Gigabit interface converter ( GBIC) is a standard for . First defined in 1995, it was used with Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. By standardizing on a electrical interface, a single gigabit port can support a wide range of physical media, from copper to long-wave single-mode optical fiber, at lengths of hundreds of kilometers.
The Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) transceiver, also known as mini-GBIC, succeeds GBIC.
Appeal
Flexibility is the benefit of
hot-swappable transceivers like the GBIC standard as opposed to fixed physical interface configurations. Where optical technologies are mixed, an administrator can just-in-time purchase GBICs of the specific type for each link. This flexibility lowers fixed costs. However, if one port type such as copper predominates, a switch with built-in ports is cheaper and space efficient.
Standards
The GBIC standard is openly defined by the Small Form Factor Committee in document number 8053i.
The first publication was in November 1995. A few corrections and additions were made through September 2000. Robert Snively of Brocade Communications was the technical editor. The original contributors were
AMP Incorporated,
Compaq,
Sun Microsystems, and Vixel Corporation.
