Finding a matching single-strand BiDi SFP pair for a Cisco Small Business 300 series switch
3
The poster wanted to run a link bidirectionally over one strand of single-mode fiber on a Cisco Small Business 300 series switch. Cisco's SMB catalogue lists the MFEBX1 100 Mb BiDi SFP (transmitting at 1310 nm and receiving at 1550 nm), but the poster could not find a Cisco part number for the complementary module that transmits at 1550 nm and receives at 1310 nm, which is required at the far end of a BiDi link. The question was whether such a partner part exists for the 300 series or whether a third-party module would be the only option.
- Hardware: Cisco Small Business 300 series switch (SG300)
- Transceivers: MFEBX1 (100BASE-BX, TX 1310 nm / RX 1550 nm), MFEBX1-1550 (third-party, TX 1550 nm / RX 1310 nm), GLC-2BX-D
- Form factor: SFP
Symptoms / messages:
no Cisco part number for the 1550 nm-TX partner of the MFEBX1 BiDi SFP
Cisco enterprise BiDi/WDM SFPs not supported on Small Business 300 series switches
Comments 3
A respondent first proposed the GLC-2BX-D compact two-channel 1000BASE-BX10-D SFP, which pairs with two 1000BASE-BX10-U interfaces over two SMF strands up to 10 km, but warned that few Cisco platforms support it and pointed to the Cisco Gigabit Ethernet transceiver compatibility matrix.
The same respondent later suggested searching the enterprise compatibility matrix for WDM modules, but after checking the Cisco MFE/MGE SFP list confirmed that these Cisco BiDi/WDM optics are not supported on the Small Business switches.
The poster found the missing partner as a non-Cisco-branded module: sfpex.com sells an MFEBX1-1550 (the 1550 nm-TX counterpart) in its Linksys section; the respondent added that Cisco-branded BiDi optics exist but will not work in the SMB switches.