SFP products, and their variants including direct attach cables (DAC), active optical cables (AOC), and descendants including QSFP modules and cables, all have an EEPROM chip that contains a selection of information about the product’s characteristics. This EEPROM chip is read by the host device when first installed, so that device, whether it be a switch, server or other networkable appliance, can correctly operate it’s new network connection.
The EEPROM’s data format is specified by the IEEE MSA (multi-source agreement) so that inter-vendor operability is possible, although there are specific bytes of data that are reserved for specific vendor information. A lot of big vendors use this area to store specific information relevant to only their products, and thus can lock out other vendor’s SFP products that do not contain this specific data, effectively forcing users to buy that vendor’s own SFP products even if there are cheaper and equally performant and reliable products on the market. We’ve discussed this issue in a previous blog post.
Advance code our product’s EEPROM according to your specific vendor requirements, ensuring compatibility and avoiding scary error messages about “unapproved”, “unqualified” and “unrecognised” products, that in effect are nothing but the host vendor saying shame on you for not buying more from us.
All our products are individually coded and tested to ensure compatibility with a wide range of vendors, and we can even code attach cables for mixed vendor environments, where each end of the cable is coded for a different brand of switch. We also went into more detail about this in a blog post.
Advance are confident in our ability to correctly code our products for a range of vendors, that we guarantee our products will operate in your environment, or your money back! It is always best to check with us if your specific vendor is not listed on our product pages first, and we can advise if your exact requirement is achievable.
