Optical media converter is a kind of Ethernet transmission media conversion equipment that exchanges the twisted pair electrical signal transmitted over a short distance and the optical signal transmitted over a long distance. It is called photoelectric converter in some places. This equipment is generally used in the network environment where Ethernet cable cannot cover and optical fiber must be used to extend the transmission distance. It is usually located in the access layer application of broadband MAN. It is an essential network transmission relay equipment for operators to build community network, campus and enterprise network.

In order to ensure the complete compatibility with other manufacturers' network cards, repeaters, hubs, switches and other network equipment, the media converter is completely transparent to the network protocol.

There are many kinds of media converter :

According to the transmission mode, they can be divided into singlemode media converter and multimode media converter.

According to the transmission rate, it can be divided into 10Mmedia converter, 100M media converter, 1000M media converter, 10 / 100M media converter, and 10 / 100 / 1000 media converter.

According to the structure, it can be divided into desktop and rack type media converter. 

According to the gateway type, it can be divided into non-network management media converter and network management media converter. According to the power supply, it can be divided into built-in power supply and external power supply media converter.

According to the working mode, it can be divided into full duplex media converter and half duplex media converter.

Optical multiplexer is the transmission equipment in optical communication system, which mainly performs photoelectric conversion and transmission function, it is generally used in telecommunications, power, monitoring, industrial control, video transmission.

The optical transceiver is divided into transmitter and receiver. The transmitter converts the electrical signal into optical signal, the receiver converts the transmitted optical signal into electrical signal and transmits it to the next level equipment.

It mainly uses the signal modulation, photoelectric conversion and other technologies to achieve the purpose of remote transmission.

With the wide application of optical multiplexer, its classification is more and more, and the functions of different types of optical multiplexer are also different.

According to the signal transmission mode, it can be divided into analog optical multiplexer and digital optical multiplexer.

According to the application technology, it can be divided into PDH optical multiplexer and SDH optical multiplexer;

According to the transmission interface, it can be divided into video optical multiplexer, audio optical multiplexer, data optical multiplexer, switching optical multiplexer, telephone optical multiplexer, etc.

1: Both optical multiplexer and media converter can carry out photoelectric conversion, but the media converter can not do data processing, and it can only be connected point to point. The optical multiplexer can realize the multiplexing and demultiplexing of data signals, so it is slightly more powerful in function.

2:Many pairs of E1 lines come out of the optical multiplexer. SDH and PDH optical multiplexer are mainly used for telecom operators to provide multi-point-to-point data circuits. Video multiplexer is mainly used in security monitoring, distance education, video conference and other fields that require high timeliness of video transmission, it can simultaneously transmit and control switching value, voice, Ethernet and other signals to meet the needs of multi service applications, which the media converter does not have.