In our conversations with customers and in various articles and forums over the past year, there is a widespread perception that upgrading networks to 10Gbps is an expensive proposition. While on a per port basis 10G is more expensive than 1G, the gap is closing…FAST! Over the past four years the average price of a 10Gbps transceiver has dropped from over 8X to about 4X the price of a 1Gbps transceiver. So just accounting for the price of the transceivers, if you need interconnection bandwidth of 4Gbps or more, it is less expensive to go 10G than 1G.
Of course there are many other costs to consider in this tradeoff,
- Fiber jumpers – up to a 10:1 reduction
- Rack space – a 10Gbps port is the same size as a 1Gbps, so another up to 10:1 reduction…additional up to 10:1 reduction in patch panel ports, conduit space, etc.
- Power consumption – 10Gbps transceivers consume just under half the power of their 1Gbps counterparts, so a 5:1 reduction in power…and that’s just transceiver power, savings also accrue in number of switches & switch ports.
- Installation (test & turn-up) time – up to 10:1 reduction
- Points-of-failure - up to 10:1 reduction (transceivers and fiber jumpers & connectors)