The increasing demand of higher bandwidth has become a trend, which push the development of the transmission media. Fiber optic cable is now popular among many users. Consisting of one or more optical fibers, fiber optic cable is used to transmit large amounts of information over longer distances and at higher bandwidths. It plays an important role in optic communication network. This article will focus on practical knowledge about fiber optic cable.

Overview of Fiber Optic Cable

Fiber optic cable has five parts: the core, the cladding, the coating, strengthening fibers and the cable jacket. You can have a basic understanding of the construction of fiber optic cable from the following figure. Fiber optic cable has many types according to different categories, such as singlemode fiber optic cable and multimode fiber optic cable, simplex fiber optic cable and duplex fiber optic cable, indoor cable and outdoor cable, etc. In addition, the common form of fiber optic cable used in networking application is fiber patch cable. Terminated with fiber optic connectors on both ends, fiber patch cable also has many types, such as LC fiber optic cable and SC fiber optic cable.

Advantages And Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Cable

• Fiber optic cable has a higher capacity of transmission data rate than most other transmission mediums.


• Fiber optic cable can directly upgrade the transmission capacity without replacing the cable.


• Fiber optic cable is less susceptible to interference.


• Fiber optic cable is secure. It is difficult to tap because it does not emit signals that can be monitored.


• Fiber optic cable is light in weight.

• Fiber optic cable is expensive—but price has dropped and it becomes more popular.


• Fiber optic cable is difficult to install, because it is susceptible to damage from the environment as well as during the cabling.

Applications of Fiber Optic Cable

Fiber optic cable is widely used in big data center, like 10G, 40G and 100G network, and it is usually used with fiber optic transceiver. Take Ethernet 40G for example, there are 40G QSFP+ SR4 transceiver and 40G QSFP+ LR4 transceiver. The former one is with MTP/MPO interface, so it has to be used with MTP/MPO fiber cable; the latter one is with LC interface, so it has to be used with LC to LC fiber cable single mode.

Fiber optic cable also gains great popularity among home networking users. Recently, some residential internet providers have invested in extending their fiber installations to suburban neighborhoods for direct access by households, such as FTTH (Fiber to the Home) and FTTD (Fiber to the Desk) project.

What’s more, fiber optic cable is applied in different fields, such as mechanical inspections, surgery and dentistry, military and space application, automotive industry, and so on.

Conclusion

As an advanced transmission media, fiber optic cable provides a convenient, cost-effective and easy solution to networking applications. This article mainly introduce the advantages and disadvantages as well as applications of fiber optic cable. And I hope after reading the article, you can have a better understanding of fiber optic cable.

Oznake: fiber optic cable, ethernet 40g, LC fiber optic cable, MPO fiber cable

In an age of network technology developing rapidly, we enjoy the convenience brought by Internet all the time. We can know what is happening around us by surfing the Internet. Also, we can chat with friends far away from us on the computer. Still, higher bandwidth is needed. We know that fiber optic cable can provide higher bandwidth and longer transmission distance than Ethernet cable. Therefore, many broadband service providers utilize fiber optic cable to serve customers. That’s what we call FTTH (Fiber To the Home) project. According to FTTH project, there are two kinds of home network deployment—copper-based hone network and fiber-based home network. This article will introduce them to you.

In order to achieve quick installation, the broadband service provider will set a distribution point near or inside a building. Fiber optic cables are deployed in this building to connect every required house to this fiber distribution point, thus providing broadband services to end users. Usually, we will connect modem to Internet service port through RJ-11 cable or coax cable. Then we connect the modem to the router via Ethernet cable. The router can be connected with multiple Ethernet-ready devices. Finally, the copper-based home network is finished. However, in FTTH project, there is some differences. The fiber distribution cable from the broadband service provider is connected to an ONU (Optical Network Unit) which can convert the optical signals into electrical signals. Then we use Ethernet cable to connect ONU with router as well as router with Ethernet-ready device. At last, copper-based home network in FTTH project is completed. We can easily find that both of them utilize router to connect with Ethernet-ready device via Ethernet cable. However, the differences are that the previous one uses modem to connect with router, while the latter one uses ONU to connect with router.

It is not difficult to understand that in fiber-based home network, fiber optic cable is only used. To complete the deployment, we need some preparations. For connecting a computer directly to a fiber network, we can install a fiber optic PCI Ethernet adapter card which allows you to add a fiber port to your system through an available standard or low-profile PCI slot. And there are different interfaces for the card, such as LC, SC, FC, ST. Therefore, you can install corresponding fiber optic wall plates and use corresponding fiber optic cable. Once the fiber distribution cable is connected with the fiber optic wall plates, you can enjoy Internet with high bandwidth.

In fact, many people choose copper-based home network for the lower cost. And they often choose cat5e network cable or cat6 network cable for future-proof. But if you have higher requirement for bandwidth and do not worry about the budget, you can choose fiber-based home network. In addition, you do not have to think about future-proof. Besides, there is another thing that you have to think about carefully—the installation. From the perspective of installation, fiber optic cable is light in weight which makes it easier to handle than Ethernet cable. And it is thin, so it takes up much less space in cabling ducts. However, fiber optic cable is fragile which may be damaged during the installation. What we have discussed are just main differences between copper-based and fiber-based home network. Which one to choose depends on your actual requirement. I hope this article can help you make the right decision.

Oznake: fiber optic cable, cat6 network cable, cat5e network cable, FTTH