Fiber optic cables and wires

What are fiber optic cables?

Fiber optic cables are cables made of glass fibers and other doped plastic, and despite their high bandwidth, they have a small diameter and low weight. Fiber optic cables are designed to transmit data using light (specifically, visible light). This type of cable is resistant to all kinds of electromagnetic interference, and can transmit data at very high speeds.

Fiber-optic cables and wires are used in many different industries, including telecommunications or data communications, both by cable operators and Internet providers. What's more, fiber-optic cables are also included in such configurations as CATV and CCTV surveillance networks - check out our ready-made surveillance networks - LAN/WLANs and much more.

Fiber optic cable construction

Fiber optic cables are constructed of glass fiber and various types of plastic. The so-called primary coating of the cable is made of, among other things, a polymer that protects the glass fiber from external factors. Depending on the specific type of cable, it can be further protected by further layers. Among other things, it is because of the construction that many types of fiber optic cables are distinguished.

Types of fiber optic cables

There are different types of fiber optic cables. Fiber optic cables work on the basis of a modal structure - it is about building fiber optic cable single-mode and multi-mode fibers, which differ in construction, properties and purpose.

And so, it is worth taking a look at single mode (SM) fiber optic cables to begin with, which are distinguished by a core diameter of about 9 µm +/- 2 µm. They are characterized by a stepped refractive index, the ability to work with multiple protocols at the same time and a low attenuation coefficient. What does this mean in practice? Among other things, single-mode fiber optic cables are used to transmit data over long distances, without the need to install additional signal amplification equipment.

Multimode (MM) fiber optic cables, on the other hand, unlike single-mode, are characterized by a much larger diameter, which is about 50 µm. The principle of operation of this type of cable is based on the scattering of light, and therefore the signal that flows in them. Multimode cables are used for signal transmission over relatively short distances - for example, up to 1500 m - 2000 m. For longer distances, it may be necessary to use special devices designed for signal amplification.

What kind of fiber optic cable for the house?

This question is not easy to answer. All because to find out what kind of fiber optic cable to use at home, it is necessary to know whether the installation runs partly in the sewer system or whether it is a terrestrial installation. Keep in mind that fiber optic cables also differ in the number of fibers in the cable and whether the fiber is single-mode or multimode. The application is also interesting. It is worth remembering that for the fiber optic cable you choose, you need to select the right fiber optic module and fiber optic adapter.

What kind of fiber optic cable for the Internet?

Fiber optic cables for the Internet is another area where the choice is really large. The most common choice when it comes to cable for the Internet is RJ45 network cable, or so-called Ethernet cable, or the popular twisted-pair cable. To choose a fiber-optic cable for the Internet, you need to take into account the speed of data transmission. And here the choice falls most often on Ethernet UTP category 5e cables with up to 100 MHz, which offers speeds of up to 100Mbps. If you want higher speeds, a great choice will be UTP category 6 cables - their frequency has been increased to 250 MHz - then the achieved speed is 1GB/s.

Fiber optic cables and wires have many advantages over traditional copper cables. They provide much higher data throughput than copper cables. This makes it possible to transfer large amounts of data in a short period of time, which is especially important in today's world, where the amount of data grows expressly. Choose the highest quality fiber optic cables now!