Now with the fiber optic cable being widely used in a variety of industries and places, the requests for fiber patch are being elaborated. Fiber patch cables are being required to be improved and provided more possibilities to satisfy various application environments. Actually, many special fiber patch cables have been created to answer the market demand. But do you know how to choose right fiber optic patch cable for our network system? The following passages may give you a clear guideline to choose the suitable patch cables.
Why You Need Different Fiber Optic Patch Cables?
Fiber optic patch cable, some times also called fiber optic jumper cable, are terminated with fiber optic connectors on both ends. Due to the fact that fiber patch cable can carry more data efficiently, they play an important role in telecommunication and computer networking. And they are also used in numbers of places. Therefore, when you choose fiber patch cables, the first thing you need to know is the environment that the patch cable will be used. Indoor or outdoor? In the air or buried underground? Different environments have different requirements for cables. Let’s take armored fiber patch cable for example. Armored fiber patch cable, wrapped a layer of protective “armor” outside of the fiber optic cable, is generally adopted in direct buried outside plant applications where a rugged cable is needed for rodent resistance.
What You Should Concern to Choose the Fiber Optic Patch Cable?
Single-mode vs Multimode
Single-mode fiber patch cable uses 9/125um glass fiber and multimode fiber patch cable uses 50/125um or 62.5/125um glass fiber. Generally, single-mode fiber patch cables are the best choice for transmitting data over long distances. They are usually used for connections over large areas, such as college campuses and cable television networks. And most single-mode cabling is color-coded yellow. Multmode fiber patch cables are usually used in short distances. They are typically used for data and audio/visual applications in local-area networks and connections within buildings. Multimode cables are generally color-coded orange or aqua.
Simplex vs Duplex
Simplex Fiber optic cable means the cable composes of only one fiber, then a duplex patch cable consists of two fibers. Therefore, simplex fiber optic cable is common used in a system where only one-way data transfers. And duplex fiber optic cable is applied to where requires simultaneous, bi-directional data transfer.
Connector Types
On both ends of the fiber optic patch cable are terminated with a fiber optic connector (LC/SC/ST/FC/MPO/MTP). With the rapid development of optical fiber telecommunication, many different types of fiber connectors are available. They share similar design characteristics. Different connector is used to plug into different device. If ports on the both ends devices are the same, the patch cables such as LC-LC/SC-SC/MPO-MPO can be used; if you want to connect different ports type devices, LC-SC, LC-FC and LC-ST patch cables may meet your demand.
Polishing Types
It’s known to us that whenever a connector is installed on the end of fiber, loss cannot be avoided. Some of this light loss is reflected directly back down the fiber towards the light source that generated it. These back reflections will damage the laser light sources and also disrupt the transmitted signal. In order to optimize transmitting performance and ensure the proper optical propagation, the end of the fiber must be properly polished to minimize loss. Generally, there are two common polishing types: UPC and APC. And the loss of APC connector is lower than UPC connectors. So the optical performance of APC connector is better than UPC connectors.
Cable Jacket
The cable jacket is to provide strength, integrity, and overall protection of the fiber member. When choose one kind of fiber optic cables, the environment that the cables be used should be taken into consideration. Usually there are three types of jacket: PVC, LSZH and OFNP. Which one you choose depends on where you use the cables. Here are their features.
- PVC cable resistant to oxidation, it is commonly used for horizontal runs from the wiring center.
- LSZH cable has a special flame-retardant coating and it is used between floors in a building.
- OFNP cable has fire-resistance and low smoke production characteristics. It usually works for vertical runs between floors.
Conclusion
In summary, there are many factors which may affect your choices of fiber optic patch cable. So it’s important to make sense which kind of patch cable can really meet your requirements. Fiberstore can provide all kinds of fiber optic patch cables to satisfy your needs!
Originally from http://www.fiber-optic-equipment.com/
