In the process of using industrial Ethernet switches, people often come into contact with SFP and Combo ports. So, what are these two ports in industrial switches? What is the difference between the SFP port of the Industrial Ethernet switch and the Combo port? Next, let’s follow JHA TECH to understand it!

SFP port is a subset of Gigabit Ethernet port. When SFP port uses optical fiber Gigabit link, it is Gigabit Ethernet port ; In an Ethernet switch, the link layer uses one protocol for both electrical and optical ports. The only difference is the physical layer, that is, what medium is used; SFP is a description of the physical layer.

Combo generally refers to photoelectric multiplexing. That is to say, only one of the two ports (one light and one electricity is regarded as a set of Combo) can be used at the same time, for example, the electrical port cannot be used when light is used. The SFP module is plugged into the optical port of the industrial Ethernet switch. After plugging in, it can communicate through the optical fiber and the port where the SFP module is also plugged in at the opposite end, without the need for optical fiber transceiver conversion.

Industrial Ethernet switches are simple to use, just plug in the corresponding ports, so it is necessary to understand what the SFP port and the Combo port are.