Interface to SFP (small form-factor pluggable transce) -> how and where to implement

Several of the Terasic and Altera boards have SFP and QSFP+ connectors (not necessarily Arria V boards though). The transceiver lanes on the connector are typically AC-coupled to transceivers on the FPGA. The I2C interface is typically wired to I/O pins on the FPGA.

Several of the Arria V boards have FMC connectors. You can use an FMC-to-SPF adapter. VadaTech make FMC-to-SFP boards - FMC104 and FMC105.

Bittware has this Arria V board:

http://www.bittware.com/products-services-fpga-cots-hardware/a5-pcie-s-a5ps

What data rate were you planning on sending over your links?

You can use copper (called direct attach copper cables) and optical cables.

Here's some links to Transceiver Toolkit examples (including an Arria V board);

https://www.ovro.caltech.edu/~dwh/correlator/cobra_docs.html

(see the links near the top of this documents list).

Cheers,

Dave