{"id":101752,"date":"2026-11-02T14:25:03","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T14:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/optics.carritech.com\/?p=101752"},"modified":"2026-11-02T17:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T17:17:23","slug":"hpe-aruba-compatible-optics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/optics.carritech.com\/it\/hpe-aruba-compatible-optics\/","title":{"rendered":"HPE and Aruba compatible optics: reading the J, JD, JL and R part numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

No vendor’s optical part numbers carry more history than HPE’s. A single network closet can hold a J<\/strong>-series module bought when the brand was ProCurve, a JD<\/strong> part that arrived through the 3Com acquisition, a JL<\/strong> part from the Aruba era, an R<\/strong> o S<\/strong> part from HPE Networking, a P<\/strong>-series FC optic from the server division, and a -B21<\/strong> option kit that was ordered against a ProLiant rather than a switch. All six might be the same optical interface. None of them says so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the problem this guide solves. HPE part numbers are opaque by design — they are order codes, not descriptions — and the scheme has been overwritten four times by corporate history. What follows is how to read them anyway: what each prefix family tells you, which platform generation takes which form factor, the four things that reliably catch people out, and the 188 HPE, Aruba and H3C coded optics Carritech holds<\/strong>, listed by speed from 155 Mbit\/s to 800 Gigabit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prefix families, and what each one actually tells you<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Start here, because the prefix is the only part of an HPE part number with any information in it. It does not tell you the optical interface. It tells you which company’s catalogue the part was created in<\/strong>, which in turn narrows down the platform and the era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n
Prefix<\/th>Origin<\/th>What you will find<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>\n
J<\/strong> (J4858C, J9150A)<\/td>HP ProCurve<\/td>The oldest live codings. 100M and 1G SFP, 10G SFP+. Letter suffixes mark revisions of the same optic.<\/td><\/tr>\n
JD, JG<\/strong> (JD089B, JG226A)<\/td>3Com and H3C<\/td>Arrived with the 2010 3Com acquisition. Heavy on transport-style parts — CWDM, DWDM, XFP.<\/td><\/tr>\n
JH, JL, JQ<\/strong> (JH231A, JL293A)<\/td>HPE and Aruba era<\/td>The bulk of the modern switching range. JL is the most common prefix on current Aruba CX optics.<\/td><\/tr>\n
Q, R, S<\/strong> (Q2P62A, R8M60A, S6H32A)<\/td>HPE Networking, current<\/td>Newest codings. Where 25G, 100G, 400G and 800G parts live.<\/td><\/tr>\n
P…-001, P…-B21<\/strong> (P24195-001, P49762-B21)<\/td>HPE server division<\/td>Storage and server optics. -B21 is an option-kit suffix<\/strong>, not a switch SKU.<\/td><\/tr>\n
Six digits -001<\/strong> (656435-001, 855070-001)<\/td>HPE storage<\/td>Fibre Channel SAN optics, ordered against an HBA or a SAN switch.<\/td><\/tr>\n
Descriptive strings<\/strong> (OSFP-800G-DR8-SM1310)<\/td>H3C, current<\/td>H3C went the opposite way and names the optic after what it is.<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That last row is worth pausing on, because it is the exception that proves the rule. H3C — once HP’s joint venture in China, now a separate company whose part numbers remain all over HPE-heritage estates — names its modules OSFP-800G-DR8-SM1310<\/a> e QSFPDD-400G-FR4-WDM1300<\/a>. Form factor, speed, port type, wavelength: four facts in one string. The equivalent HPE codings for the same optics are P49762-B21<\/a> e R8M62A<\/a>. Same engineering, two philosophies of naming, and one of them can be read across a warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acquisitions you can read off a part number<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You do not need the corporate history to buy an optic, but it explains why one estate holds four unrelated codings for the same 10 Gigabit interface, and it tells you roughly how old a port is before you have seen it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n