A network-connected passive optical TAP usually has at least three ports: A port, B port and monitoring port. Let's take a look at the differences between them.

Passive network taps in optical fiber-based networks
Passive network taps can be used on fiber optic networks of all speeds-just choose a rated copy and send traffic at the same rate as your network (1 Gigabit, 10 Gigabit; 40 Gigabit, 100 Gigabit, etc.). If this is all the TAP has to do—and there is enough available light in the fiber to separate it without degrading network conditions—there is no need to power the passive TAP at all. For companies with congested wiring closets and limited socket availability, this network design offers huge advantages.

However, if there is not enough light in the fiber or it must travel too far to reach the final destination, you will need an active passive TAP.

Some installations will require media conversion to bring network traffic to designated monitoring points. For example, if traffic from a fiber-based network needs to be sent to a device with a copper wire input port, TAP will convert the fiber signal to an electrical signal because copper wire is an electrical interface. If the network uses multi-mode fiber transmission, and you want to use single-mode fiber to transmit traffic to the monitoring equipment, TAP will convert the optical signal from multi-mode to single-mode. Although media conversion is easy to complete in a passive network TAP, it does require power supply to achieve it.

It is also important to note that the standard passive network TAP will send two traffic streams to the monitoring tool. Traffic from east to west and west to east. If you only have one port on the monitoring tool, you can use one of our aggregation taps to aggregate west-to-east and east-to-west traffic into one flow.

Optical fiber-based passive network tap
Although passive network TAP can be used in any fiber-based network, it is not so simple in a copper cable environment. Passive fiber TAP can be used in copper networks, but they must be powered at all times.

FIBERWDM Taps are flexible and scalable, can supports speeds up to 100G, and is 100 percent passive. FIBERWDM Taps are available in multimode and single mode fiber varieties with split ratios ranging from 50/50 up to 80/20. The FIBERWDM Tap is available with either LC/SC/FC or MTP (MPO) connectors. Up to16 taps (for8 lines traffic copy) can be deployed in a single 1U 19inch rack space.