Typical warranty for generic DWDM transceivers
Dear nanog group We are currently evaluating the use of generic third party optics (SFP+ and XFP) for 40Kms and 80Kms applications from vendors like NHR and Champion One and I was wondering if someone in the group has experience using optics from these vendors. My concern is about quality/reliability. They are suppose to provide lifetime warranty, however as far as I know the life time for DWDM optics is between 3 to 5 years. Could someone share their experience with using generic optics for DWDM applications? Thank you
On 20/08/2013 07:00, Manuel Marín wrote:
Could someone share their experience with using generic optics for DWDM applications?
Not sure what you mean by "generic optics"? If you mean manufactured by Joe's Optics and Fishing Bait company and sold on ebay for special low rates, then the question is: are you in a position to test these units in advance to the extent that you're going to be happy with their reliability? Otherwise why are you trusting your entire business to this? Personally, I'm not in that position, so I buy third party transceivers from a respectable vendor with good quality service. This works very well for me. Cheaper transceivers are only cheaper when you take their lifetime cost into account. If they have quality issues, or cause more downtime, or require more amplification, or cause mobo overheating issues due to poor thermal characteristics, or if you need to spend a lot of time testing and characterising the transceivers before deployment, then they are probably not going to be cheaper. I could buy these transceivers on ebay, but I don't want the hassle of having to deal with links flopping offline and transceivers burning out regularly. No doubt plenty of cheap white-label vendors are completely fine, but I'm not going to invest my time/money or anyone else's time/money in trying to find out which, because for my requirements it's cheaper to do this than to use ebay. Nick
On (2013-08-20 00:00 -0600), Manuel Marín wrote:
We are currently evaluating the use of generic third party optics (SFP+ and XFP) for 40Kms and 80Kms applications from vendors like NHR and Champion One and I was wondering if someone in the group has experience using optics
Neither of these build anything, just resell. When going 3rd party you might want to make sure you know a) who builds the lasers b) who builds the microcontroller c) which software release there is in the microcontroller d) exhaustive spec sheet for each part, not just 'n km' but dispersion tolerance, temperature range, minimum/maximum light levels etc, spread (especially in DWDM) And you might want to ensure in your contract that as long as you are using given SKU to order part, you are always getting the same equipment. If you do run into trouble, then you will know exactly which parts are affected. Many brokers shop around and when you order part it's always something different. Now 99% of them will still work, regardless how badly you handle your procurement.
from these vendors. My concern is about quality/reliability. They are suppose to provide lifetime warranty, however as far as I know the life time for DWDM optics is between 3 to 5 years.
We've been rocking DWDM core since 2006 and I can't recall losing single XENPAK. We just this year migrated to new core using flexoptix (eoptolink) 10G DWDM XFP. I had no trouble finding buyer to those 7 year old DWDM XENPAKs.
Could someone share their experience with using generic optics for DWDM applications?
Positive. I actually prefer 3rd party, especially flexoptix, because they provide us very simply to use eeprommer so we can save in sparing and can deliver customers optics on very short notice, which their equipment will experience as original part. With 1st party I'd need to have part for each vendor we use, and each part customer might use, essentially everything. And even more importantly, 1st party often does not sell at all optic I might need, like CWDM or BX. -- ++ytti
On Tue, 20 Aug 2013, Manuel Marín wrote:
We are currently evaluating the use of generic third party optics (SFP+ and XFP) for 40Kms and 80Kms applications from vendors like NHR and Champion One and I was wondering if someone in the group has experience using optics from these vendors.
I am biased. My wife sells 3rd party optics at SubSpace Communications, but I think our data is valuable. She has sold many thousands of optics, all with lifetime warrantys. Many of them to very large and clueful organizations, many of whom are represented here on NANOG. Of those thousands sold, I can count less than 20 that have been returned. I've also worked for VARs in the past, and work with several of them today, selling new OEM branded optics. I've found a MUCH higher percentage of OEM optics having to be returned to the manufacturer. Of course, take my report with a grain of salt. -- Brandon Ross Yahoo & AIM: BrandonNRoss +1-404-635-6667 ICQ: 2269442 Schedule a meeting: https://doodle.com/bross Skype: brandonross
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brandon Ross" <bross@pobox.com>
She has sold many thousands of optics, all with lifetime warrantys. Many of them to very large and clueful organizations, many of whom are represented here on NANOG. Of those thousands sold, I can count less than 20 that have been returned.
I've also worked for VARs in the past, and work with several of them today, selling new OEM branded optics. I've found a MUCH higher percentage of OEM optics having to be returned to the manufacturer.
Of course, take my report with a grain of salt.
Not at all: No one is gonna stop buying Cisco cause a Cisco optic died. Third-party manufacturers don't have that built in cushion, so it's not unreasonable that they might pay the higher degree of attention to reliability that your off-the-cuff statistics imply. You do want to go third-party, though, not fourth-party or below. :-) Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274
participants (5)
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Brandon Ross -
Jay Ashworth -
Manuel Marín -
Nick Hilliard -
Saku Ytti