Enter for the full results page · Esc to close
13 side-by-side comparisons of the decisions that actually come up when you specify optical networking. Every one ends with a recommendation by deployment scenario — not a table and a shrug — and links to the calculator that settles the arithmetic.
Which package, which electronics, and who you buy it from.
Eight lanes either way — the real difference is thermal headroom versus backward compatibility.
Read the comparison →Modules & Form FactorsFour different ways to stop burning so much power moving bits between the switch ASIC and the fibre.
Read the comparison →Modules & Form FactorsThe optics are built to the same standards. What differs is the price, the coding and how much testing sits behind the part.
Read the comparison →Same speed, different physics: which reach class the link actually needs.
Same 400 gigabits, three different reaches — and three completely different cabling bills.
Read the comparison →Optical Variants & ReachFour 100G options separated by fibre type, fibre count and how far you actually need to go.
Read the comparison →Optical Variants & ReachEighteen coarse channels, twelve semi-cooled ones or forty-odd dense ones — and what each costs in modules, filters and operational complexity.
Read the comparison →Copper, active copper, active optical or a pair of transceivers.
The passive side: glass grade, connector, polarity and polish.
A nine-micron core or a fifty-micron one — and why the cheaper fibre is often the more expensive decision.
Read the comparison →Fibre Plant & ConnectorsTwo of these differ by distance. The third differs by something else entirely — and it is widely mis-sold.
Read the comparison →Fibre Plant & ConnectorsLegacy plant was built in twelves. Modern optics come in eights and sixteens. The arithmetic does not work.
Read the comparison →Fibre Plant & ConnectorsEight degrees of angle, ten decibels of return loss, and one mistake that destroys both ferrules.
Read the comparison →How the cluster or the span is put together.
Lossless by design, lossless by configuration, or not lossless at all — and what each choice costs you.
Read the comparison →Fabrics & TransportCoherent transport in a router port, coherent transport with extensions, or a transponder shelf that does it properly.
Read the comparison →Tell us what is at each end and how far apart they are. We will tell you what we would ship and why.