i want to network two rooms with 10 GB using two of these mikrotik switches. in one room there is an old macpro 5.1, 10GB NAS, small NAS, a few more RJ45 devices, VoIP, printers etc. in the other (living) room there is a swisscom router, swisscom TV, mac mini as a music server and a few more 1GB devices. the macpro has a sonnett 10GB SFP+ card, the NAS has RJ45 10GB, and on the mac mini I use a TB3 10GB SFP box. the various 1GB devices are now connected to Cisco and TP-link smart switches; I would connect these via the ETH access of the MikroTik switch.

so the two MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN form the 10 GB backbone. in one room i need two 10 GB connections, in the other only one. so i could run the connection between the switches in parallel with fibre and combine the two SFP ports with LAG to form a 20 GB backbone. the distance between the two MikroTik is just under 20 metres.

now finally my question: *what kind of fibre optic cable do i use for this? and what kind of transceiver?* (i assume that one is relatively free in the choice of fibre optic cable -- provided that there is an SFP+ transceiver for it. correct?)

Question

i want to network two rooms with 10 GB using two of these mikrotik switches. in one room there is an old macpro 5.1, 10GB NAS, small NAS, a few more RJ45 devices, VoIP, printers etc. in the other (living) room there is a swisscom router, swisscom TV, mac mini as a music server and a few more 1GB devices. the macpro has a sonnett 10GB SFP+ card, the NAS has RJ45 10GB, and on the mac mini I use a TB3> 10GB SFP box. the various 1GB devices are now connected to Cisco and TP-link smart switches; I would connect these via the ETH access of the MikroTik switch.

so the two MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN form the 10 GB backbone. in one room i need two 10 GB connections, in the other only one. so i could run the connection between the switches in parallel with fibre and combine the two SFP ports with LAG to form a 20 GB backbone. the distance between the two MikroTik is just under 20 metres.

now finally my question: *what kind of fibre optic cable do i use for this? and what kind of transceiver?* (i assume that one is relatively free in the choice of fibre optic cable -- provided that there is an SFP+ transceiver for it. correct?)

Accepted Answer

Here are a few "learnings" from my setup:
1. consider using the CRS309 for one side. It seems like a lot of devices, so maybe you can save another switch (less cable clutter/socket power consumption). then you have 8+1 ports. 100/1000MBase-T SFP+ are quite cheap at fs.com (see next point).
2. fs.com has a much better and clearer selection of transceivers and cables, and some of them are significantly cheaper.
3. in my experience optical transceivers from different manufacturers work well together. I have taken multimode, Ubiquiti UF-MM-10G: Set of 2, but they also link to generic compatible 10GBASE-SR SFP+ 850nm from fs. But there are certainly people who absolutely recommend singlemode. Honestly, I don't think it makes much difference to your setup, you don't want to wire up a whole house and swapping is quick (if the cable laying isn't too tedious).
4. do you really want to do a LAG on 2 10G connections? srsly? Do you really need that much throughput, really? Because of:
5. 10G transceivers and also the switch get HOT! around 60°C (ok, specification is up to 75, but the next hot summer is coming for sure...) and it doesn't seem to matter if it's fibre or copper, for me the optical modules show a higher temp than the 10GBase-T ones. And that would be another reason for point 1: the CRS309 at least has a cooling grate and more space to distribute the heat.
Hope that helps

Answer

I had a similar setup with 2x MikroTik CRS305-1G-4S+IN as backbone, but with copper (approx. 20m CAT 6a between the switches). Especially last summer I had RX ERRORS again and again and every now and then one of the switches hung up (switch off and switch on again to fix the problem). As the problems increased with the home office and the resulting higher load, I replaced the Mikrotik switches with 2x UniFi Switch XG 6PoE. Since then the setup runs without problems. Disadvantage => the UNFI switches have a fan (not extremely loud, but audible) and are much more expensive than the Mikrotik switches. 
Nevertheless, based on my experience, I cannot recommend the Mikrotik CRS305-1G-4S+IN for reliable continuous operation.

Answer

Hello
I have both models of the small MikroTik 10GB switches (305 & 309). Both have no FANs and are passively cooled. So "only" the CPU of the switches is cooled. With the small one I simply had a 120mm FAN over the whole switch, worked tiptop. (Power came from a PC 50cm next to it). 
I'm still thinking about how to cool the ports on the 9... because:
The transceivers for normal RJ45 copper 10Gb (I have the ones from MikroTik) get really hot, already after a few minutes and even without a cable connected! In contrast, fibre optic and DAC connections remain lukewarm at most.  

I also have the SFP+ LWL transceiver pair from Ubiquiti, which seems to me to be very good value for money:
[Ubiquiti UF-MM-10G: Set of 2 SFP+ Module (Transceiver)](https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/ubiquiti-uf-mm-10g-2er-set-sfp-modul-transceiver-netzwerk-zubehoer-6037242)
in addition:
[Lightwin LWL Duplex Patch Cable (200cm)](https://www.digitec.ch/de/s1/product/lightwin-lwl-duplex-patchkabel-200cm-netzwerkkabel-5805659)

My basis for decision was: price and availability...

Just look for SFP+ (LC), manufacturer doesn't seem to matter, the MikroTik switches are not tricky.
"Serve the Home" took a closer look at both switches and some transceivers, maybe still interesting?
https://www.servethehome.com/mikrotik-crs309-1g-8sin-review-inexpensive-8x-10gbe-switch/

Greetings
Thomas

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