One embodiment of the present invention provides a switch. The switch includes a printed circuit board (PCB), a number of multi-channel optical transceivers mounted on the PCB, and a number of switch ports accessible from a front panel of the switch. The switch ports include a number of electrical interfaces that are electrically coupled to a switch chip mounted on the PCB, and a number of optical interfaces that are coupled to the switch chip via the multi-channel optical transceivers.