Divided by transmission rate, current fiber media converter can be divided into 10 / 100M fiber media converter, and 10/100 / 1000M  fiber media converter, pure gigabit fiber media converter, 10G fiber media converter.

Pure gigabit fiber to ethernet converter operate at the physical layer, suitable for a fixed rate link. 10/100/1000M fiber to ethernet converter work in the data link layer, these kind of fiber to ethernet converter is adapted to working on the link which rate is not fixed, such as security monitoring, network data signal extension and so on. 10G fiber to ethernet converter are mainly used in the optical and electrical conversion in the data room, currently this application is relatively less on the market.

According to the structure, it can be divided into desktop (standalone)fiber media converter and rack-mounted fiber media converter.

Desktop fiber to ethernet converter suitable for a single user, such as for a single switch’s uplink in the corridor . Rack-mounted fiber to ethernet converter is suitable for multi-user aggregation, such as all switches’ uplink in the center room in community , use rack-mounted type is convenient to do management and supply power uniformly to all modules fiber to ethernet converter .

According to the fiber optic , it can be divided into multi-mode fiber optic transceiver and single mode fiber optic transceiver. 

Due to the use of different fiber, fiber optic converter can transmit different distances, the multimode fiber optic converter typicaltransmission distance in between 2 km to 5 km, and the single-mode fiber optic converter transmission distance is from 20-120 km. It should be noted that due to different transmission distance,fiber optic converter itself’s transmit power t, the receiver sensitivity and wavelength will be different.5km fiber optic converter transmitting power is generally between -20 ~ -14db, receiver sensitivity is -30db, use 1310nm wavelength; and 120 km fiber optic converter transmitting power is usually between -5 ~ 0dB, receiver sensitivity id -38dB, using wavelength of 1550nm

According to the optical interface, it can be divided into single ethernet to fiber converter, dual-fiber ethernet to fiber converter, SFP ethernet to fiber converter.

Single fiber optical media converter can save half of the optical fiber, namely to achieve receive and transmit data on a single fiber, these device is very applicable to resource constraints place. These products use the WDM technology, the wavelength used mostly is 1310nm and 1550nm. But because single fiber optical media converter don’t have unified international standards, Therefore,when products from different vendors communicate, they are may not be compatible with each other. 

In addition, as using wavelength division multiplexing, single fiber optical media converter products has the characteristics of Large signal attenuation . Currently on the market, mostly are dual fiber device,these products are more mature and stable. The optical interface of SFP optical media converter is determined by the fiber optic module, currently there are single fiber and dual fiber SFP optical module, they are widely used in the market

According to the network management, it can be divided into managed and unmanaged fiber to ethernet media converter.

Most vendors of network management systems are developed based on SNMP network protocol,support a variety of management methods including Web, Telnet, CLI etc. The management content usually including configuration working mode of fibre media converter, monitoring fibre media converter’s module type and operating status, chassis temperature, power supply, output voltage and output optical power and so on According to the power supply or no power supply, It can be divided into POE fibre to ethernet converter and not POE fibre to ethernet converter.

POE media converter now widely used in the security industry, to supply power to the camera, then no need to cloth power cord, poe media converter general adopts supporting 802.3af,802.3.at standard and non-standard, non-standard poe media converter has big different price between standard poe media converter , non-standard poe media converter mandatory power supply to the powered device, may result in equipment damage due to excessive current. GB poe media converter general electrical port power supply at around 15W-50W, can be customized according to powered device (PD) power , af standard is between 15.4W-25W, at standard between 30W-50W.

According to the temperature, It can be divided into industrial-grade fiber media converter and commercial-grade fiber media converter. 

Industrial-grade fiber media converter, generally can withstand -40-80 ° C, commonly used in relatively harsh environment, does not affect the operation of the device, the life will be a little longer than commercial-grade, of course,the price is much more expensive. The commercial grade fiber media converter, operating temperature is generally 0-50° C, general used the room.

A very long time, fiber media converter will continue to be the an indispensable part of actual network formation , in future, it will develop into high intelligence, high stability, managed, low-cost fiber media converter.