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Table of Contents
Network Cabling is an important part of computer networking. In this lesson, we will focus on one of the important lessons of computer networking: Fiber optic cabling. Here, we will learn the details of latest fiber optic cables. We will learn both single mode fiber optic cable types and multimode fiber optic cable types. After this lesson, you will also know the jacket colors of each fiber optic cable type.
Complete CCNA 200-301 v1.1 Course
A Fiber Optic cable is a network cable which transmits data via light signals over glass fiber. It provides high performance, high bandwidth, high speed and low data loss. Fiber optic cables can be used both for short and long distances. As you know, we can use twisted pair copper cables for short distances. But fibers can be used between very long distances.
Fiber optic cables are also secure cables. They have resistant to the electromagnetic interference. There are many layers in a fiber optic cable that saves the data towards such effects. Electromagnetic interference is high in copper twisted pair cables.
There are various types of fiber optic cables. We will talk about these types in the following lines.
A fiber optic cable consists of some different parts. With these parts, it provides a secure data transfer via light signals. What are the parts of a fiber optic cables? These fiber optic cable parts are given below:
Core is responsible for transporting the light signals.
The Cladding surrounds the core. It contains and reflects the light.
The coating is the protector. It protects the core.
Strengthening part prevents the cable from stretching or breaking if it is subjected to tension.
Cable jacket protects the cable from any forces that can damage the cable.
There are various Fiber Optic Connectors. Some of these Fiber Optic Connectors are given below:
There are also other types of fiber connectors.
In networking, we use both fiber optic and copper cables. But there are important advantages of using fiber optic cables if we compare with especially copper cables. So, what are the advantages of fiber optic cables? The advantages of using fiber optic cables are given below:
We can divide fiber optic cables into two main types. In other words, there are two fiber optic cable types. These are: Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable and Multimode Fiber Optic Cable. What ar ethe differences between single mode and multimode fiber optic cables? When we use single mode fiber optic and when we use multimode fiber optic cables? In this part we will see the details of both fiber optic cable types and we will learn different types of each fiber optic type.
Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable is the fiber optic cable that is generally used for long distances up to 100km. A single fiber optic cable has narrow core diameter. It allows single angle of light waves.
The bandwidth of a single mode fiber optic cable is high. Its cable cost is low but it has high electronic cost.
Single Mode Fiber optic cable uses laser technology.
It is hard to terminate single mode fiber cable if we compare it with the termination of a multimode fiber optic cable.
Single mode fiber optic cables use “yellow” as jacket color.
There are two types Single Mode fiber optic cables. These are:
OS1 (Optical Single Mode 1) is a single mode fiber optic cable which has tight-buffered structure. This type of fiber optic cable is mainly used indoor like datacenters. The maximum distance for OS1 is 10 km. It supports Gigabit and 10G Ethernet links. The price of OS1 fiber optic cables is low. The jacket color of OS1 Cable is yellow.
OS2 (Optical Single Mode 2) is the other single mode fiber optic cable. It has toose-tube structure. OS2 cables are uses at outdoor like streets, underground etc. The maximum distance for this type of cable is 200 km. OS2 cables supports Gigabit and 10G Ethernet links. It also supports 40G and 100G Ethernet links. On attenuation OS2 outperforms OS1. The price of OS2 is higher than OS1. The jacket color of OS2 Cable is yellow.
Multimode Fiber Optic Cables have a wide core diameter. It allows multiple angles of light waves. These types of fiber optic cables are mainly used for short distance. This distance can be up to 2km.
Multimode fiber optic cables have high bandwidth. They have high cable cost. But electronic cost is low for multimode fiber optic cables.
Multimode fiber optic cables use led or laser to transfer the data.
It is easy to terminate a multimode fiber optic cable if we compare it with single mode fiber optic termination.
Multimode fiber optic cables use different jacket colors like orange, aqua, green etc.
There are six types of Multimode Fiber cable. These multimode fiber optic types are:
FDDI-Grade is the first one. It has orange jacket. The core size of this cable is 62.5 µm. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 26 meters. It is widely deployed for LAN use. It is very old cable type. The physical view of this cable is also different.
OM1 (Optical Multimode 1) has also orange jacket. It uses a LED light source. The size of the core is again 62.5 µm. OM1 supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 33 meters. It is commonly used for 100 Megabit Ethernet.
OM2 (Optical Multimode 2) has orange jacket too. It uses a LED light source. Here there is a smaller core. The size of the core is 50 µm. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 82 meters. It is commonly used for 1 Gigabit Ethernet.
OM3 (Optical Multimode 3) is a different jacket color. Its jacket color is aqua. It uses a laser light source. The core size is similar to OM2. It is 50 µm. OM3 supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 300 meters. It also supports 40 Gigabit & 100 Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters. It is commonly used for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
OM4 (Optical Multimode 4) has aqua jacket too. It is developed for VSCEL laser transmission. Its core size is 50 µm again. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 550 meters and, 40 Gigabit & 100 Gigabit Ethernet up to 150 meters with MPO.
OM5 (Optical Multimode 5) is the latest multimode fiber technology for today. Here, the jacket color is changing again. OM5 has lime green jacket. It has 50 µm core size. OM5 is also known as WBMMF (Wideband Multimode Fiber). It supports at least 4 WDM channels at 28Gbps per channel through the 850-953 nm window.
SFP is the abbreviation used for Small Form – Factor Pluggable. An SFP is a Hot-pluggable network interface module. This means that, you can connect these modules to the network device without turning of the device. There are various SFP types used in different devices and networks. And most of them are used for fiber optic cables.
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