Converting A Qsfp Or Qsfp+ Port To An Sfp Or Sfp+ Port - Dell C9000 Series Networking Configuration Manual

• The range of port numbers on a 40G port to be split is 0 to 20.
To verify port splitting, use the show system linecard {0–11} fanout {count | configure}
command.
• The quad port must be in a default configuration before you can split it into 4x10G ports. The 40G port
is lost in the configuration when the port is split; be sure that the port is also removed from other L2/L3
feature configurations.
Converting a QSFP or QSFP+ Port to an SFP or
SFP+ Port
You can convert a QSFP or QSFP+ port to an SFP or SFP+ port using the Quad to Small Form Factor
Pluggable Adapter (QSA).
QSA provides smooth connectivity between devices that use Quad Lane Ports (such as the 40 Gigabit
Ethernet adapters) and 10 Gigabit hardware that uses SFP+ based cabling. Using this adapter, you can
effectively use a QSFP or QSFP+ module to connect to a lower-end switch or server that uses an SFP or SFP+
based module.
When connected to a QSFP or QSFP+ port on a 40 Gigabit adapter, QSA acts as an interface for the SFP or
SFP+ cables. This interface enables you to directly plug in an SFP or SFP+ cable originating at a 10 Gigabit
Ethernet port on a switch or server.
You can use QSFP optical cables (without a QSA) to split a 40 Gigabit port on a switch or a server into four 10
Gigabit ports. You must enable the fan-out mode in order for this mechanism to work.
Similarly, you can enable the fan-out mode to configure the QSFP port on a device to act as an SFP or SFP+
port. As the QSA enables a QSFP or QSFP+ port to be used as an SFP or SFP+ port, Dell Networking OS does
not immediately detect the QSA after you insert it into a QSFP port cage.
After you insert an SFP or SFP+ cable into a QSA connected to a 40 Gigabit port, Dell Networking OS assumes
that all the four fanned-out 10 Gigabit ports have plugged-in SFP or SFP+ optical cables. However, the link UP
event happens only for the first 10 Gigabit port and you can use only that port for data transfer. As a result,
only the first fanned-out port is identified as the active 10 Gigabit port with a speed of 10G or 1G depending
on whether you insert an SFP+ or SFP cable respectively.
NOTE: Although it is possible to configure the remaining three 10 Gigabit ports, the Link UP event does
not occur for these ports leaving the lanes unusable. Dell Networking OS perceives these ports to be in a
Link Down state. You must not try to use these remaining three 10 Gigabit ports for actual data transfer or
for any other related configurations.
NOTE: Trident2 chip sets do not work at 1G speeds with auto-negotiation enabled. As a result, when you
peer any device using SFP, the link does not come up if auto-negotiation is enabled. Therefore, you must
disable auto-negotiation on platforms that currently use Trident2 chip sets (9000 series). This limitation
applies only when you convert QSFP to SFP using the QSA. This constraint does not apply for QSFP to SFP
+ conversions using the QSA.
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