Category: Fiber Transceivers

Optical transceivers, Active Optic Cables, data center switches, and cable management in data centers.

How Much Do You Know About Fiber Connector Cleaning?

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

With the widespread use of optical fiber in high-speed communications, reliable and efficient fiber installations and maintenance are critical to the high-performance network. According to NTT-Advanced Technology, 98% of installers and 80% of network owners reported that issues with fiber connector contamination were the greatest cause of network failure. Contaminated or dirty fiber connectors can often lead to degraded signal performance or link failure, so a properly maintained and cleaned fiber optic cable will help to reduce the contamination on fiber interface. Admittedly, fiber cleaning kits play an important role in the maintenance of fiber optic system, which keeps the effective connections between all fiber optic equipment.
Different Fiber Connector Types
As we all know, fiber connector is a component to terminate the end of fiber optic cable, which has an important impact on the fiber optic transmission reliability and the performance of the system. In general term, about 100 fiber optic connectors have been introduced to the market. But the most commonly used fiber connector types include LC, SC, MU, ST, FC, MTRJ, NID, E2000 and MTP/MPO connector. Therefore, choosing the right fiber cleaning tools depends on the types of the fiber connector.
General Fiber Cleaning Procedures
Before cleaning the fiber optic connectors, it is essential to know the general connector cleaning process. Generally, there are two methods to clean fiber connectors: dry cleaning and wet cleaning. Dry cleaning is to use a reel-type cassette cleaner or push-type fiber cleaner to wipe the connector end face against a dry cleaning cloth in one direction. It can remove airborne contamination and should be attempted at first. As for wet cleaning, first wipe the end face against the wet area and then onto a dry area to clean potential residue from the end face. Wet cleaning is more aggressive than dry cleaning, but it can remove both airborne contamination and light oil residue. After dry cleaning, the connector is still dirty, a wet cleaning is followed immediately in order to ensure no residue is left on the end face.
How Many Fiber Connector Cleaning Solutions Are There?
Reel-type Fiber Cleaners
The reel-type cleaner is designed for effective cleaning of almost all fiber optic connectors with an accessible ferrule including LC, MU, SC, FC, ST, MPO/MTP, MTRJ and so on. If you only need to clean the accessible connector with a wide range of connector styles, it is an ideal choice for you.
CLE-BOX cassette cleaner is an essential non-alcohol cleaner to maintain and guarantee good quality of fiber optic connection. It supports removing dust, oil, and other debris for LC/SC/FC/ST/MU/D4/DIN connectors. You don’t have to carry any other tools to clean the dust and grease on optical fiber interface. Cassette tapes are available for replacement after 500+ cleaning operations to ensure low cleaning cost. When using cassette cleaner, please always remember that don’t reverse cleaning direction so as to avoid back wiping contaminants.
Fiber Cleaning Wipes
Fiber optic cleaning wipes are designed to be used dry or with fiber optic cleaning alcohol for effectively removing common contaminants from optical jumpers and patch cords. These fiber wipes are lint-free and non-abrasive, thus they can provide superior cleaning of fiber optic connector ferrules without risk of scratching or lint residue. FS can provide Wipexperts M-3 cleanroom wipes, cleanroom wipes, and Kimtech wipes. Among them, Kimtech science wipes have been a favorite choice of labs, medical offices and delicate manufacturing for more than 60 years. Kimwipes delicate task wipers are specifically designed to gently clean liquid and dust and are great for instrumentation, surface, parts and lens cleaning.
Foam Swabs
Fiber optic lint-free foam swabs are ideally suited for cleaning contamination from 1.25mm or 2.5mm fiber adapters and connectors. 1.25mm and 2.5mm foam swabs are all made of polyester and polyurethane. These small foam swabs have excellent performance for cleaning the end face of adapter or connector, and they can also be used in other equipment, such as a printer, computer, optical instrument camera lens, etc.

Basic Knowledge of Fiber Optic Connector

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Terminating the end of an optical fiber, the fiber optic connector is utilized to join optical fibers where a connect or disconnect capability is required. A optical fiber connector has three major components: the ferrule, the connector body and the coupling mechanism. Generally made from ceramic, metal or high quality plastic, the ferrule is a thin structure (often cylindrical) that holds the glass fiber. The connector body is a plastic or metal structure that holds the ferrule and attaches to the jacket and strengthens members of the fiber cable itself. And the coupling mechanism is a part of the connector body that holds the connector in place when it gets attached to another device.
Since the fiber cable transmits pulses of light instead of electrical signals, it is important to choose a good optical fiber connector that aligns microscopic glass fibers perfectly in order to allow for communication. Nowadays, there are many different types of fiber optic connectors in the market (as shown in the following figure). Different kinds of optical fiber cables may need different connectors. Seen from the types of optical fiber, the fiber optic connectors may be loosely classified into standard fiber optic connectors, small form factor fiber optic connectors and ribbon fiber connectors. These family types of fiber connectors sometimes may overlap with each other.
Fiber Optic Connector Types
Standard Fiber Optic Connectors
Generally having a ferrule of 2.5 mm, standard fiber optic connectors are connectors commonly used in the fiber network. They can be both simplex and duplex and available in single mode and multi-mode fibers. ST, FC, SC, FDDI and ESCON are all standard fiber connectors. But they also differ from each other. ST connector is the most popular connector for multi-mode fiber optic LAN applications. FC connector is specifically designed for telecommunication applications and provides non-optical disconnect performance. SC connector is widely used in single mode applications for its excellent performance. FDDI connector, which is a duplex multi-mode connector, utilizes two 2.5mm ferrules and is designed to used in FDDI network. ESCON connectors are similar to FDDI connectors, but contain a retractable shroud instead of a fixed shroud.
Small Form Factor Fiber Optic Connectors
To meet the demand for devices that can fit into tight spaces and allow denser packing of connections, a number of small form factor fiber optic connectors have been developed since the 1990s. In this type of small form factor fiber optic connectors, some are miniaturized versions of older connectors, built around a 1.25mm ferrule rather than the 2.5mm ferrule. For example, the LC, MU, E2000 connectors. While the others are based on smaller versions of MT-type ferrule for multi-mode fiber connections, or other brand new designs. For example, the MT-RJ connector, which has a miniature two-fiber ferrule with two guide pins parallel to the fibers on the outside. Its overall size is about the same as an RJ45 connector.
Ribbon Fiber Connectors
MTP and MPO are compatible ribbon fiber connectors based on MT ferrules which allow quick and reliable connections for up to 12 fibers. Since the MTP product complies with the MPO standard, the MTP connector is an MPO connector. Along with the MTP patch cables (for example, MTP-MTP fiber trunk cable), MTP connectors can upgrade the 10G network to 40G/100G.
Conclusion
The optical fiber connector is an essential part of fiber optical network. As the popularity of fiber optical network, about 100 fiber optic connectors have been introduced to the market. As the main professional fiber optic products supplier in China, fiber-mart.com offers various kinds of fiber cable connectors, especially the commonly used FC, LC, SC, ST and MPO connectors.

Are You Ready For 400G Ethernet?

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The rapid development in telecom industry is driving massive demand for higher bandwidth and faster data rate, from 10G to 40G and 100G, will this keep going on? The answer is definitely “Yes”. Some time ago, migration from 10G to 40G or 25G to 100G has been a hot spot among data center managers. While recently, 400G solutions and 400G components are coming. Are you ready for 400G? This article will share some information about 400G Ethernet.
Overview of 400G
In the past couple of years, modules with four 25/28G lanes or wavelengths are the solutions for 100G Ethernet. However, they were expensive at the beginning. Until 2016, the optical components industry has responded to the demands with 100G solutions that already cost less per gigabit than equivalent 10G and 40G solutions, and new developments to further drive down cost and increase bandwidths. The next generation is 400G Ethernet. The IEEE has agreed on PSM4 with four parallel fibers for the 500 meters 400GBASE-DR4 specification that is part of the IEEE802.3bs standard being developed for approval by the end of 2017. The industry is already developing optical components for 400G Ethernet solutions. The following figure shows telecom and datacom adoption timelines.
We can visually see that telecom/enterprise applications first adopted 100G technology in the form of CFP modules. Data centers generally did not adopt 100G interfaces until the technology matured and evolved towards denser, lower power interfaces, particularly in the form of QSFP28 modules. However, as the hyperscale data center market scales to keep pace with machine-to-machine communications needs, data center operators have become the first to demand transmission modules for data rates of 400G and beyond. Therefore, the 400G era is now upon us.
Modules for 400G
We know that the QSFP28 modules for 100G Ethernet and SFP28 modules for 25G Ethernet are now the dominant form factors. Though CFP, CFP2 and CFP4 modules remain important for some applications, they have been eclipsed by QSFP28 modules. To support higher bandwidth, what is the right module for 400G? The first CFP8 modules are already available. QSFP-DD is backward compatible with QSFP, and OSFP may deliver better performance, especially as networks move to 800G interfaces.
CFP8 module: CFP8 module is the newest form factor under development by members of the CFP multisource agreement (MSA). It is approximately the size of CFP2 module. As for bandwidth density, it respectively supports eight times and four times the bandwidth density of CFP and CFP2 module. The interface of CFP8 module has been generally specified to allow for 16 x 25 Gb/s and 8 x 50 Gb/s mode.
QSFP-DD module: QSFP-DD refers to Quad Small Form Factor Pluggable Double Density. It uses eight 25G lanes via NRZ modulation or eight 50G lanes via PAM4 modulation, which can support optical link of 200 Gbps or 400 Gbps aggregate. In addition, QSFP-DD module can enable up to 14.4 Tbps aggregate bandwidth in a single switch slot. As it is backwards compatible with QSFP modules, QSFP-DD provides flexibility for end users and system designers.
OSFP module: OSFP (Octal Small Form Factor Pluggable) with eight high speed electrical lanes is able to support 400G (8x50G). It is slightly wider and deeper than the QSFP but it still supports 36 OSFP ports per 1U front panel, enabling 14.4 Tbps per 1U. The OSFP is able to meet the projected thermal requirements for 800 Gbps optics when those systems and optics become available in the future.
Conclusion
Judging from the current trends, 400G will become the mainstream in the near future. But there are still some challenges for it to overcome, such as high capacity density, low power consumption, ever lower cost per bit, and reliable large-scale manufacturing capabilities. You never know what surprise the network will bring to you, let’s wait and see the 400G’s time.

SFP Fiber Switch Introduction and Cabling Solutions

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

With the growth of today’s network, the amount of hardware involved has become a barrier to efficient and optimized network operations. In some cases, a fiber switch is the answer. These fiber switches with management functions can reduce the burden on the network backbone, by connecting different edge-level devices and combining them into a single data stream. Today, we’ll focus on SFP fiber switch and its cabling solutions.
SFP Fiber Switch Introduction
As the name implies, an SFP fiber switch is a communication control device with SFP ports. And like a common networking switch, SFP fiber switch is also used to send and receive data transmission, but in fiber channel. These SFP ports are small form-factor hot pluggable interfaces, so the SFP optical transceiver modules can be inserted into the SFP ports. Then the fiber cables can be used to connect the fiber switch to other networking equipment.
Advantages of SFP Fiber Switch
SFP fiber switch can provide a higher reliability and security than the RJ45 port switch. As we know, fiber cables transfer data in light, which is faster than the copper cables’ electronic transmission speed. And due to the special design of fibers, the SFP fiber switch generates less data loss and electromagnetic interference. Therefore, using an SFP fiber switch is better than the RJ45 port copper switch. For example, if the transmitting distance is more than 100 meters, copper cables like Cat5e or Cat6a is unable to reach. So you need the fiber cables which are often used to interconnect switches in multi-building deployments.
fiber-mart SFP Fiber Switch Cabling Solution
To meet the market demands, fiber-mart.COM has published a set of fiber switches and the corresponding cabling solutions. Here we take S5800-48F4S SFP fiber switch as an example. Before we learn its cabling solutions, let’s have a look at the fiber switch first.
This SFP network switch is a 10GbE switch. It’ s designed with 48 1GbE SFP ports and 4 10GbE SFP+ ports, which allows high performance routing, host and access protocol emulation. With the latency of 2.3us and switching capacity of 176Gbps, this Layer 3 switch is a great option for data centers. Its body is compact and made of sturdy material that complies with ISO9001, ETL, CE, FCC standards. The following video shows the cabling solutions between S5800-48F4S switch and other switches.
Conclusion
SFP fiber switch can actually improve overall speeds and responsiveness of one’s network. fiber-mart carries a full line of Gigabit Ethernet switch, including 8 port SFP fiber switch, 24 or 48 port fiber switch. Contact us via sales@fiber-mart.com for a free consultation on your networking needs and choose the suitable fiber switch based on your specific requirement.

What Is Ethernet Leaf Switch

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

At present, with the massive increase in data transmitting and the need for real time data travel within the network, Ethernet switching technology has evolved greatly over the last decade. As a result, the existing aging three-tier design has been replaced by the new leaf and spine architecture in data centers. This new network architecture requires specially designed leaf switch in order to work. So how much do you know about leaf switch? Here we’ll explain this data switch in this article.
Leaf Switch Introduction
As the figure1 shows, a leaf-spine architecture is usually composed of spine switches and leaf switches. Leaf switch is used to gather the traffic from the server nodes, then link to the network core that consists of spine switches. In this case, every leaf switch connects to every spine, which contributes to minimizing the network latency and bottlenecks. Therefore, the leaf and spine architecture allows for huge amounts of bandwidth and provides a high level of redundancy.
Traditional Three-Tier VS Leaf-Spine Architecture
Commonly, a traditional model includes three layers, core, aggregation and access. And most data center services and functions run on physical hardware that drives “north-south” traffic. If there are some east-west traffic that needed to be transferred across the traditional model, devices connected on the same access layer contend for bandwidth. Therefore, congestion will be created between the access and aggregation layer.
Unlike the traditional three-tier, the access layer of leaf-spine structure is formed by each leaf switch that is directly connected to each spine switch. And this direct connection helps to minimize the traffic bottlenecks and latency, and utilize the networking protocols and methodologies to create a dynamic network.
Leaf-Spine Architecture Advantages
As described above, we know the advantage of leaf-spine model is the improved latency and reduced bottlenecks. With this new approach, only a few data switches are needed to create a large and non-blocking fabric. This is the main advantage that makes it popular in networking system.
In addition, leaf-spine uses all interconnection links. This means an additional spine switch could be added and the uplinks can be extended to each leaf switch, which can increase the interlayer bandwidth. Therefore, it allows the network to scale without managing or disrupting the Layer 2 switching protocols as the traffic grows.
Leaf switch and leaf-spine architecture make the network more flexible. And fiber-mart.com S5850 series data switches are the quite cost-efficient selections. fiber-mart.com provides a full line of network switches including 24 port switch, 48 port switch and 1G switch, 10GbE switch and 40GbE switch. Come and choose the suitable switch.

Patch Panel Recommendations

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As a patch panel offers people easy cable management, it has been widely acknowledged by more and more users and expertise. When choosing a patch panel, a lot of factors can be considered, like types and designs. I would like to recommend you patch panels from there perspectives, that is, cabling system, port density, and space saving.
Cabling System of Patch Panel
As we all know, the patch panel used in fiber cabling system is called fiber patch panel and the one used in copper cabling systems named copper patch panel. As far as I am concerned, the fiber patch panel deserves the higher price since it is a lot easier to install. However, copper patch panel can also be your first choice as it is cost-efficient and durable, like the Cat6 patch panel introduced in the next part.
1U High 19″ fiber patch panel is easy to install for better deployment and expand your network for interconnection and cross-connection inside the rack mount and cabinet. It has 24 ports and is available with two adapter types: SC and LC duplex.
Specially designed for Gigabit Ethernet applications, Cat6 Ethernet patch panel meets and even exceeds the TIA/EIA 568 industry specification, and are compatible with all kinds of Cat6 cables and related accessories. Besides, Cat6 patch panels feature high-density and offer the performance required for present and next generation data communications networks and applications.
Port Density of Patch Panel
Port density seems to be a main concern when choosing a patch panel. The patch panel with more ports enables more connectivity. Common patch panels are always designed in 8 or 12-port configurations. While high-density patch panels are available in flat and angled designs with 24 or 48 ports configurations. High-density patch panel is suitable for installations with limited space.
Take the Cat6 Ethernet patch panels we mentioned above as an example, as high-density patch panels, they are available in 12-port, 24-port, 48-port configurations, and feature enhanced front and rear labeling mark for easy circuit identification. In addition, the cat6 patch panel provided by fiber-mart.COM contains user-friendly number coding and removable rear cable manager which is conducive to uninstall and install.
Space Saved by Patch Panel
In general, I, myself, prefer wall mount patch panel to rack mount patch panel, because it is installed above the floor, sparing much space for other equipment standing on the ground.
Wall mount patch panel provided by fiber-mart.COM possesses number labeling for easy outlet identification, and is used to provide the critical connection between various fiber cables and optical equipment fixed on the customer’s house or office, offering networking and fiber distribution from the wiring closet to the user’s terminal equipment. Furthermore, it can be fixed quickly and easily to the wall using four screws.
Conclusion
Hope you have saved a lot of time and energy by checking out the list we have above. However, another aspect not mentioned is the budget, as many people would struck in a dilemma that whether to choose a patch panel only for now or the expensive one for future. Considering this, you can first choose what function and performance you actually need, then compare the price of the same type of patch panel between different vendors.