It’s not even quite that simple. Mikrotik is referencing their own tranceivers here. The thermal and electrical properties of compatible 3rd party optics vary wildly. Here’s some examples from fs.com which is probably one of the best providers of 3rd party compatible optics. Much better brand reputation when compared to 10G Tek and others. It’s used by real enterprises (including 1st party iXSystems hardware, I have an M50)
Entering the world of 1st party optics isn’t even straight forward. A typical Cisco 40G short range OPTICAL transceiver can use wildly differant power. As an example, if you want to use a 40G-SR4 which uses an MPO connector, it’ll draw 1.5W
Entering the new world of 25-gig and 100-gig have their own challenges as well, so it’s not even isolated to “older tech”.
In summary:
From an engineering perspective, vendor locks prevent the uninitiated from doing something inherently wrong. Of course, the marketing and sales teams have made it to be a cash grab. If you know what you’re doing, tho, you can very easily “get around them”. Even beyond buying 3rd party optics that “lie” and say they are first party, as in the FS,com ones, you can even apply software changes: Force a Cisco Switch to Use Non-Cisco SFP Modules | NetworkProGuide
I also used to really enjoy referring to fiber as 62.5 micron or 50 micron rather than OM*. My network engineer would get so mad.
When I finally convinced him to use an LRM instead of an SR, and it fixed the problem, he stopped complaining. Fun fact, LRM (long-range multimode) are “technically rated” for a shorter distance than an SR (short-range). But it’s because of the type of fiber its rated for Such is life in a world with 30 year old cable plants lol
There’s at least the same “no contiguous slots” for the CRS309. Basic cooling.
And anyway 10GBase-T is only a valid solution to integrate a lone copper device or two into an optical network. For anything more, just get a copper switch, or one with a suitable mix of Base-T and SFP+!
For wavelengths in particular since you asked, all optics in networking use some form of Infrared or Near-Infrared light. Somewhere between 800nm-1400nm depending on the specific transceiver. SRs are 850nm.
Fun fact, you can see the LED shine through a fiber cable with your eyes in SRs (though I don’t recommend looking directly at it). This is because it’s on the edge of the visible spectrum. You cannot see the light emitted in most other types of optics tho.
Because physics, and the properties of how light bounces around, there are practical implications in using various diameters of the glass core in a fiber cable
I am not a scientist, so I can summarize it thusly;
If you’re stuck in a wonderland of old OM1, or even OM2, use an LRM (not an LR, an LRM). If you’ve got OM1, make sure the core diamater of your cabling is all 62.5 or use a Mode Conditioning cable e.g. 1m (3ft) LC-LC Mode Conditioning Fiber Optic Patch Cable - FS.com
Ranges greater than a couple hundred meters should use OS2 single mode. You should not use an SR in single mode fiber plants.
Such is life in a world with 30 year old cable plants lol
