Fiber Patch Cords and Cables
Fiber patch cords and optical cables are widely used in today's fiber networking. Today we will know them deeply.
A fiber patch cable, also known as Fiber Optic Jumper or Fiber Patch Cord is a fiber optic cable covered at both end with connectors which enable it to be easily and swiftly connected to cable T.V., any optical switch, other communicating equipments and devices that use telecommunication. It is made equipping a core of very high refractive index, coated outside of a material of low refractive index and is protected by a light protective jacket. The core is made of transparent materials and the lucidity of the core allows transmission of signals with greater accuracy over a very large potential distance. For 10G fiber patch cables, multimode fibers are used generally. The type of the cable is usually duplex for 10G.
Fiber Patch Cables are generally used for transfer rates such as 10G-40G-100G and OM3 can support 40GBASE-SR4 / 100GBASE-SR10 in applicable parallel optics networks. Fiber Patch Cables generally show basic characteristics of-
· Low insertion loss
· High return loss
· Good interchange
· Good repeatability
· Excellent environmental adaptability
Primary or basic Fiber Patch Cables comes with a diameter of 125 microns, just a fraction thicker than human hair. The inner width of the cables measures of 9 microns for single-mode fiber cables whereas they measure from 50 to 62.5 microns for multi-mode cables. Single mode fiber optic cables generally come in yellow colored body and a blue connector whareas multimode fiber optic cables come with more traditional orange or grey body with connectors of cream or black colour.
In the mid 2000s, new developments in the field of lightweight and reduced band radius fibers started a new era for lighter and smaller cables, and with per unit reduction in the diameter of the cable, it produced scopes to enable more cables in a single line. As per ISO/IEC 11801, which came into action in September of 2002, Fiber Optic Cables got classified as OM1, OM2, and OM3. Where OM1 multimode fiber refers to traditional 62.5/125 micron wide cables, OM2 refers to traditional 50/125 micron wide cables and OM3 refers to 10 Gigabit fiber optic cables of diameter of 50/125 microns. All the types of fiber optic cables, with slight modifications, can be used for 10G.
The 10G Fiber Patch Cable is also known as "Laser Optimized Cable". The usual 10G Fiber Patch Cord supports 10 Gigabit data transfer rate using OM3 categorized fiber optic glasses having diameter of 50/125 micron. They generally feature connectors of particularly shiny type. Whereas 10G Fiber Patch Cable is used for campus networking, fiber optic testing, security purposes, data storage fiber connections, 10 Gigabit Ethernet works etc.
For 10G Fiber Patch Cable, the customary set for Ethernet network is IEEE 802.3. At first, the standard Ethernet bandwidth was of 10Mbps and ran on copper made wires. The second generation cables were made with fiber optics and provided bandwidth between 100Mbps to 1000Mbps. But with time, the requirements skyrocketed and then came the 10G Ethernet. For Fiber Patch Cables requiring Gigabit 1000 or more have switches and base mode routers installed extensively in multimode cable plants. Generally, single mode laser launch in multimode cable can generate multiple signals but the error is rectified by the use of Mode conditioning patch which aligns single mode signals.