Questions about the Transceiver Support of HP 3ComRebadged Switches

There are always some problems needed to be solved due to rebadged. Here are two questions about thetransceiver support of HP 3Com rebadged switches. Thanks to the people who gave out the answers.

Question 1: I am a little confused regarding 10-GbE SFP+ Transceiver Support on older 3Com/HP 4800G SwitchSeries. HP lists several X130 SFP+ Transceivers as compliant with the 3Com/HP 4800G Switch line. According toall information I found until now, SFP+ is NOT backward compatible to SFP. The original, Comware-based,4800G Switch Series has definitely no SFP+ ports, only SFP. HP may have changed this in more recent modelrevision like the HP 5500 EI Switch Series. But the original 4800G Switch Series has clearly no SFP+. How canHP list therefore here these HP X130 SFP+ Transceivers as compliant to the 3Com 4800G Switch Series?

The 3Com 4800G and HP 5500-EI switchs are very similar, only difference seems to be support for PoE+ and themuch more powerful power supply (up to 740W) at the HP 5500-EI. Interestingly, this (JD368B) HP 5500/5120,2-port, 10GbE SFP+ Module is NOT listed at the HP 4800G accessories product page. It is listed only at HP 5500-EI accessories page.

BUT, if you click there on it, a window opens, and you will see that the 4800G (and others) will be yet listed! Veryconfusing and incomprehensible, why it is listed here as compatible but not at the HP 4800G accessories productpage? It's probably listed because you can add a 10GbE SFP+ module to the back of the 4800G. I'm trying to findout who the Product Manager is to confirm. I'll also take a look at one of mine in the lab.

According to the HP Accessory list, HP 4500G Switch Series Accessories the only options available for the 4500and 4800 switches are 10Gb XFP and LCM modules and one 1GbE SFP module (such as HP transceiverJD119B, JD089B, etc.). I was in touch with the product manager this week and there is no SFP+ version available.He also told me that the 4800G and its options have been end of life for years but we still continue to supportthem. The page could have been written better to make the accessory list more clear.

Tips: 3Com 4800G is the same as HP A5500-EI. It's also mentioned within the release notes. Also you can try itout yourself. Type "brand h3c" on the switch and reboot. After that you'll have an H3C S5500-EI switch. If youwant to stack an 3Com 4800G switch with an HP E4800G switch you have to "brand hp" the 3Com devices. That'salso mentioned within the release notes. Talking about 10Gb fiber. If you want to use SFP+ optics, you have toinstall the SFP+ modules first. I use those for my 4800G switches. Before HP A5500EI family, there were another2 product families, i.e 3Com 4800G and H3C S5500EI, shipped to market. All of these three product families havesame hardware and software specification except brand.

Question 2: I have two HP ProCurve JE005A V1910 switches installed in two offices. These two office are in thesame building 70 meters apart, but the work enviroment has heavy Electro-Magnetic Interference (EMI). So I wantto use a fiber connection to link them up rather than a stand Ethernet cable. I have done some research and foundthat the SX module are more than sufficient. What I can not understand is what is the difference between theJ4858C and JD118B HP SFP modules.

So what is the difference between J4858C and JD118B for the JE005A? The J4858C is what was the traditionalProCurve branded part, the JD118B the former 3Com one. Some of the switches only work with branded SFPs:generally you can use a ProCurve part in a 3Com switch but not always the other way round. Unless you arekeeping a common pool of spares or similar, it doesn't matter which you use.

As HP JE005A V1910 switch is a new prodcut (as in just bought, a V1910 is one of the rebadged 3Com models),would the J4858C be the way to go for best compatability? To create a fiber link, do I need both adapters on bothswitches or just one each? The answer is that one (at each end) of either would be fine.

These are small problems but a lot of people are influenced. As there are much more other problems of brandsrebadged among HP, 3Com and H3C etc., and considering about the expensive transceivers, more and more usersbegin to choose generic compatible transceiver modules which can really replace the position of original ones.