fully redundant link between two systems, both on the host side and on the long-distance data side. This feature can be used to provide resiliency for mission-critical links between buildings for disaster recovery, or non-stop networking.

Pluggable WDM

SFPs provide an extremely powerful, low cost and flexible WDM system. Since SFPs come in each CWDM wavelength, a full WDM system is easy to construct using the media converter or cross-connect systems for any protocol.

For Ethernet WDM, MRV provides a powerful eWDM solution, where SFP or GBIC optics with CWDM wavelengths plug directly into OptiSwitch modules designed for WDM use. This allows a truly simple-to-configure WDM system for sending large amounts of Ethernet data over a few fiber optic cables.

Pluggable TDM/WDM

MRV provides powerful TDM/WDM solutions using pluggable interfaces. This example shows the Fiber Driver-LD series with 4x ESCON TDM multiplexing and 2x Gigabit Ethernet TDM multiplexing on a WDM ring. These multiplexer modules use an SFP 'uplink' slot, and since SFPs come in each CWDM wavelength, only Add/Drop Multiplexers are required to complete the WDM system.

Multi-Protocol Solutions



This example shows the power of multi-protocol SFPs. Here, a single device, the SFP Media Connect is used to provide media conversion and wavelength conversion for SONET, Ethernet and Fibre Channel. Each port on the media connect system operates a different protocol, as determined by the SFP. The power of this solution is in the ability to use a very simple set of base units, and configure virtually any type of network simply by connecting the appropriate SFP interface.

Reconfigurable Networks

This example shows a Wave Division Multiplexing configuration in a campus environment. Here there are 4 wavelengths between buildings. The media cross-connect is used to reconfigure which switches, routers, or storage equipment makes use of these wavelengths. Here, the network can be programmed to use 3 Gbps for Ethernet and 1 Gbps for storage during business hours, and use 3 Gbps for storage and 1 Gbps for data during the data-backup operations on nights and weekends.