A gigabit interface converter (GBIC) is a standard for
transceiver
In radio communication, a transceiver is an electronic device which is a combination of a radio ''trans''mitter and a re''ceiver'', hence the name. It can both transmit and receive radio waves using an antenna, for communication purposes. Thes ...
s, first defined in 1995 and commonly used with
Gigabit Ethernet
In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use ...
and
Fibre Channel for some time. By offering a standard,
hot swap
Hot swapping is the replacement or addition of components to a computer system without stopping, shutting down, or rebooting the system; hot plugging describes the addition of components only. Components which have such functionality are sai ...
pable electrical interface, a single gigabit port can support a wide range of physical media, from copper to long-wave
single-mode optical fiber
In fiber-optic communication, a single-mode optical fiber (SMF), also known as fundamental- or mono-mode, is an optical fiber designed to carry only a single mode of light - the transverse mode. Modes are the possible solutions of the Helmholtz ...
, at lengths of hundreds of kilometers.
A smaller variation of the GBIC called the
small form-factor pluggable transceiver
Small Form-factor Pluggable connected to a pair of fiber-optic cables
Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) is a compact, hot-pluggable network interface module format used for both telecommunication and data communications applications. An SF ...
(SFP), also known as mini-GBIC, has the same functionality but in a smaller form factor.
Announced in 2001, it largely made the GBIC obsolete.
Appeal
The appeal of the GBIC standard (and
hot-swappable transceivers in general) in networking equipment, as opposed to fixed physical interface configurations, is its flexibility. Where multiple different optical technologies are in use, an administrator can purchase GBICs as needed, not in advance, and they can be the specific type needed for each link. This lowers the cost of the base system and gives the administrator far more flexibility. On the other hand, if a switch will mostly have one port type (especially if that port type is copper) purchasing a switch with that port type built in will be cheaper and take up less space per port.
Standards
The GBIC standard is non-proprietary and is defined by the
Small Form Factor committee
The Small Form Factor Committee (SFF) is an ''ad hoc'' electronics industry group formed to quickly develop interoperability specifications (as a complement to the traditional standards process).
The SFF Committee was formed in 1990 to define the ...
in document number 8053i.
The first publication of the proposal was in November 1995. A few corrections and additions were made through September 2000. Robert Snively of
Brocade Communications
Brocade is an American technology company specializing in storage networking products, now a subsidiary of Broadcom Inc. The company is known for its Fibre Channel storage networking products and technology. Prior to the acquisition, the compa ...
was technical editor. Original contributors were
AMP Incorporated,
Compaq Computers,
Sun Microsystems, and Vixel Corporation.
References
{{Ethernet
Hot-swappable transceiver