Speed Mismatch / Incompatible SFP – Broadcom Fibre Channel issues
Broadcom’s Brocade switches, such as Brocade 300, Brocade G610, Brocade G720, and OEM as IBM SAN64B-6, are widely used in data centers to establish different speed Fibre Channel connections, especially 16G and 32G. As for that, these Brocade FC switches are very particular about the hardware and firmware used, otherwise, the inappropriate transceivers will cause errors and alarms such as the “Speed Mismatch / Incompatible SFP” we will be looking at.
When installing Fibre Channel transceivers of any speed into Brocade switches, the following error might be received:
Faulted due to SFP validation failure. Check if the SFP is valid for the configuration.
This issue has been around before, but with the release of the newest Brocade Fabric OS version, i.e., FOS 9.x, it has become more prevalent.
Looking further into this error, we encounter the following alarm:
In CLI:
0 0 160000 id N32 Mod_Inv FC "Speed Mismatch / Incompatible SFP"LDIn GUI:
Health FAULTY
Additional Port Info Speed Mismatch / Incompatible SFP
In short, as the switch detects an inappropriate transceiver, it sets Port Status to Mod_Inv, Port Health as FAULTY, and displays Speed Mismatch / Incompatible SFP, all of which mean the link cannot be established.
It can be speculated that Brocade switches with FOS 9.x might have specific lookup information tables in their firmware, which permit specific transceivers, hence the transceiver’s coding most probably is not appropriate. Another option could be that the transceivers have incorrect speed settings in their coding, i.e., they are set for Ethernet, not Fibre Channel speeds, but that could be determined only when analyzing the coding itself.
The solution is that the optical modules must be coded with Fibre Channel speeds correctly set in the code and with the appropriate information for the supposed lookup tables in Broadcom’s switches.
Besides that, it is important to make sure that the transceivers used are meant for the respective switch, which can be checked in the Brocade Transceiver Support Matrix. From Broadcom’s datasheet for Brocade Fabric OS 9.x, we can see that FOS 9.x requires a specific speed depending on the platform used:
EDGE Optic offers a variety of 16G and 32G Fibre Channel transceivers, including CWDM and DWDM types, exemplified in the table below:
| Broadcom / Brocade Transceivers | Product Description | EDGE Transceiver |
|---|---|---|
| Brocade® 16Gb/s SWL SFP+ | Double Fiber 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx 850/850nm, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 100m over MMF, 2.7 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | 16GFC-SFP-100 |
| Brocade® 16Gb/s LWL SFP+ | Double Fiber 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx 1310/1310nm, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 10km over SMF, 7 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | 16GFC-SFP-10 |
| Brocade® 16G ELWL SFP+ | Double Fiber 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx 1550/1550nm, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 40km over SMF, 13 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | 16GFC-SFP-40 |
| Brocade® 32Gb/s SWL SFP+ | Double Fiber 32G Fiber Channel SFP28 Module (Tx/Rx 850/850nm, 8.5-28.05 Gbps, Max. 100m over MMF, 1.8 dB, Temp. 0-70C, LC Connector) | 32GFC-SFP28-100 |
| Brocade® 32Gb/s LWL SFP+ | Double Fiber 32G Fiber Channel SFP28 Module (Tx/Rx 1310/1310nm, 8.5-28.05 Gbps, Max. 10km over SMF, 6.4 dB, Temp. 0-70C, LC Connector) | 32GFC-SFP28-10 |
| 16G-ER-Dxxx-BR1 (as CWDM) | CWDM 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx 1270-1610nm, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 20km over SMF, 11 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | CWDM-16GFC-SFP-20-XX |
| 16G-ER-Dxxx-BR1 (as CWDM) | CWDM 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx 1470-1610nm, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 40km over SMF, 13 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | CWDM-16GFC-SFP-40-XX |
| 16G-ER-Dxxx-BR1 (as DWDM) | DWDM 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx Ch. 17 (1563.86 nm)/17-61, ITU Grid: C-Band 100 Ghz, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 20km over SMF, 11 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | DWDM-16GFC-SFP-20-XX |
| 16G-ER-Dxxx-BR1 (as DWDM) | DWDM 16G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx Ch. 17-61, ITU Grid: C-Band 100 Ghz, 4.25-14.025 Gbps, Max. 40km over SMF, 13 dB, Temp. 0-70C) | DWDM-16GFC-SFP-40-XX |
| 32G-IR-DXXX-BR 32G-IR-DxxS-BR | DWDM 32G Fiber Channel SFP+ Module (Tx/Rx Ch. 17-61, ITU Grid: C-Band 100 Ghz, Max. 10km over SMF, Temp. 0-70C) | DWDM-32GFC-SFP28-10-XX |
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