The basic definition of patch cables means an electronic cable which connects electronic devices. It allows the transmission of data between them. There are different types of patch cables in the market with fiber optic patch cables being one of the types. Other types include microphone, headphones, RCA, and ethernet.

Fiber optic patch cable, cord or often known as optical jumper, is a fiber cable terminated with fiber optic connectors (LC, SC, MTRJ, ST, and more) at each of their ends. These connectors allow the cord to stay connected to an optical switch or other computing devices. These cords are ideal for indoor use in server rooms, data centers, medical imaging, mechanical engineering, LAN applications, Cable TV networks, Telephone lines, and more.

If you are looking to buy fiber optic jumper for your system, first you should be aware of its types and functionalities. And then choose according to your requirements.

Let’s dive in!

Armored Fiber Patch Cord: It is stronger than the standard fiber patch cord containing all its features. Armored fiber patch cord is resistant to adults’ stepping and is anti-rodents. It is as flexible as a standard fiber optic patch cord.

Bend Insensitive Fiber Patch Cord: It is resistant to bend related damages. It contains a small cable bending radius and prevents additional bend damages by its inventive core design. And also because of its low macro-bending sensitivity. It supports data center, FTTH applications, and high-density cabling that have to be wrapped and adjusted in the tight corners.

Mode Conditioning Fiber Patch Cord: It is a duplex multimode fiber patch cord which has a small length of single mode fiber at the starting point of the transmission length. It is to solve technical issues involved when using single-mode equipment on the existing multimode cable plant. This type of cables’ major aim is to drive the distance of installed fiber plant beyond its original applications as well as to improve data signal quality.

Low Insertion Loss Fiber Patch Cable: It looks similar to common patch cable by its appearance. But its connectors at the ends contain relatively less insertion loss.

Uniboot Fiber Patch Cord: These cords terminate with specially designed LC uniboot connectors. This fiber patch cable unites two fiber in a single cable which delivers high better performance in the high-density cabling environment. It cuts down the cable count up to 50%. It represents the best fit for places where there’s a scarcity of place.

Switchable Fiber Patch Cord: It enables fast polarity change in the field without needing special tools or training. With a compact design, switchable fiber patch cord attributes to more efficient cable management in high-density environment.

Step 1: Choose The Right Connector Type

The ends of fiber optic patch cord contain different connectors including LC, SC, ST, FC, MPO, and MTP. Kindly note that these connectors are for different devices. If you want to connect similar ports type devices, use connectors with the same type of connectors on both ends such as LC-LC, SC-SC, MPO-MPO. If you want to connect different ports type devices, LC-SC, LC-ST, LC-FC cables might help.

Step 2: Consider The Mode

These patches are available in two types of modes: Single-mode and multimode. Single-mode patch cables are ideal for long-distance data transmission. If you are looking for relatively shorter distances, multimode fiber optic patch cord could be an ideal choice.

Step 3: Simplex Or Duplex Cable?

Simplex means the fiber patch cable contains a single strand of glass or plastic fiber. It is generally used where only a single receive or transmit line is required between devices. Duplex means two fiber patch cables put side by side for common transceivers. Duplex cable type contains two strands of glass or plastic in comparison with the simplex cable.

Step 4: The Right Cable Length

These cables come in different length. Starting from 0.5m to 50m. It is of utmost importance to choose an appropriate length according to the distance between the devices you wish to connect.

Step 5: Connector Polish Type

There are two connectors available. APC and UPC. APC connectors are suitable for applications like FTTx, passive optical network and wavelength-division multiplexing. However, it is more expensive than UPC connector. For less sensitive digital system, UPC connects would be ideal.

Step 6: Choose The Cable Jacket Type

There are three jacket types: Polyvinyl chloride, Low smoke zero halogen, and Optical fiber nonconductive plenum.

Do not consider fiber optic patch cables with normal cables. Here’s what you need to know about fiber optic patch cables to select the right one for you.

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What Makes Fiber Optic Cables Better Than Copper Cables?

Fiber optic cables are capable of supporting most of the world’s internet telephone system, and cable television. They contain strands of glass fibers inside an insulated case. They support the long distance, high performing data, and telecommunications operations. These cables are capable to provide higher bandwidth which can transfer data over longer distances in a matter of minutes.

Throughout the years when fiber cables faced a revolutionary period, it became a bit tricky to consider the situations where you need to adopt these cables. Let’s go through a list of considerations which help you to decide when is the correct time to upgrade to fiber optic cables.

New Projects:

If you have your networking system built under copper system, it makes more sense to stick to the existing system. But there comes one point when it might become more cost effective to use fiber. At this juncture, a cost-benefit analysis helps you determine when to use fiber optic cable. Therefore, whenever there is a big new project just around the corner, it is wise to invest in installing a fiber system.

When Hurricane Sandy came, it damaged decade old copper cables due to water intake. Following to this natural disaster, New York City replaced its copper infrastructure with fiber. The investment in fiber optics made much more sense when such natural calamity occurred which reduced the performance quality. Service providers like Verizon chose to upgrade to fiber to ensure longevity, reliable internet access, and better service.

If you are the owner of a building and thinking about upgrading to Fiber optic technology then the building tenant’s requirements can give you a proper idea about the right time. If they want to use the new and renovated technology for the long term, a fiber investment may help them. Otherwise, keeping the future requirements in mind if you go with a new copper system, it might need a replacement in the near future itself.

When you look to successfully implement a fiber networking system, it is important to understand the venue first. You must consider the following things:

One of the important things from the above points is to look at the number of connections. The reason behind this is the small cross-sectional area of the fiber, a total number of cables and connections you can place together could be greater than a copper system.

Overall internet speed and usage is dependent on the number of users who are going to use this service. Moreover, it depends on the usage of each individual. If we consider the past records, big market players like Apple, Facebook, and Google were the heavy users of fiber because they have a large number of employees with devices and the amount of data transfer that took place every day. If we consider today’s scenario, products like high-rise hotels, university campuses and corporate offices might experience similar needs.

In such cases, one common thing is a large number of users are involved. You can anticipate that each of them at least brings two devices together, for instance, one laptop and a smartphone which would demand high-quality connectivity.

The main reason is that at these places for example campuses, there will be real-time lectures, access to assignments, and submissions. At hotels, a wireless connection would be the number one demand of guests. They would need to stream content, upload photos online and access other public networks. On the other side, employees would be in constant communication with onsite and remote staff via online calls and video connections. Hence, places where there is a large number of users involved, there is a likely scenario that users access cloud services all day to receive and send large files.

Fiber Optic Technology is a great technology for large bandwidth usage. At present most of the fiber bandwidth does not have any limitations by cables. That means that it doesn’t matter which type of new fiber optic electronics come into the market you can always utilize them at their best with these cables installed.

Summing it up...

Fiber optic technology has replaced traditionally used copper cables in most of the industries. Plus, their prices have also decreased in the past years. When you see that there is no sign of slowing down the bandwidth and capacity needs, people might get such questions where they want to know when is the right time to invest in fiber optic systems. The above mentioned instance describes almost all the situations where they need to adopt fiber optic options. If you still have questions about their usage, let us know. We would be happy to help!

This Blog is Originally posted here; Know the Right Time to Adopt Fiber Optic Technology

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