2024-03-06
With the rapid growth of data traffic, fiber optic communication, as an emerging technology, has developed rapidly and is widely used, becoming one of the main pillars of modern communication and playing a crucial role in telecommunications networks. This article will introduce the structure and classification of fiber optic patch cables.
Fiber optic patch cables, refer to cables with connector plugs at both ends and a thick protective layer, used to connect equipment to fiber optic cabling systems for active optical connections. They are primarily used in fiber optic communication systems, fiber optic access networks, fiber optic data transmission, and local area networks, and are suitable for cable television networks, telecommunications networks, computer fiber optic networks, and optical testing equipment.
The structure of fiber optic patch cables is similar to that of coaxial cables, but without a mesh shielding layer. In the center is the glass core for optical transmission, which can be categorized into multimode fiber and single-mode fiber based on core diameter. The core is surrounded by a glass cladding layer with a lower refractive index, and then covered with a thin layer of plastic sheath (usually made of PVC or fluorinated ethylene propylene material) on the outside.
It is important to note that fiber optic patch cables and pigtails are different. A pigtail has a connector plug at one end and the other end is a bare fiber optic core, which is spliced to other fiber optic cores typically inside a fiber optic termination box to connect fiber optic cables with transceivers (where couplers, patch cords, etc., may also be used). On the other hand, fiber optic patch cables have active connectors at both ends, with various interface types requiring different couplers. Fiber optic patch cables can be separated and used individually, functioning as pigtails.
1、Classified by connector types, there are FC, ST, SC, LC, MU, DIN, MPO/MTP, E2000, MTRJ, SMA, etc. The connector end-face types include PC, UPC, and APC. The connectors mainly used for connecting optical modules are LC, SC, and MPO/MTP. Connector type is an important factor to consider when purchasing fiber optic patch cables.
2、Classified by connector colors, they can be blue (commonly used for single-mode connectors), beige, and gray (commonly used for multimode connectors).
3、Classified by boot colors, they can be gray, blue, green, white, red, black, and aqua.
4、Classified by the number of fiber cores, they can be single-core, dual-core, 4-core, 6-core, 8-core, 12-core, 24-core, 48-core, 72-core, or customized according to customer requirements.
5、Classified by the diameter of fiber cores, they can be multimode fiber (50μm-65μm) suitable for short-distance optical communication systems, and single-mode fiber (9μm) suitable for long-distance communication.
6、According to ITU-T standards, communication fibers are classified from G.651 to G.657, where G.651 is multimode fiber and G.651 to G.657 are single-mode fibers. ISO/IEC divides multimode fiber into OM1 to OM5, mainly used in local area networks (LAN) and data centers (DCN).
7、The length of fiber optic cables can be customized according to customer requirements.
8、Classified by the material of the cable outer sheath, they can be ordinary type, ordinary flame-retardant type, low smoke zero halogen (LZSH) type, low smoke zero halogen flame-retardant type, and armored type. Armored patch cables, as a new type of fiber optic patch cables, are suitable for data centers or harsh environments, with high compression and tensile performance.
The common types of fiber optic patch cables in the market include single-mode OS2 patch cables, as well as multimode OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, and OM5 patch cables.
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