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Cisco MDS 9500 Series Hardware Installation Guide
OL-17467-02
Chapter 1 Product Overview
Supported Transceivers
Supported Transceivers
The following types of transceivers are available from Cisco and are supported on the Cisco MDS 9500
Series:
• X2 transceivers
• Fibre Channel SFP and SFP+ transceivers, in either SWL or LWL
• Combination Fibre Channel/Gigabit Ethernet SFP transceivers, in either SWL or LWL
• Combination Fibre Channel/Gigabit Ethernet CWDM SFP transceivers, which can be used for
ELWL transmission or for CWDM
• Gigabit Ethernet SFP transceiver, 1-Gbps copper
• Fibre Channel DWDM SFP transceiver, which can be used for ELWL transmission or for DWDM
Note Switches running Cisco MDS SAN-OS Release 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, or NX-OS Release 4.1(1b) support
combination Fibre Channel/Gigabit Ethernet SFP transceivers.
The transceivers are field-replaceable and hot-swappable. You can use any combination of SFP
transceivers that are supported by the switch. The only restrictions are that SWL transceivers must be
paired with SWL transceivers, and LWL transceivers with LWL transceivers, and the cable must not
exceed the stipulated cable length for reliable communications.
For more information about the X2 transceiver, see the “X2 Transceiver Specifications” section on
page D-19.
For more information about a specific Cisco SFP transceiver, see the “SFP and SFP+ Transceiver
Specifications” section on page D-22. SFP transceivers can be ordered separately or with the Cisco MDS
9500 Series.
Note Use only Cisco transceivers in the Cisco MDS 9500 Series. Each Cisco transceiver is encoded with
model information that enables the switch to verify that the transceiver meets the requirements for the
switch.

X2 Transceivers

The X2 transceiver is a small form-factor transceiver optimized for 10-Gbps applications and uses an SC
connector. The X2 transceiver is ideally suited for Ethernet, Fibre Channel and telecom switches, and
standard (PCI) peripheral component interconnect based server and storage connections. The X2
provides robust thermal performance and electromagnetic shielding.
For more information about X2 transceiver specifications, see the “X2 Transceiver Specifications”
section on page D-19.