Optical Transceiver
Optical transceivers perform the conversion between optical and electrical signals in fibre optic networks. They are often found on line cards within networking equipment and they allow for the reliable transfer of data between the various equipment on the network. Fibre optic network links allow for higher data rates and larger distances than what is possible with other link technologies.

Serial Backplane Interconnect
Backplanes are used extensively in networking equipment to provide electrical connection between cards. In a typical telecom switch, data is received from other nodes in the network through the line interfaces. In each line card, the data it is processed by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and it is then forwarded over the backplane to a switch card. The switch card considers all the data coming from the different interfaces and redirects the various streams of data through the backplane to the appropriate destination line card. The line card then transmits the data to another node in the network.