When should an optic be replaced?

• A. After swapping/cleaning fibers and verifying power levels still show errors or LOS/LOF.
• B. After replacing the entire module only.
• C. Never replace optics.
• D. Only replace if the LEDs blink red.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is to troubleshoot the optical path and only replace the transceiver when the fault appears to be in the optic itself, not in the fiber or connections. Start by swapping or cleaning the fiber connections and then verify the power levels. If, after those steps, you still see errors or the link shows loss of signal (LOS) or loss of frame (LOF), that points to the optic module as the culprit, so replacing the optic is the appropriate next move. If the power levels are clean after cleaning/swapping, there’s no need to replace the optic.

Why the other ideas don’t fit: replacing the whole module without first ruling out fiber issues can waste effort and hardware; optics can degrade and must be replaced when faults persist after proper cleaning and testing; relying only on LED indicators isn’t sufficient because they can be misleading or inconclusive without performance verification.