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Cisco ME 3400 Series Switches Cabling Details

Updated on May 4, 2023 by
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The Cisco ME 3400 Series switches are specially designated for access layer in Metro Ethernet. That’s why there is “ME” (shorten for “Metro Ethernet”) in the model number of this series of Cisco switches. In Metro Ethernet environment, users are connected to the normal switch port of the access switches and the uplink ports of the switch are connected to the Metro Ethernet backbone infrastructure. Users in this situation cannot be trusted and direct traffic between user switch ports should not be allowed in most cases. However, armed with User Network Interface (UNI is the interface that faces the subscriber) and Network Node Interface (NNI is the interface that faces the service provide network), Cisco ME 3400 switches are protected in this environment. By labeling each port as UNI or NNI, the software can optimize each port for the role, providing Metro Ethernet market to simplify deployment, management, and trouble shooting.

Cisco ME 3400 Switch

FS Test Assured Program

Cisco ME 3400 Series Switches Ports and Cabling

Except the above mentioned advantages of security and simplicity in network, Cisco ME 3400 Series switches can also provide flexible configurations when connected to the telecommunication network. This is decided by the ports on the Cisco ME 3400 series switches. Although Cisco ME 3400 series switches have a variety of configurations, according to the form factor of the ports, there are mainly three types of ports used to connect to the network. They are RJ45 Ethernet port, SFP module port and dual-purpose port, which can support data rate ranging from 10M to 1000M (1 Gigabit). Cisco ME 3400 Series switches include several different modules and each of the has different ports to fit the various market needs. The following table shows the detailed port information.

Switch Model Port Information
Cisco ME 3400-24TS-AC 24 10/100 FastEthernet ports and 2 SFP module ports, AC power
Cisco ME 3400-24TS-DC 24 10/100 FastEthernet ports and 2 SFP module ports, DC power
Cisco ME-3400-24FS-A 24 100BASE-FX SFP module ports and 2 Gigabit Ethernet SFP module ports, AC power
Cisco ME 3400G-12CS-AC 12 dual-purpose ports and 4 SFP module ports, AC power
Cisco ME 3400G-12CS-DC 12 dual-purpose ports and 4 SFP module ports, DC power
Cisco ME 3400G-2CS 2 dual-purpose ports and 2 SFP module ports, AC power

RJ45 Ports and Cabling

The RJ45 Ethernet ports of Cisco ME 3400 switches are based on copper cables and can be connected with 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, or 1000-BASE-T devices. These ports can configure themselves to operate at the speed of attached devices from 10 M, 100M to 1000M. If the attached ports do not support autonegotiation, the specific speed and duplex parameters can be explicitly adjusted to fit the applications. The above picture shows Cisco ME 3400 RJ45 port connection.

Cisco ME 3400 RJ45 port connection

SFP Ports and Cabling

The SFP module ports of Cisco ME 3400 switches could be based on fiber optic or copper, which means it can be connected by fiber optic cable or copper cable. For a fiber optic connection, a fiber optic SFP module should be plugged in the SFP port firstly, then one end of fiber optic cable with fiber optic connector (usually LC connector) should be inserted into the interface of the SFP module (shown in the above picture). Then insert the other cable end into a fiber optic connector on the target device. When the status LED of the port turns green a fiber optic link is established. If the connection is based copper cable, copper SFP module and copper cable attached with RJ45 connectors should be used to link the switch and target device. In addition, two Cisco ME 3400 switches could be connected with SFP module patch cable (as shown in the following picture).

Cisco ME 3400 SFP port connection using fiber optic cable

Dual-Purpose Ports and Cabling

The connections of RJ45 and SFP ports on Cisco ME 3400 series switches has little difference from the other switches. Just following the accepted principle, fiber optic connection and copper connection can be established. Here is to introduce a special port type of Cisco ME 3400 switch—dual-purpose port, which provides great flexibility when connecting Cisco ME switches to the target devices. As show in the port information chart of Cisco ME series switches, only Cisco ME 3400G-12CS-DC/AC and Cisco ME 3400G-2CS have such kind of port. The following picture shows part of the Cisco ME 3400G-12CS dual-purpose ports. The Cisco ME3400G-2CS switch dual-purpose ports are similar to those shown in this section.

Cisco ME 3400 dual-purpose port information

The biggest advantage of Cisco ME 3400-2CS/12CS is that these dual-purpose ports on the switches can be configured as either 10/100/1000M ports or as SFP module ports according to the needs. The switch dynamically selects the media type for each dual port (10/100/1000BASE-T or SFP). When a link is achieved on one media type, the switch disables the other media type until the active link goes down. If links are active on both media, the SFP module port has priority. The following picture shows both fiber optic cable and copper cables connection with Cisco ME 3400G-12CS via dual-purpose ports. For the RJ45 ports, RJ45 connector and copper cable are used. For the SFP ports, both fiber optic connection and copper connection can be achieved by using fiber optic SFP module and copper SFP module separately.

Cisco ME 3400 dual-purpose ports connection details

Cabling Solution of Cisco ME 3400 Series Switches

The Cisco ME 3400 series switches can be connected to a variety devices and provide both fiber optic and copper connections with security and flexibility. Thus, customers might be confused about which types of cable and modules should be chosen when connecting Cisco ME 3400 switches to the target devices. To solve this problem, the following table offers the details information about Cisco ME 3400 series switches cabling. All the fiber optic or copper modules and cables are provided in Fiberstore (FS.com). All these modules are Cisco compatible and are full tested to ensure the quality and compatibility. Kindly conntact sale@fs.com or visit FS.com for more detailed information, if you are interested.

Port Type Data Rate Connectors/Modules & Cables
RJ45 Ports 10BASE-T ports RJ-45 connectors, two-pair Cat 3, 4, or 5 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP)
100BASE-TX ports RJ-45 connectors, two-pair Cat 5 UTP
SFP Ports 100M GLC-GE-100FX LC duplex, MMF
GLC-FE-100FX
GLC-FE-100EX LC duplex, SMF
GLC-FE-100ZX
GLC-FE-100LX
GLC-FE-100BX-D LC simplex, SMF
GLC-FE-100BX-U
1000M (1G) GLC-SX-MM LC duplex, MMF
GLC-SX-MMD
SFP-GE-S
GLC-EX-SMD LC duplex, SMF
GLC-LH-SM
GLC-ZX-SM
GLC-ZX-SMD
GLC-LH-SMD
SFP-GE-Z
SFP-GE-L
CWDM SFP
DWDM SFP
GLC-BX-U LC simplex, SMF
GLC-BX-D
GLC-TA RJ-45, Cat 5
GLC-T
SFP-GE-T

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