Category: Fiber Optic Cables

All kinds of fiber optic cables or fiber jumpers, such as FTTH drop cable, MTP/MPO fiber cabling, Ultra HD fiber cabling, fiber pigtails, etc.

What are the Differences Between MPO and MTP Cables?

With the number of network connections needed to support 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) growing in data centers, a modern solution is needed to keep patching fields from becoming too congested. Introducing ultra-high-density cabling to data centers is a vast improvement over traditional fiber cabling. Using MPO and MTP® connectors and cables will help integrate fiber into a single interface and support the next technologies of 40 GbE and 100 GbE.
Multi Fiber Push On (MPO)
Multi Fiber Push On, also known as MPO, was originally manufactured to facilitate high-density termination and support high speed communication networks. What started as a 12-fiber single row connector, has now evolved into 8 and 16 single row fibers that have the capability to be stacked together to create 24, 36 and 72 fiber connectors while using multiple precision ferrules. The standard for these MPO styles has been established by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). The international standard is known as IEC-61754-7 where as the TIA standard is TIA-604-5.
MTP Connector
MTP connectors are designed to enhance optical signal and mechanical performance while providing lower insertion loss over MPO connectors. The ferrule of the MTP connector floats to retain physical contact on mated pairs if there is strain on the cable. The elliptical shaped, stainless steel guided pins in an MTP connector are less likely to cause damage compared to an MPO connector’s pins. The MPO connector has chamfered guided pins that can chip the ferrule and cause the material to drop into the guided pin holes or on the ferrule end face. MTP connectors are built with metal pin clamps that help center the push spring. The spring design prevents damage by maximizing ribbon clearance for 12 fiber and multifiber applications. A variety of MTP connectors are offered to accommodate a variety of applications: Type of boot, round or loose fiber cable, oval jacket or bare ribbon fiber, just to name a few.
Compatibility
MPO connectors can directly interconnect with other MPO based infrastructures, due to being compliant with MTP standards outlines in IEC standard 61754-7 and TI-604-5.
Wiring
Below are the four types of wiring using 12-pin MTP connector: Straight-through, cross-over, pair flipped, and universal.
Straight through, pair flipped and Universal wiring are all configured key up to key-down for mirrored signals. However, they do vary based on their uses. Straight through wiring are mostly used for patch panels. Pair flipped wiring incorporates a duplex pair-wise flip with the fiber location left to right connector and universal wiring incorporates an even/odd flip with the same left to right fiber location. Cross-over wiring is configured as key-up to key-up with unmirrored signals. Crossover uses include switches, transceivers, and electronic devices.

It pays to invest in quality Guitar Effects Pedal Patch Cables

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

So I’ve been through a whole bunch of different patch cable brands – all the typical branded ones – Boss, Dunlop, Ernie Ball, Fender, Hosa, Mooer and Planet Waves (D’Addario) – before I stumbled across my current favourites ’EBS Gold Flat Patch Cables’ on the Andertons website.
I have a very extensive pedal chain consisting of some 36 pedals currently and I did not much like the usual thick-ish cable or jack-heads. The EBS ones are still the trimmest flattest versions I have comes across, they do have some evolving competition from the new Rockboard Flat Patch Gold Series which comes in a much wider variety of lengths, although I’m not sure about the way ends over-run the jacks – I much prefer the streamlined shape of the EBS jack heads.
Daniel Steinhardt of GigRig and That Pedal Show fame swears by the Evidence Audio Solderless Monorail system – but the jacks / caps on those are rather regular-shaped and the wire nowhere near as flat as either Rockboard or EBS especially.
Finally Free The Tone is a decent quality competitor to Evidence – and they do things very slightly differently to Evidence and at a similar price point. There are a whole bunch of slightly lower quality solderless options from companies like Boss, Donner, Hellion, Lava Cables, Mr Power and Planet Waves.
My personal pick of the bunch is still EBS, although if I need longer lengths – then I would source those from Rockboard. If I had to go solderless, I would pay the premium and go with either Evidence Audio or Free The Tone – depending on my needs. The Evidence Audio Kit seems to provide you with everything you need, although Free The Tone has a few advantages of its own.
EBS PREMIUM GOLD FLAT PATCH CABLES
EBS (Efekt Bass System) are Swedish Electric Bass technology specialists and are responsible for my current favourite patch cables. The are the slimmest of those available with the smallest and skinniest end jacks – they sound just as good as they look.
ROCKBOARD GOLD SERIES FLAT PATCH CABLES
Just recently launched, these are now available at Thomann, they’re not quite as neat and tidy as the EBSs, but come in a greater variety of lenghts – which makes the 3 varieties over 1m particularly useful.
This is the current king of solderless patch cables, Daniel Steinhardt swears by them and they are on all his pro GigRig guitar rigs and pedalboards. All the plugs / jacks are right angled – which is no different to the above two hard-wired alternatives. These come in 2 different kits – SIS1 has 8 jacks and 5 foot / c150cm of cable, and SIS2 has 10 jacks and 10 foot of cable c300cm – and they come in burgundy red and black cable varieties – you can buy additional jacks / plugs for $7.95 / £5.99 each and addition cable at circa $2.95 / £3 per foot.
This high quality Japanese brand is less well-known than Evidence, yet adds its own twist by providing both straight and right-angled jack plugs. The kits come in 3 varieties – variously with straight and angled jack plugs but always with 300cms of cable.
 FINAL THOUGHTS
I can see the benefit in being able to cut the cable exactly to size – but using a combination of EBS and Rockboard cables will pretty much handle all scenarios and can give you the tidiest of boards or pedal chains. All of these are premium and use premium components, so high quality sound is a given. There are certainly lots of different choices out there, and sure – some of these are a few pounds dearer overall, but you really do get what you pay for here, and these cable solutions should benefit you in several ways.

Ethernet Patch Cable Colour Codes & Bestpractices

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

Keeping data from getting crossed in a data center can be a pain. Below are some of the standards followed in Data Centers
blue – most common so workstations or generic servers.
red – critical systems. Sometimes used for building fire systems
yellow – less critical system.
orange – cabels that go off to other racks
green – where the money flows for e-commerce systems.
black – VoIP systems since the phones came with blakc patch leads
white – video camera network
pink – used for rs-232 serial cables
purple – used of isdn type links
tan – telephone lines
This is the current list of colors of ethernet cables that can find be found in general ind DC or have seen:
blue
light blue (rare but commonly used on cisco cables)
fluorescent blue (even rarer)
red (many of these are cross over cables)
yellow (this was a standards approved color for cross over cables)
cisco cable yellow
orange
pink
fluorescent pink
green
fluorescent green (never seen this buts its in catalogs)
black (easy to confused with power cords)
white (sort of rare)
light gray
dark gray (rare)
silver (rare)
tan/beige (common in cat 3 patch cables)
purple/violet (they are different but when you order one you get the other)
fluorescent violet (very rare)
One thing to consider is about 15% of all males are slighly color blind and only about 10% think they are. Many colors look the same but often times a color blind person can easliy tell the difference between say tan cables and beige cables but can’t tell the red from the green.
Color codes for fiber (fibre?)
Orange – multimode
Yellow- Single mode
gray – could be either but tends to be single mode
light blue – could be either
Color codes for fiber jackets
Blue – Stright cut – fiber joint is perpeneducalr at 90 degrees
Green – Angled cut – fiber joint is angled slightly
Note that buildings will often have these colors:
red – fire alarm cables
white – cheaper fire alarm cables
blue – who knows? Could be alarm, fire, hvac, or data
tan – same as blue but older
For -48 volt systems you can get:
red – ground.
black – negitive 48V but can routinely be -56V
blue – could be the same as red or black but tends to be the same as red on a differenc circut
Note that -48 Volt systems tend to be able to provide massive amounts of unfused current. These system will often have enough capacity to boil the metal in tools.
That describes the outer jackets. Inside cables like power you can have:
Live power from selected places around the world:
red (power Au/UK)
brown (old for AU/NZ/UK)
yellow (old phase 2 UK)
blue (old phase 3 UK)
blue (phase 3 in AU)
blue neutral in Europe
black (power in Europe)
Gray (old IEC phase 3)
gray (power Europe)
gray (neural in US/Japan)
white (neutral in US)
white (pahse 2 in Au)
white (swtich return in AU/UK)
green/yellow – Ground most places
green or yellow but not both (power IEC 60446 and a bad idea)
green (ground in the US according to parts of the Elec code)
green (Never ground in the US according to parts of the Elec code)
bare copper (ground in the US or death)
The color codes for ships make much more sense and are about as uniform. For example blue is used for compressed air on US registered ships yet blue is for water on UK registered ships.

How Many Cables Can You Pull Through A Hole?

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

A guide to help figure out how many cables you can pull through a hole to help you plan your structured wiring project.
I’d like to run new cables for TV, phone and network and I came up with this little chart that might help you figure out how many telecom cables you can pull through a hole. It includes Cat3 2-pair, Cat3 4-pair, Cat5 4-pair, Cat5e 4-pair, Cat6 4-pair, RG59 and RG6 Quad Shield in various sized holes.
Dimensions of cables vary so please double check the actual cables you’re going to use.
For the holes I selected sizes that match the auger sizes of Greenlee D’Versibit Flexible Drill Bits which are a popular type of installation bit used when pulling cables in existing walls. The bits come in 3/8″, 1/2″, 9/16″, 3/4″ and 1″ diameters.
There are 2 values in the chart. In black is the maximum number of cables I think I can jam through the hole and in green is the number of cables based on a 40% fill.
The NEC (National Electric Code) specifies conduits for power cables should not exceed 40% fill. This allows for some room to run extra cable in the future or change to larger cable as well as heat and providing enough room to minimize chances of damaging cables while pulling.
For some reason TIA/EIT and most LAN installers have adopted the 40% fill rule even though these are very lower power cables. When running cable through conduit the NEC says that the same conduit fill rules apply for low power cables as I understand it. I’m not 100% sure what the rule is when just running cable through holes and not conduit. What I’ve seen installers do is measure the size of their cable bundle and choose a drill bit slightly larger so that the bundle pulls easily without damaging the cable. The hole size needs to conform with building codes regarding making holes in structural members (generally no more than 1/3rd the width of the member.) Check with your local codes before starting. This is used mainly as a guide to help in planning and determining which size bits to buy. They aren’t cheap!
As you can see the Cat6 cable is a lot thicker than Cat5e cable. The whole reason I made this chart was to determine which cable to buy as I have a limited amount of space to run the cables.
They both support Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-T. Even the older Cat5 cable was able to run at gigabit speeds. The issue comes with transmission problems that may cause errors and slow down the network. Cat5e is better than Cat5 and Cat 6 is better than Cat5e in that regard.
Most Cat6 cable has a plastic center spline that helps prevent crosstalk and other signal issues. That’s the main reason the Cat6 cable is thicker. Some manufacturers have found ways to make cable that meets that Cat6 spec without the need for the center spline.
Most of the splineless cat6 cable I’ve seen is plenum rated. (see Cat6, Splineless, UTP, 23AWG, 8C Solid Bare Copper, Plenum, 1000ft, Blue, Bulk Ethernet Cable (Made in USA)) which is about 3 times the cost of regular riser cat 6 with a spline. The plenum rating means it’s made with a different jacket material that doesn’t release toxic fumes if it burns. I did however find this Riser rated ICC CMR CAT6 UTP 500 MHz (NO SPLINE) / ICC-ICCABR6VWH  which is only 2x the cost of regular Cat6 cable.
If I use Cat5e or splineless Cat6 the installation will be easier as I’d have to drill less holes or I could make smaller holes. Still trying to figure out if it’s worth the expense of the more expensive splineless Cat6 instead of regular Cat5e.

Why is GPON the Best Fiber-Optic Technology?

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

Fiber-optic communication offers a number of well-known advantages over electrical and RF transmission. Optical cables have very high bandwidth. The absence of electrical power over the line means there’s no spark hazard. The signal can’t be tapped by electromagnetic methods, so it’s more secure. Likewise, EM interference isn’t a problem. Maintenance is low, and the thin cables can be packed densely.
Several options are available for getting fiber optics close to the end user. They include active optical networks (AON) as well as passive optical networks (PON). Within PON, the main options are BPON (broadband passive optical network), GPON (gigabit passive optical network), and EPON (Ethernet passive optical network). GPON offers the fastest speeds of any current PON option.
How GPON Works
The GPON technology is based on the ITU-T G.984 standard. It’s considered the successor to BPON, which is built on G.983. A single network consists of an optical line terminal (OLT) belonging to the service provider, a splitter, and up to 64 optical network units (ONU). The ONU may or may not be on the end user’s premises, but it serves a single customer. It converts the optical signal to electrical or RF signals which the end user’s equipment can connect to.
An ONU is sometimes called an ONT (optical network terminal). An ONT is usually on the customer premises and an ONU somewhere outside, but there’s otherwise no real difference. The distance from the OLT to the ONU or ONT can be up to 20 km.
The information is sent over the short-wavelength infrared band, using wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). Downstream data goes over a 1490 nm signal, with a maximum speed of 2.488 gigabits per second. The upstream data uses the 1310 nm wavelength and can carry up to 1.244 Gb/second.
The next generation of GPON, called 10G GPON or XG-PON, offers symmetric 10 Gb/second upload and download speeds.
GPON customers are typically homes or small businesses. The technology delivers data, voice, and IP video. It may be packaged with an RF overlay at 1550 nm so that it can deliver standard cable video as well.
The Best Cases for GPON
GPON technology can be very cost-effective, provided it meets certain conditions. The OLT is relatively expensive, so the number of ONUs connected to it should be at or not much below either 32 or 64. Going above 32 ONUs requires adding a second port to the OLT, so there’s a cost jump at that point. Of course, the more users there are on an OLT, the more likely it is that service will degrade under peak use.
A PON offers low maintenance costs and has a high MTBF, since passive components don’t fail as often. Its advantage is especially strong where minimizing maintenance work is important.
The GPON design includes ATM encapsulation. This makes it convenient to deploy in networks which use an ATM backbone.
A GPON can replace existing copper-wire cabling and deliver higher data speeds with greater reliability. The question is when the improvement justifies the work of replacing it. High-density areas require less fiber and make it easier to optimize the allocation of ONUs to OLTs. With a large office building, it may make sense to put an OLT on the premises. Compact OLTs are available which don’t have to be deployed in a central office.
GPON vs. Other Optical Technologies
While GPON is growing in popularity, it isn’t the only option for bringing optical communication lines to the end user. Other technologies have their place, and a service provider needs to consider their relative costs and benefits.
AON vs. PON
Active optical networks have their own advantages. They use electrically powered switching rather than passive splitters. An AON has a greater range, as much as 70 km from the central switch to an Ethernet device. Users can be more widely dispersed. The costs are more nearly proportional to the number of users, so there’s less need to optimize end-user groupings.
GPON includes QoS features to keep latency down, but an active network allocates bandwidth more effectively and provides better latency when the user load is high. It’s easier to locate faults in an active network, since the switches can report points of failure.
An AON has higher power consumption, and active components are more prone to failure than passive ones. Costs and maintenance requirements will be higher. AONs don’t support RF overlays.
BPON, EPON, and GPON
The PON competition today is basically between EPON and GPON. BPON networks are still around and will be for a long time, but they’re a previous generation of technology. BPON is slower than GPON and offers no advantages to compensate. It’s simply a matter of how long it will take to replace all existing installations.
EPON is sometimes called GEPON (gigabit EPON), which is confusing, since people will tend to pronounce it like GPON.
EPON and GPON are both available in 10G versions, but the architectures are noticeably different.
GPON uses two different types of encapsulation. It uses GPON Encapsulation Mode, or GEM, to provide a frame-oriented service. In addition, it uses ATM encapsulation for when working in an ATM network rather than Ethernet. EPON doesn’t add any encapsulation but treats everything as Ethernet data. It’s a subject of ongoing debate whether GPON is more flexible this way or just adds complexity.
Choosing between GPON and EPON is difficult. GPON has ATM compatibility, better data speeds, and better QoS features. EPON is more economical and treats Ethernet natively.
Making the Right Choices
Getting fiber to the customer allows greater data speeds and opens new business opportunities. The questions are when to upgrade and which technology to use. The first choice is between active and passive networking. Within passive optical networking, GPON and EPON are the leading choices. Each approach has its advantages. Careful research and planning are needed to decide which will provide the greatest benefits.
Regarding the experience taken by Intraway, in projects with clients that offer services on optical fiber, it could be said that the most particular advantage of GPON networks is that a single shared optical fiber can support multiple users through the use of splitters passive optics, and this at a very low cost. On GPON networks, up to 64 ONT can share a fiber connection with the OLT. This allows the Gigabit passive optical network to be one of the first options for service providers who want to replace copper networks with fiber.
In conclusion, we could be talking about the following points to highlight about PON networks:
The provisioning of the platforms that manage the access, management and traffic of a service delivered by FTTX, being network elements that obey one of the new technologies, is much faster efficient to carry out.
Allow service providers to offer more capacity to transport bandwidth intensive applications.
Provide one of the most cost effective ways for service providers to implement fiber.
Future speed improvements can be achieved through equipment upgrades before any update on the fiber itself.

Do You Know All These Terminologies of WDM Technology?

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

As an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically increase the bandwidth capacity, WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) technology is an ideal solution to get more bandwidth and lower cost in nowaday telecommunications networks. By virtue of fame, WDM becomes a household word now. Yet, most of the time, we only know what is “WDM” but do not really know WDM technology. Actually, there are various of terminologies used in WDM that are always a headache for us. Now, let’s see what are they.
WDM Includes CWDM and DWDM
WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing)
A technology that multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different optical wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. It breaks white light passing through fiber optic cable into all the colors of the spectrum, much like light passed through a prism creates a rainbow. Every wavelength carries an individual signal that does not interfere with the other wavelengths.
CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing)
CWDM is a specific WDM technology defined by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) in ITU-T G.694.2 spectral grids, using the wavelengths from 1270 nm to 1610 nm within a 20nm channel spacing. It is a technology of choice for cost efficiently transporting large amounts of data traffic in telecoms or enterprise networks.
DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing)
DWDM is a specific WDM technology also defined by the ITU but in ITU-T G.694.1 spectral grids. The grid is specified as frequency in THz, anchored at 193.1 THz, with a variety of specified channel spacing from 12.5 GHz to 200 GHz, among which 100 GHz is common. In practice, DWDM frequency is usually converted to wavelength. DWDM typically has the capability to transport up to 80 channels (wavelengths) in what is known as the Conventional band (C-band) spectrum, with all 80 channels in the 1550 nm region.
WDM Transmission System
Single Fiber Transmission
Single fiber, namely bi-directional communication on one single fiber. This system utilizes two identical sets of wavelengths for both directions over a single fiber. Individual channels residing on the single fiber system may propagate in either direction.
Dual Fiber Transmission
Dual fiber, namely comprised of two single fibers, one fiber is used for the transmit direction and the other is used for the receive direction. In dual fiber transmission system, the same wavelength is normally used in both the transmit and receive directions. The second fiber may serve as a backup fiber as in a redundant system, or it may provide an optical path in the opposite direction.
Upstream (Return) & Downstream (Forward)
The direction of a communication signal can be refered using these two terminologies. The downstream direction is defined as communication originating at a service provider and sent to the service user. Upstream is in the opposite direction.
WDM Topology
Network Topologies
WDM products bring higher efficiency to fiber networks through multiple channel usage of fiber. Networks are identified by their fiber layout or topology. Network topologies such as Mesh, Ring, P2P (Point-to-Point), and P2MP (Point-to-Multipoint) will sometimes use WDM products particularly designed for the network. So, it is important to understand the intended network use when selecting WDM products. Entire networks are often comprised of several kinds of sub-network topologies.
Ring Topology
In metropolitan area networks, infrastructures are generally organized over a ring topology. Ring topology is a type of network topology consisting of a closed loop. Fiber ring networks are comprised of a series of fiber spans that terminate at network nodes spread throughout the loop. Each node in the ring will connect to two, and only two, adjacent nodes. Ring networks are often dual fiber systems. Contrast ring topology with an unclosed, end-to-end or point-to-point fiber span.