[AusNOG] 10GBs

[Bob Purdon]

> Grab an optical fibre scope while you're at it. It's amazing how dirty
> your cable ends and recepticals can actually be.

Absolutely - even brand new cables directly out of the manufacturer's
plastic bags can be filthy.  I did have some fibre scope photos of this
somewhere...

> with fibre, the major carrier datacentre operators less so - yes, they
> did it too) as plugging SC cables into SCA recepticals or vice versa.

This..  ..or connectors not properly mated.  High attenuation.  Push.
Click.  Problem solved.

> Have you done optical loss testing? Some network gear can tell you
> directly what your tx and rx power levels are.

Be careful with this - while it can often be a good guide, I have seen
many cases where the diagnostic data says the SFP is transmitting, but
an optical power meter shows nada, zilch, zero, nuffin' (as in no light,
/not/ 0dBm, lol).  ..or the launch level is vastly below what the SFP is
reporting it is.