Category: Fiber Optic Cables

How Many Choices Do You Still Have for Fiber Patch Cable?

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Fiber patch cable, also known as fiber jumper, is a key component in today’s fiber optic network. They play the role of veins in the whole fiber optic network bringing fiber optic signals between devices.
During the selection of standard fiber patch cables, several questions are usually take into consideration:
What’s the fiber type of the patch cable? The available selection are Multimode (OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4) and single-mode (OS1 and OS2).
What’s the connector type and connector polishing type on the two ends of fiber patch cable? Currently the most commonly used fiber patch cables are usually terminated with LC, SC and MPO connectors.
What’s the fiber count of the patch cable? Simplex (one fiber) and duplex (2 fibers) fiber patch cable are very common. For fiber patch cables terminated with MTP/MPO connector or breakout fiber patch cables. Their fiber count would be larger, sometime up to 24 fibers or more.
What’s the material of the fiber patch cable jacket? PVC, LSZH, Armored, and OFNP are the choice of most situations.
Not All Fiber Patch Cable Are Created Equal
Now with the fiber optic cable being widely used in a variety of industries and places, the requests for fiber patch are being refined. Fiber patch cable are being required to be improved and provide more possibilities to satisfy various application environments. Actually, many specially fiber patch cable have been created to answer the market call. Here will introduce several unique but useful fiber patch cable for your references.
Bend Insensitive Fiber Patch Cable for Lower Signal Loss
Bend loss issues are always a headache problem for most fiber optic network designers and installers. Why? Cause signal loss caused by bend loss issues are really hard to handle. In addition the bend loss issues are difficult to locate. That’s why bend insensitive fiber patch cables are created. Literally, it tells us that this type of fiber patch cable is not as sensitive as other fiber patch cables. The secrets is lays on the fibers which is made of bend insensitive glass. More and more data centers and FTTH systems are tend to use these bend insensitive fiber patch cables, because they do not provide lower signal loss, but also provide a much more durable and easy to maintain networking environment. Fiber optic installer is able to save installation cost with faster installation due to easier fiber optic cable handling.
bend insensitive fiber patch cable
Keyed LC Fiber Patch Cable for Data Security
Keyed LC fiber patch cable, is also called secured LC fiber patch cable. This is because, the fiber optic connectors on the two end of the patch cable are specially designed LC connectors, which can ensure the data security at the mechanic level. Keyed LC fiber patch cable is identifies by the connector color. Keyed LC fiber patch cable is just a part of the Keyed LC connectivity product family. It should be used with the same colored fiber adapters or fiber adapter panels. Each color of a set of keyed LC connectivity products represents a unique keying pattern that only allows matched color mating. This is how keyed LC fiber patch cable can provide data security for fiber optic network. A previous article (Secure Fiber Optic Link With Keyed LC Connectivity Products) of my has introduce keyed LC connectivity in details, kindly follow the link on the article title if you need more information about them.
keyed-lc-connector-and-adapter
Uniboot LC Fiber Patch Cable for Easier Cable Management
Uniboot LC fiber patch cable is a fiber patch cable with two fibers wrapped in the same strand of cable. A duplex LC fiber optic connector which can provide easy polarity reversal is terminated on each end of the uniboot LC fiber patch cable. The following picture show the polarity reversal of a typical uniboot LC fiber patch cable. With less cabling space are require, better cooling is available. With easier polarity reversal, no additional tools are required. And easier cable management can be enjoyed.
uniboot LC fiber patch cable
HD TAB Fiber Patch Cable for Space Saving
HD (high density) TAB fiber patch cable is a fiber patch cable with its connectors attached with a push pull tab, which can provide easier finger access and cable locating. Today’s fiber optic network is increasing depended on high density which results in difficult finger access and difficult cable management. With a push-pull tab attached on the connector, problem are solved easily. The connecting and disconnection of fiber patch cables will be easier without affecting other surrounding links. Currently most HD TAB fiber patch cables available the market are terminated with LC and MTP/MPO connectors. For more information about this type of patch cable kindly visit my article: Cabling With High Density Push-Pull Tab Patch Cords.
HD TAB fiber patch cable
HD Uniboot LC Fiber Patch Cable—Space Saving to the Extreme
HD uniboot LC fiber patch cable combine the advantages of uniboot LC fiber patch cable and HD TAB fiber patch cable. Combining two optical fibers in a single cable strand and attaching a push-pull tab on the connectors, HD uniboot LC fiber patch cable can minimize the required cabling spaces to extreme. It is an ideal solution for high density cabling environment.push-pull tab patch cords connectors
Except the standard fiber patch cable, there are still a lot of choices which can meet the requirements of various networking environment. All the above mentioned fiber patch cable are all available in fiber-mart.COM. Kindly visit fiber-mart.COM or contact sales@fiber-mart.com for more details.

Fiber Patch Cables for Harsh Environment

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It is usually inevitable to deploy fiber cables in harsh environments for both indoor and outdoor applications. Rodents, like squirrels in outdoor and rats in data centers, are cable destroyers which like to bite or chew fiber optic cables. Except that, there are also many other challenges which can harm fiber optic cables and cause fiber failures, like dusts, water or other liquid, accidental impact, etc. Thus, enough protection should be provided for fiber optic network. Two types of fiber patch cables, which are specially designed for harsh cabling environments, will be introduced in this post.
The two fiber patch cables are armored fiber patch cable and IP67 fiber patch cable. As most fiber cable failures are usually caused by fiber breaks and contaminants, the fiber cable and the termination points of the fiber links should all be well protected. And the two types of fiber cable can perfectly meet most requirements of harsh cabling environment.
Unlike traditional fiber patch cables which are fragile and usually need careful operation, armored fiber patch cables are usually much more durable and flexible. Armored fiber patch cable usually has two jackets, one inner jacket and one outer jacket, between which there is a build-in steel tube. Some vendors also provide armored fiber cables with aluminum tube. This robust metal tube can provide optical fibers inside armored fiber cable from the impact and bite from animals. The most commonly used designs of armor used in armored fiber cables are interlock and corrugated. For most outside plant applications, the corrugated armored fiber cables are suggested. Now a lot of armored fiber patch cable uses interlock armor. During operation in data center, armored fiber patch cable can provide a more flexible cabling environment, because it has bend restrictor which can provide optical fibers from over bending. The following picture shows the structure of an armored fiber patch cable.
With its durability and flexibility, armored fiber patch cables and armored fiber cable are widely deployed in today’s network. For data center applications, there is a wide selection of armored fiber patch cables, which are available from different connector type, fiber type, jacket type, fiber count, etc.
IP67 Fiber Patch Cable
IP67 fiber patch cable is a robust fiber patch cable terminated with specially designed fiber optic connections, which can protection fiber links from the harm of dusts and liquid. “IP67” is the code of Ingress Protection Marking which is a system to provide the protection level of products. The former digit “6” (totally protected against dust) and the latter digit “7” (protection from water dip) is used to describe the protection degrees of dust and liquid separately. The highest level of a fiber patch cable that can be provided in the market is IP68. IP67 fiber patch cable is an ideal solution to protect fiber links, especially the termination points. The fiber connector terminated on the IP67 fiber patch cable is different from traditional ones. A standard fiber optic connector is being protected by a special shell. To connect two IP67 fiber patch cables, special fiber optic adapter should be used for better sealing and protection. The following picture shows a LC-LC fiber patch cable. The following table listed part of the most commonly used IP67 assemblies.
Conclusion
Fiber cable protection is always the priority of fiber optic networks. Selecting the right patch cable according to applications is essential and necessary. For environments where animals and impact are very common, armored fiber patch cable can be used. For places where liquid and dusts are great challenges, waterproof IP67 fiber patch cable, proving great sealing, is suggested.

How Multiplexing Techniques Deliver Higher Speeds on Fiber Optic Cabling

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The Different Multiplexing Techniques:
Different multiplexing techniques are enabling the evolution of network speeds on fiber optic cabling.
Time Division Multiplexing is simply a way of transmitting more data by using smaller and smaller increments of time, and multiplexing lower data rate signals into a higher speed composite signal.
Space Division Multiplexing, more commonly known as parallel optics or parallel fibers, is a way of adding one or more lanes simply by adding one or more optical fibers into the composite link.
Wavelength Division Multiplexing is signaling simultaneously across multiple lanes segregated by different wavelengths (colors) of light that are multiplexed into and out of a single fiber.
Multiplexing Techniques Which Enable The Evolution of Network Speeds
There are a range of different Multiplexing Techniques which enable the evolution of network speeds through fiber optic cabling. Let’s take a look at each one of these techniques in a little bit more detail below;
TECHNIQUE 1: TIME DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
With Time Division Multiplexing, lower speed electrical signals are interleaved in time and transmitted out on a faster composite lane.
So the higher resultant data rate would be multiple times the individual rates going in.
There are examples used today where Ethernet rates are achieved using such parallel electrical signals, combined in a multiplexer and serialized over fiber. For instance, 10Gbps Ethernet has four lane options where each of the lanes is at a quarter rate of 2.5Gbps.
Today’s top speed per lane is 25Gbps for Ethernet, and looking to the future, 50Gbps lane rates are being developed.
With the higher rates, more complex multi-level code schemes are used to get more bits through with each symbol. This is an indication that maximum speed limits are being reached and so alternative techniques are used to increase the composite lane speed.
TECHNIQUE 2: SPACE DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
One of the other techniques is to add more lanes to the composite channel, known as Space Division Multiplexing. A lane in this scenario is physically another fiber strand. It’s an alternative to TDM lanes described above, where signals merged each in time on the same fiber.
There are a number of examples of this technique being used in the industry. 40G SR4 for example delivers 40Gbps over multi-mode fiber using four lanes or fibers. That’s four lanes in one direction and four lanes in the other direction.  That’s also what the four on the end of ‘SR4’ means, four lanes of 10Gbps each.
The standard for the 100Gbps solution uses 10 lanes of 10Gbps called SR10.  There is also a second generation of 100G that has increased the lane rate to 25Gbps and that delivers 100G using four lanes, so mixing the improvements in TDM and parallel optic techniques to achieve the goal of higher speeds.
Taking this further from four lanes in each direction up to 16 or 24 lanes, speeds of 200Gbps, 400Gbps and beyond are made possible. However there are pragmatic limits. Clearly a four lane solution is more practical than a 24 lane solution if you can get away with it.
TECHNIQUE 3: WAVE DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
Going above 16 or 24 lanes is a diminishing return because it drives more cost into the cabling system. That’s where the third multiplexing technique, wave division multiplexing comes in.
As the name implies, the wavelength band available for transmission is divided into segments each of which can be used as a channel for communication. It is possible to squeeze many channels into a small spectrum. The common versions used for long haul, singlemode systems are called Dense Wave Division Multiplexing DWDM or Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing CWDM. In multimode systems, Short Wavelength Division Multiplexing techniques are appearing.
With short wavelength division multiplexing, wavelengths are used in the lower cost short wavelength range around 850nm to add lanes within a single strand of optical fiber.
An example of this on the market today is Cisco’s 40G BD, or Bi-Di. Bi-Di stands for bidirectional and the signals are transmitting in both directions in each optical fiber strand, using two different wavelengths to discriminate between the reflections that might happen.
This technique uses 20Gbps per wavelength in each of two fibers and that way they can get 40Gbps through the 2 core fiber channel using a duplex LC connector.

Best Patch Panel Cable Management Techniques

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In the structured cabling system, a complete connectivity comprises of cable, patch panel, wall outlet and patch cord supporting all LAN applications. Numbers of cables come into or go out, in this situation where easily causes cable spaghetti. A patch panel not only performs the function of acting as the connectors, but also helps to arrange the cables in organized orders. Consequently, the well-organized patch panel cable management provides a reliable cabling system for all of today’s network applications and future-proofing networks.
Why Need Patch Panel Cable Management?
The most part is that a patch panel provides a centralized location to manage network connections. When it comes to making a move, add, or change (MAC), the patch panel cable management would effectively reduce the time and cost to perform physical changes at a patch panel in a wiring closet. Except that, it provides physical security for sensitive network connections (such as fiber links), and minimizes network downtime by allowing easy access during routine maintenance. As a last point, it provides the scalability to increase density when you need to connect a large number of devices.
patch panel cable management
High-Density Cable Management Solutions Based on Patch Panel
Patch panel cable management is involved in many components: fiber optic enclosures (wall mount or rack mount enclosure), fiber optic patch panel (LC, SC, ST, MTP, MPO), fiber optic cassette, horizontal or vertical cable management panel or cable manager. Different kinds of combinations meet the demand to effectively manage high-density structured cabling in different applications.
(1) Rack Mount Enclosure + Fiber Patch Panel
The rack mount enclosure is always loaded with LC, SC, ST, MTP/MPO fiber adapter panel to provide a pathway to connect backbone-to-backbone or backbone-to-horizontal fiber cabling. According to the application demands, different units of fiber enclosure can be selected. Generally, 1U rack enclosure can allow for 4 FAPs up to 96 fibers, 2U up to 192 fibers, and 4U up to 288 fibers. For higher cabling density, the combination of fiber enclosure and fiber patch panel provides an efficient, flexible and easy way for fiber cable management in the data center.
Rack Mount Enclosure + Fiber Patch Panel
(2) Rack Mount Enclosure + Fiber Optic Cassette
In addition to mounting with fiber optic patch panel, rack mount enclosure can also hold MTP-8, MTP-12, or MTP-24 fiber cassette to provide the interface between the MTP connector on the trunk and the LC duplex jumpers for quick connection of remote or data center applications. This mounting option is suitable for 10G to 40G or 25G to 100G application.
(3) Blank Rack Mount Modular Panel + Fiber Optic Cassette
The blank modular panel has multiple functions to provide a complete solution for routing network cabling and protecting patch cords. When 1U rack mount modular fiber enclosure panel is mounted with 4 MTP/MPO cassette, it can house the total fiber capacity up to 96 fibers. It is uniquely designed for both front and rear-mounting capabilities with easy-access cable management.
(4) Blank Rack Mount Modular Panel + Fiber Patch Panel
Except for fiber cassette, the blank rack mount modular panel with lacing bar can also hold 1U fiber patch panel to efficiently manage high-density structured cabling in data centers.
(5) MTP/MPO-LC Enclosure + Cable Management Panel
The MTP/MPO-LC enclosure is designed to connect 40/100G equipment with the existing 10G equipment in a cost-effective way. The breakout panel integrates the benefits of MPO pre-terminated breakout cabling and compact patch panels, and several groups links are dispatched in the distribution box that ensures a high-performance and reliable straight connection from 10 GbE to 40/100 GbE. The cable management panel with D-rings is used for horizontal cable management in the front of 40/100G breakout panel. This solution is perfect for 40/100G migrations in a high-density data center.
(6) Blank Multimedia Adapter Patch Panel + Cable Management Panel
Blank multimedia adapter patch panel allows customization of installation for multimedia applications requiring integration of fiber patch cables and copper cables. The inserted keystone jacks or couplers can be Cat6a, Cat6, Cat5e or Cat5. And the fiber optic adapters can be standard LC duplex, SC simplex, and MTP/MPO. So it can aggregate up to six different types of ports on demand at one time. The cable management panel with D-rings is a kind of cable organizer to keep the cables in an acceptable condition and satisfy the functional requirements of high-density network cabling.
(7) Ethernet Patch Panel + Horizontal Cable Manager with D-rings
Ethernet patch panel includes Cat5e, Cat6, or Cat7 patch panel. They are an ideal method to create a flexible, reliable and tidy cabling system for Ethernet cables. The horizontal cable manager is often used to arrange small bundles of patch cables from network switches and patch panels. It provides an economical and superior cable management solution for organizing patch cords and maintaining required bend radius.
Conclusion
Today’s data centers require a reliable, scalable, and manageable cabling infrastructure, and then the patch panel cable management solutions address these trends and facilitate the efficiency of high-density data center cabling. By the way, when purchasing the cabling infrastructure, there is no single solution that will meet all of the cable management needs. Hope this article provides you with the comprehensive patch panel cable management techniques for the successful cabling deployment in your data center.

How to Use the Home Patch Panel ?

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When building up home networks, we usually need to deal with numerous cables. It is an ideal solution to use home patch panels for connecting cables to various home network devices. However, some people still hold that there is no need to use the patch panel for home. Therefore, this article will give a clear explanation to the home patch panel, why use it, how to use it and how to buy it.
What Is the Home Patch Panel?
To understand the home patch panel, we’d better get to know patch panel first. The patch panel, also called a patch bay, patch field or jack field, is a mounted hardware assembly. It consists of a set number of ports to connect and manage the cables and can be classified into fiber optic patch panel and Ethernet patch panel. The home patch panel is the patch panel used for home networks. The commonly used patch panel types for the home are wall mount fiber patch panel and unshielded Cat5e or Cat6 patch panels with 12 or 24 ports. What’s more, the punch-down panel is popular for home network.
Why Use the Home Patch Panel?
As mentioned above, a home patch panel can provide a centralized location to manage home network connections. It is an indispensable component of the home networking setups. There are three main advantages of using the home patch panel.
Easy for cable management – With home patch panels, all cables can be collected in one place. This allows for easy and organized management of the wired home network.
Convenient for reconfiguration – Because multiple cables are terminated on the patch panel, the networking devices like switches won’t be disturbed when adding or removing some cables. And the patch panel’s ports are usually labeled. Therefore, it is convenient for you to make some changes of the cable.
Reducing wear of devices – Users can complete the connections on the patch panel, and there is no need to plug or unplug the cables directly and frequently from the devices. Thus, using the home patch panel helps reduce the wear of home network devices.
How to Use the Home Patch Panel?
Before installing a patch panel at home, you’d better ask yourself several questions. For example, which room do you want to be wired? how many ports do you want in each location? What is the good location for distribution? And What network speed do you need? Then you can start installing the home patch panel and there are specified steps:
You need cable stripping tools and remove the outside protective jacket about 3-6 inches from the cable.
Separate the cable wire pairs and straighten the ends for easy termination.
Insert the cables wires into the ports on the home patch panel.
Utilize a punch down tool with 110 blades to terminate each cable wire individually.
Make sure the cable to the patch panel with a zip tie.
Check if all the cable wires are correctly terminated with a cable tester.
Once you have completed the steps above, you can install the patch panel into the racks.
How to Buy the Home Patch Panel?
When buying a home patch panel in the market, you’ll find there are lots of choices. You’d better take the styles, cable types, number of ports, etc. into consideration and choose the appropriate one based on the function and performance you actually need. In addition, do not mix the patch panels for home network and patch panels for the enterprise network. As mentioned above, an unshielded Cat5e/6 patch panel with 12 or 24 ports and wall mount network patch panels are suitable for home networks. And the punch-down panels are suggested. While rack mounted shielded Cat6a or Cat7 patch panels with 48 ports are ideal for the enterprise network. And it’s better to use feed-through panels. If you want to know more information, welcome to visit fiber-mart.COM.

How to Build a Business Fiber Optic Network

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What A Business Fiber Optic Network Contains:
The essential philosophy of contemporary LAN wiring may be the idea of structured cabling. The complete networking method is separated into chunks that allow workstation wires to become concentrated. In a typical enterprise LAN system, the fiber optic network contains Telecommunication Rooms, Backbone Wiring, Work Areas and Horizontal Wiring.
On each floor, there will be a telecommunication room located on top of the other person. These telecommunication rooms hold all network equipment including routers, servers and switches. Telecommunication rooms are linked together with fiber optic cables passing through vertical shafts which are called backbone wiring/cabling or vertical wiring/cabling.
The backbone fiber optic cables typically run at 10Gbps Ethernet speed to supply enough bandwidth for the whole enterprise.
Work areas are work stations (PCs) split up into cubicles. These work areas are connected to each floor’s telecommunication room with horizontal cabling. These horizontal copper/fiber optic cables typically run at 1Gbps Ethernet speed.
How To Pull The Fiber Optic Cable Through Vertical Shaft:
The backbone cabling was once twisted pair copper cables. The good news is it is normally multimode fibers as well as single mode fibers. There are many tools available to pull the vertical backbone fiber cables. Included in this are Gopher poles, cable caster pulling tools or fish tapes. In most cases you have to put in a pulling eye to guard the fiber cables and connectors while pulling the fiber cables.
How To Terminate A Backbone Vertical Fiber Optic Cable:
The backbone fiber optic cables can be found in without termination (connector). You always have to terminate these fibers with fiber optic connectors such as ST, SC or LC connectors. The termination steps usually are not extremely hard nevertheless it does require some extensive training before you perform a fairly good job.
Fiber optic termination tools
The equipment necessary for fiber terminations are fiber optic cable strippers, Kevlar cutters, fiber cleavers, ST, SC, LC or MTRJ fiber optic connectors, fiber connector hand polishing puck, fiber polishing films and fiber inspection microscope.
Fiber optic cable termination steps
1. Strip the fiber: Fiber cables have 3mm jacket, Kevlar strength member and 0.9mm buffer coating. To get at the 0.125mm fiber cladding, you should remove the 3mm jacket having a fiber jacket stripper, then cut the Kevlar fibers having a Kevlar cutter, finally strip the 0.9mm buffer down to 0.125mm cladding having a fiber optic stripper.
2. Cleave the fiber: After stripping the fiber as a result of 0.125mm cladding, you insert the fiber into a SC, ST or LC connector, after which inject some fiber optic epoxy in to the connector using a syringe. You will then lay the connector into a hot oven for stopping the fiber epoxy so it can take the fiber tightly. After the curing process, you cleave extra fibers in the connector tip having a fiber optic cleaver.
3. Hand polishing the fiber: Within the next step, you place the connector (already with fiber fixed inside) into a hand polishing puck, which serves as a fixture while you polish the end face with the connector to get a good quality mirror like finish. Then you definitely hold the polishing puck and polish the connector over a connector lapping film in a figure 8 shape for 10~15 times. Repeat the hand polishing steps stepping from 12um, 3um to 0.5um lapping films.
4. Fiber termination quality inspection: The last step is to inspect the caliber of work. You insert the finished connector right into a fiber optic inspection microscope which zooms to 200 to 400 time level to show you all the scratches and pits which could exist around the connector end face. If everything looks perfect, then you can connect your fiber into the network.