Unsupported transceiver mode

The term transceiver applies collectively to optical transceivers, DAC and AOC cables, and port adapters. The allow-unsupported-transceiver (UT-mode) command allows usage of non-Aruba/HPE transceiver products. Allowing the use of unsupported products in Aruba switches can assist in the initial installation or validation of switching products while you obtain fully supported products.

The term "third-party transceiver" applies to transceiver parts not specifically identified on data sheets or in this guide. Transceivers sold by Aruba for use on other switches/controllers not listed within this guide (for example, transceivers specified for Comware Switches) or sold by HPE for use on HPE Servers or Storage devices are also considered "third-party". This guide indicates the specific transceiver products and minimum software version required for full support. Older generation transceivers may not be fully supported on newer generations of switch models. For questions, contact your Aruba Account Team who can get clarity from Aruba Product Line management.

Using third-party products present these caveats:

• An unsupported transceiver is used by the customer at their own risk.
• Aruba assumes no liability to ensure the proper operation of a product not designed/designated as supported, even from future revisions of AOS-CX firmware.
• No guarantees are implied that a third-party transceiver will continue to work from release to release.
• Third-party transceiver products are not under the control of Aruba, so Aruba has no knowledge of changes in design or consistency and cannot vouch for the quality of the third-party part, nor any assurance that the parts are the same from time to time.

UT-mode is implemented in the following switch series:

• AOS-S 16.02: 5400R, 3810M, 2930M/2930F, 2930, 2920 2540, and 2530 (1G-40G)
  There may be other products that can also run 16.02 switch code, but UT-mode is not extended to those switch series. UT-mode is NOT enabled by default on AOS-S product. You must issue the CLI command for the capability to be allowed.
• AOS-CX 10.05.0001: all AOS-CX Switch Series (1G- to 10G only)
• AOS-CX 10.09.0002: 8360, 8325, 8320, and 10000 (1G to 100G) enabled by default
• AOS-CX 10.10.0002: 8400, 6xxxx Switch Series (1G to 100G) enabled by default
• AOS-CX 10.10.1000: 8100 Switch Series (up to 100G) enabled by default
• AOS-CX 10.11.0001: 9300 32D (40G to 400G) enabled by default

The UT-mode command (particularly on an AOS-Switch) may require an acknowledgment of the support risk before use. An example CLI session may look like this:

Supported vs unsupported

Simply because a part is enabled for use, does not mean that it is "supported".

• Supported products are listed and covered by the terms found on the Product Warranty and Support page.
• Supported products warranty can be extended (beyond the typical warranty) with a Support Contract.
• When it is determined that an issue may involve questionable connectivity using an unsupported transceiver (optics/DACs/AOCs), the Technical Assistance Center (TAC) may ask that you replace the third-party transceiver with a product supported for use with Aruba switches before continuing troubleshooting activities. The support call will be paused until this is done, eliminating the suspicion of the third-party transceiver as a possible issue.
• Even if a product displays a part number as one of the "supported" product part numbers, if the TAC discovers that the part is not a bonafide Aruba or HPE part (that is, a counterfeit or a compatible product), they may elect to halt the support call. Damage to the switch or port would not be covered under warranty.
• The CLI command show interface transceiver detail may display unreliable information (for example, DOM). The accuracy of the electronic information in third-party products is unknown to and not verified by Aruba. The information is reported on a best-effort basis. AOS-CX software may or may not use any information provided by a third-party/unsupported transceiver.

This guide details products that are supported by a switch model or module. In some cases, a particular switch model or module may not have the proper hardware or software support to allow a transceiver technology to work at all. This guide denotes that limitation with a comment about "or any type of technology" - even with UT-mode that type of transceiver most likely will not work. For example: J9152A/J9152D (or any type of 10G LRM technology) is not supported in any 2930F model.

Transceiver products (including DACs and AOCs) have identification information within the product - this information is read when the transceiver is inserted into the switch. Aruba switches use this information to validate whether the part is a "supported" product. If not, it is officially "unsupported" and usually shown as such.

Some considerations for third-party products:

• Do they follow the guidelines agreed upon by Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) vendors? MSA specifications dictate many physical characteristics, but not necessarily the electrical designs. For that reason, a transceiver may work in one switch/module, but not in another due to design differences not taken into consideration for fully supported products.
• Many low-cost products do not properly code the MSA required fields for type, distance, media type among other fields, or they may incorrectly identify the part, causing the switch to enable them with settings not appropriate for the type of transceiver inserted.
• Does the part work the way the Aruba switches expect them to? Aruba 'tunes' ports according to the characteristics of selected parts.
• Third-party products may substitute a different vendor part from time to time. The third-party product you buy today may work, but the part you buy a month from now could be a different part. There are no guarantees.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company consists of different divisions and product families (often times by recent acquisitions). The Aruba division is one of these many divisions. Transceiver products that are designed to work with specific HPE division products, may not work properly on Aruba switches. For this reason, until the Aruba division has done the development work to certify other HPE division products work on Aruba switches, those products may be identified as third-party, and their complete operation and full support is not absolutely certain.

Glossary of terms

Term	Description
AOC	Active Optical Cable. Similar to a DAC, but uses active components similar to short reach optics, and has an applicable fiber cable permanently attached to both ends. AOCs are typically easier to implement since they mimic a short reach transceiver.
AOS/Aruba-OS	Aruba Operating System. Usually reserved for Wireless LAN products.
AOS-CX	Aruba OS-CX for the CX line of switching product sold by Aruba. First introduced June 2017.
AOS-S or AOS-Switch	Aruba OS-Switch. Operating system name for earlier generation switches sold by Aruba under the former name of HPE Networking (aka "ProCurve Networking").
APC	Angled Physical Contact. Ends of the fiber ferule are at an 8° polished angle. These must mate to a matching APC point. APC reduce reflected light loss and are used for demanding applications such as 400G connections. See UPC and the Overview chapter.
Cat5e, Cat6a	Category 5e, Category 6a ethernet twisted pair cable. 1Gigabit speeds requires at least Cat5e cable (more twists per foot compared to Cat5 or Cat5a cable). 10G speeds over twisted pair requires at least Cat6a to reach 100m (the max distance supported by Ethernet over twisted pair).
CLI	The text-based interface used when one connects to a switch (console, telnet, or SSH).
DAC	Direct Attach Copper- A copper cable assembly, consisting of pluggable connectors on both ends - these resemble transceivers, but they lack the active electronics of an optical transceiver. The nature of DAC cables is that they present a "wire" from one switch transceiver port to the other transceiver port (switch to switch, or switch to server adapter). DAC cables can be more difficult to ensure end-to-end compatibility due to the nature of both devices must be able to recognize the part and properly tune electrical characteristics. Switches may have to adjust tunings depending on how far one port is from the main switching ASIC versus another port that is closer. Server adapters don't neccesarly have this issue with only 1 to 4 ports to deal with.
DOM/DDM	Digital optical monitoring (DOM) - Used to monitor some parameters of the transceiver in real time which helps to identify the location of the fiber link failure, simplify maintenance, and improve system reliability. DOM allows you to monitor the Tx (transmit) and Rx (receive) power of the module, temperature, and transceiver supply voltage. DOM status is polled when the show interface dom command is issued. Digital diagnostic monitoring (DDM) is an alternate term for the same feature.
LC	Lucent Connector. See Overview chapter - Connector types.
MMF	Multimode Fiber. Usually used for short runs (less than 400m for 10G and higher).
MPO	Multifiber-Push-On/Off connector - Connector types. E.g. MTP is a brand name of a type of MPO connector. Refer to the Overview chapter for additional details.
MPO12 or MPO16	An MPO connector with 12 or 16 fibers. See the Overview chapter for more details.
nm	Nanometer. Used to specify the wavelength used in optical transmissions. A nm is one-billionth of a meter or 1/1000,000,000.
NRZ	Non-Return to Zero - A method of encoding pulses that uses opposite and alternating high and low levels representing a 0 (low) or 1 (high) and there is no return to a zero between encoding pulses. A signal transmitting at ~25Ghz effectively transmits 25G bits of data (see PAM4).
NSP	HPE Aruba Networking Support Portal. (https://networkingsupport.hpe.com). Formerly known as ASP (Aruba Support Portal).
PAM4	Pulse Amplitude Modulation 4 levels - A method of encoding 4 bits of data by using 4 levels of signaling. A signal transmitting at ~25Ghz effectively transmits 50G bits of data since each pulse is now transmitting 2 bits of data in each clock pulse (see NRZ).
Q-DD or QSFP-DD	QSFP Double-Density - Double the density/bandwidth of a QSFP56 or 400G. QSFP-DD is backward compatible to accept QSFP56, QSFP28 or QSFP+ pluggables. Depending on the switch port hardware, QSFP-DD.
QSFP+	Quad Small Formfactor Pluggable (Plus) - Term used for 40G type of ports (see QSFP28 and other QSFP). Depending on the switch port hardware, QSFP+ can be split into 4x 10G links using appropriate hardware (parallel optics, Split-DACs or Split-AOCs).
QSFP28	Quad Small Formfactor Pluggable 28 Gigahertz - Used by ports that use a 25G channels x 4 (quad) resulting in a 100Gb connection. QSFP28 ports are usually backward compatible to accept 40G QSFP+ pluggables. Depending on the switch port hardware, QSFP28 can usually be split into 4x 25G or 4x 10G links using appropriate hardware (parallel optics, Split-DACs or Split-AOCs).
QSFP56	Quad Small Formfactor Pluggable 56 Gigahertz - Used by ports that use a 25G channels using PAM4 encoding, resulting in 4 channels of 50G or a 200Gb connection. QSFP56 ports are usually backward compatible to accept QSFP28 100G and QSFP+ 40G QSFP+ pluggables. Depending on the switch port hardware, QSFP56 may split into 2x100G, 4x50G, 2x50G, or 4x 25G or 4x 10G links using appropriate hardware (parallel optics, Split-DACs or Split-AOCs).
SFP	Small Formfactor Pluggable - Smaller transceiver port, same physical dimensions for 100Mb, 1G, 10G 25G and 50G parts (optics, DAC cables, AOCs).
SMF	Singlemode Fiber - Usually used for longer runs.
SN	Senko Nano connector - Invented by Senko. SN connectors are vertically oriented duplex fiber connectors allowing for side-to-side stacked into QDD 400G pluggables, providing for a "split" optic without using an MPO to split LC cable assembly.
TAA	Trade Agreement Act - A USA regulation requirement for product to be manufactured/assembled in countries that meet the US Trade Agreement Act of 1979.
TRX	Alternative abbreviation for Transceiver (shortened version of xcvr).
UPC	Ultra Physical Contact - Ends of the fiber ferule ground to a more precise level than "PC" See APC and the Overview chapter.
UTM	UT-mode, or Unsupported Transceiver Mode - See Overview chapter.
UTP/STP	Unshielded Twisted Pair / Shielded Twisted Pair - Copper cables to support ethernet speeds from 10 Megabits (10M), 100 Megabits (100M), 1000 Megabit or 1 Gigabit(1G) to 10 Gigabits (10G). Cables made up of pairs of wires that are twisted (to reject electromagnetic interference) - "twisted pairs".
xcvr	Transceiver - A combination of "X" for Transmitter and Receiver.