If you need to access information about Cisco's optics quickly and easily, we have good news for you.

Written with Peter Wong, Product Manager, Cisco Optics

A couple of months ago we highlighted two online tools that make life easier when choosing optics for your Cisco switches, routers, and servers. We have received a wealth of positive feedback, which we appreciate.

We're pleased to announce a third tool that has the same look and feel as the first two. They all look similar to an e-commerce site, with an intelligent search engine at the top and category filters on the left side panel. It's called the Cisco Optics Product Information (COPI) tool and it lets you view and refine technical information about Cisco Optics products.

COPI saves you time

Previously, you had only our static datasheets to go to. While these are accurate and useful, there are 26 of them as of today. COPI lets you avoid having to read through them and gives you the same optics information. You can imagine how much time and effort you can save with this consolidated dynamic user interface.

Example output of the Optics-To-Device Compatibility Matrix. COPI uses a similar look and feel.

COPI collects all the Cisco Optics data that you want into a readable table format.  Like the other two tools, the optic-to-device compatibility matrix and the optic-to-optic interoperability matrix, you can export your results to an Excel sheet or PDF file.

Use URLs

Also like the other two tools, COPI is browser-based and the URL captures the search parameters. Therefore, you can shared it via email or embed it as a link. For instance, this URL shows you datasheet information about our single-lambda 100G QSFP28 LR optic: https://copi.cisco.com/?pid=QSFP-100G-LR-S.

COPI output for the single product QSFP-100G-LR-S

The search function doesn't restrict you to just one product, though. Let's say you want to see all Cisco Optics which can transmit and receive over multi-mode fiber (MMF).  Without COPI, you would have to go through all the static datasheets, and find each MMF optic in each one (they're separated by data rate and form factor).  You would then have to assemble all this information, which is time-consuming and tedious. COPI aggregates the results for you. Here's that exact search: https://copi.cisco.com/?ttp=MMF.

What's next

As you would expect, we will add new optics to COPI as we release them. We have a few other improvements in the works too. Stay tuned!

For a video introduction of the Cisco OpticsCompatibilityMatrix, please click here.
For a video introduction of the Cisco OpticsInteroperabilityMatrix, please click here.

Subscribe to the Cisco Optics blog!

And don't forget to watch the Cisco Optics YouTube playlist.