As we know, SFP+ and QSFP+ transceiver module and fiber optic cables bring to people a wide variety of high density and low power 40 Gigabit, 10Gigabit, 1 Gigabit, and 100 Megabit Ethernet connectivity options over fiber or copper media.
The example of 40G QSFP module will bring us to have knowledge of it. In 40G QSFP module data sheet, we can see that QSFP 40G SR4 break out in a 4 x 10 G mode for interoperability with 10Gbase sr interfaces up to 100m and 150m on OM4 and OM3 cables respectively, in another word, if i connect Nexus 55772UP equipped with “six true QSFP ports” to Nexus 7706 using QSFP 40G SR4 on the side of 5572UP, and 4 x cisco SFP 10G SR on the side of 7706 Somehow, i think that this is not impossible, but someone thinks that there are fiber optic cables with 40G interface on one side and 4 x 10G SFP (LC connector) on the other side. We can breakout the single 40G port into 4 separate 10 G ports and use a QSFP to 4 LC breakout cable to link one or more of 10G ports to the 7706.
In fact, Cisco QSFP 40G SR4 module supports link lengths of 100m and 150m, respectively, on laser optimized OM3 and OM4 multimode fibers. It primarily enables high bandwidth 40G optical links over 12 fiber parallel fiber terminated with MPO/MTP multifiber connectors. It can be used in a 4 x 10G mode for interoperability with 10Gbase sr interfaces up yo 100m and 150m for OM4 and OM3 cables, respectively. The worry free 4 x 10G mode operation is enabled by the optimization of the transmit and receive optical characteristic of the Cisco QSFP 40G SR4 to prevent receiver overload or unnecessary triggering of alarm thresholds on the 10Gbase SR receiver, at the same time being fully interoperable with all standard 40Gbase sr4 interfaces. 4 x 10G connectivity is achieved using an external 12 fiber parallel to 2 fiber duplex breakout cable, which connects the 40GBASE SR4 module to four 10GBASE SR optical interfaces. Cisco QSFP 40G SR4 is optimized to guarantee interoperability with any IEEE 40GBASE SR4 and 10GBASE SR (in 4 X10G modes).
The transceiver consists of parallel electric and optical products along with both transmitter and receiver functions as a single module. It is designed to be compliant to IEEE 802.3-2012 for 40G SR4 over 100 m of OM3 multimode fiber at a rate of 41.25 Gbps. This transceiver module has an option to work with four independent SFP 10G SR, IEEE 802.3 Clause 52 Compatible 10 G transceivers through an MPO-to-LC breakout cable (compliant at 100 m over 50 μm OM3 fiber). The transceiver is also fully compliant with the QSFP+ MSA specification SFF-8436 Shown at the Figure.
To support a good increasing range of 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet applications, Fiberstore offers many qsfp transceiver types, each optimized for a different media and distance reach (LR4, PLRL4, 40G SR4, XSR4, CR4, CR, SRL, SR, LRL, LR, ER, ZR, and DWDM). Additionally, fiber SFP+ ports also support 3 Gigabit Ethernet SFP transceiver types for single mode fiber, multimode fiber, as well as Cat 5 copper cable.