What is the difference between an RJ45 port and an SFP port on a switch?
As we all know, Gigabit Ethernet switches generally have two types of ports: RJ45 ports and SFP ports, and both types of ports are capable of Gigabit Ethernet transmission, so what is the difference between them? Which port of Gigabit Ethernet switch should be used to realize Gigabit Ethernet connection? This article will answer all the questions for you.
What is an RJ45 port on a Gigabit Ethernet switch?
The RJ45 port on a Gigabit Ethernet switch is a built-in port, and this type of port can be used for server access, LAN, and desktop switch uplink or Gigabit-to-desktop bandwidth applications in a data center. Standard twisted-pair cables such as Category 5, Ultra 5, Category 6, and Ultra 6 network patch cords are typically used when two Gigabit Ethernet switches are connected.
What is an SFP port on a Gigabit Ethernet switch?
SFP ports (small hot-swappable interfaces), also known as mini-GBIC ports, have a transmission rate of 1G and can support either copper or optical links (in Ethernet, the SFP port rate is 1Gbit/s, and in Fibre Channel systems, the SFP port rate can be up to 4Gbit/s). When an electrical port module is plugged into an SFP port, it is usually connected to it with a network cable (Cat5/Cat5e/Cat6) for data transmission. When the optical port module is inserted into the SFP port, it needs to be transmitted with LC patch cables for longer distance transmission. In addition, in applications such as data centers and local area networks (LANs), the switch's SFP ports have 100/1000Mbps adaptive functions.
Diagram of RJ45 and SFP port connection of Gigabit Ethernet switch
The following figure shows the examples of RJ45 connection and SFP connection of Gigabit Ethernet switch, where the left side is the SFP connection of UniFi switch, and the right side is the RJ45 connection of UniFi switch.The SFP connection requires the use of two SFP electrical port modules and a Category 5 cable, or the use of two SFP optical port optical modules and a fiber optic patch cable; whereas, the RJ45 connection requires the use of only one Category 5 cable will do.
RJ45 Ports VS SFP Ports
From the above, the performance of RJ45 ports and SFP ports is basically the same; however, from the cost point of view, the cabling cost of SFP ports is a bit higher. Nevertheless, SFP ports are still necessary because they can support both SFP electrical port modules and SFP optical port modules, and the transmission distance when using SFP optical port modules is farther than that of RJ45 ports, which provides higher flexibility and scalability in practical applications.
