eSFP-LH80-SM1491

eSFP-LH80-SM1491 is an enhanced small form-factor pluggable module, operating at 1491 nm over a rated reach of 80 km. It is the part that turns electrical signals into light at one end of a fibre and back at the other, and it is the component most often got wrong on an order, because two modules can look identical and be entirely incompatible.

It is a multi-rate module, specified from 100 Mbit/s to 2.67 Gbit/s. That flexibility is useful: one part number covers several services, which cuts the number of spares you have to hold. It also means the module alone does not tell you what rate a port is running at, so check the port configuration rather than inferring it from the optics.

The number that decides whether this will actually work: the optical power budget. Transmit power is 0 to 5 dBm and receiver sensitivity is -28 dBm, so the budget is 0 minus -28, which is 28 dB. That is the total loss the path can have before the link stops working. Over 80 km of standard single-mode fibre at this wavelength, at roughly 0.22 dB per kilometre, the fibre itself accounts for about 17.6 dB. That leaves around 10.4 dB for connectors, splices, patch panels and ageing, which is a comfortable design.

The same figure carries a warning in the other direction. A module with this much output is built to reach a long way, and putting it on a short link can overload the receiver: too much light damages the error rate as surely as too little, and in the worst case it shortens the receiver’s life. If you are using a long-reach module over a few hundred metres, which happens whenever a spare gets pressed into service, fit a fixed attenuator.

This is a single-mode module and needs single-mode fibre. It will not work usefully over multimode, and the reverse is also true, so the fibre type has to be confirmed rather than assumed, particularly inside buildings where both are often present in the same riser.

The optical connector is LC. Worth confirming against the patch leads already on site.

The OSN 8800 has been succeeded by the OSN 9800. Worth saying plainly: this is a previous-generation platform, and new Huawei optical development goes into the 9800. It is also one of the most widely deployed optical transport platforms in the world, which is exactly why parts for it are still bought. Networks built on it are still carrying traffic and still need spares and expansion.

So if you are extending an existing 8800 network, this is the right family and a 9800 part is not, because the shelves are not interchangeable. If you are building something new, ask about the 9800 instead. Huawei publishes no end-of-support date for the 8800 outside a logged-in account, so treat any date you are quoted for it with suspicion.

One UK rule worth knowing about, and who it actually binds. Under the UK’s Designated Vendor Direction, designated public telecoms providers, meaning the large operators running public networks, were required to stop using Huawei high data rate transmission equipment in their core networks from 31 December 2025, a date that has now passed, and must remove Huawei from their 5G networks entirely by 31 December 2027.

If you are one of those operators, that is the governing fact about this product and nothing here changes it. If you are not, and most buyers of transmission hardware are not, the Direction does not apply to you and there is no UK legal barrier to buying or running this equipment. It is narrowly scoped to designated providers and public networks. Worth stating plainly, because it gets quoted as though it were a blanket ban, and it is not.

One thing to raise before you order. Huawei transmission equipment generally expects Huawei-coded optics, and a module without the right vendor coding may be refused outright or raise a persistent alarm even when it is electrically identical to the correct part. We supply coded modules for that reason. Tell us the platform, the port, the fibre you have and the distance, and we will confirm this is the right module or point you at the one that is.

Green Code Technologies supplies Huawei optical modules alongside the transmission equipment they fit. We are a supplier of Huawei alongside HPE, Dell, Cisco, Samsung and Netgear, and we would rather confirm a part against Huawei’s own documentation than sell you the wrong one, which on OSN 8800 equipment is worth doing. Send us the platform and port at each end, the fibre you have and the distance and we will come back with a straight answer.