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Facts Of Fiber Optic Cables

People have really enjoyed the power and the flexibility of fiber optic cabling all around the world. Fiber optic cabling is becoming the fastest, smartest and most flexible way to enable large amounts of digital data to be transmitted and received. These long thin strands of cable have revolutionized the way our phone, television and information systems work. Without these cables, we wouldn’t have high speed broadband internet. Fiber optic cables are inexpensive, flexible and do not take much power to run. These advantages have made them a popular favorite among many communication companies. The only problem is, many people still know little about fiber optic cabling technology.

Here are some fiber optic cabling facts:

Fiber optic cables have a history – The technology surrounding fiber optics has been around since the 1870’s. The first introduction of actual fiber optic cabling started showing up in the 1950’s. This is a technology rooted in solid history.

Fiber optic cables use light – There is no electrical current being passed through fiber optic cabling, only light. Because of this, there is no heat and no heat means no burning and no fire hazards. During normal use, fiber optics are the safest option for data transmission.

Fiber optic cables are fast – Data can be transmitted through fiber optic cabling faster than traditional cabling due to increased capacity. Right now, commercial uses of fiber optic cabling can transmit 10-80 Gigabits per second over just one channel. According to reports, the current record is 15.5 Terabits per second over a distance of 7,000km. To put that into perspective, that’s the equivalent of 10.3 million DSL connections.

Fiber optic cables have many uses – From the traditional use of data transmission, fiber optics have grown in their use. Now, they are used with gun sights, imaging optics, spectroscopy, supply low levels of power, signs, art and even artificial Christmas trees.

Fiber optic cables have various types – Two main types of cables are multi-mode optical fibers and single-mode optical fibers. A multi-mode optical fiber has a larger core (≥ 50 micrometers), allowing less precise, cheaper transmitters and receivers to connect to it as well as cheaper connectors. There is also large core optical fiber(common 100 micrometers or even 400 micrometers). There are also Simplex cable and Duplex cable.

Simplex Cable– There is a single strand of fiber which is surrounded by a Single strand of fiber surrounded by a 900 um buffer after that a layer of Kevlar and lastly the outer jacket. It is generally available in 2mm or 3mm in plenum or riser jacket. Plenum is stronger while riser cable is more flexible.

Duplex Cable– The concurrent operation of a circuit in both directions within data communications is known as full duplex. The system is called half duplex when it is capable of sending only one transmission at a time. Two single strands are attached at the center surrounded by a 900 um buffer, and then comes a Kevlar jacket and finally the outer jacket.

Other types of fiber optic cables are loose tube cable and tight buffered cable, distribution cable, ribbon cable, breakout cable, waterproof cables for moisture environment, etc.

The Importance of Reliable Date Cabling

It is hard to imagine a world without the internet as it is so important in the modern business environment. We cannot stress enough the importance of reliable networking cabling. Some recent studies vindicated our evangelical approach to data cabling:

Data cabling typically account for less than 10 percent of the total cost of the network infrastructure.

The life span of the typical cabling system is upward of 16 years. Cabling is likely the second most long-lived asset or have. The first is the shell of the building.

Nearly 70 percent of all network-related problems are due to poor cabling techniques and cable-component problems.

Note: If you have installed the proper category or grade of cable, the majority of cabling problems will usually be related to patch cables, connectors, and termination techniques. The permanent portion of the cable such as the part of the wall will not likely be a problem unless it was damaged during installation.

Of course, these were facts that we already knew from our own experience. We have spent countless hours troubleshooting cabling systems that were nonstandard, badly designed, poor documented, and shoddily installed. We have seen much money wasted on the installation of additional cabling and cabling infrastructure support that should have been part of the original installation. No mater how you will think about it, cabling is the foundation of the network and it must be reliable!

The best way to ensure that your networking needs are met is by checking that the person installing the data cabling is registered with a cable registrar such as ACRS or one of the other five registrars in Australia. You should also make sure that they have the appropriate experience and qualifications in their background, possibly determining this via recommendations or terminations.

Another good thing to do is make sure you get two or three quotes in order to create an accurate idea of pricing, as some installed quote ridiculously high-but others quote too low indicating that they are using inferior quality products. Because the installation has been quoted cheaply, does not mean it’s a good idea. Properly priced instances are more likely to have the quality installation products from good fibre optic cable manufacturers.

Besides, installation can often have a warranty, usually between five and twenty years. The better the products, the longer the warranty period as a rule.

Costs that result from poorly planned and poorly implemented cabling systems can be staggering. One company that had recently moved into a new office space used the existing cabling, which was supposed to be Cat 5 cables. Almost immediately, 100Mbps Ethernet network users reported intermittent problems. These problems include exceptionally slow access time when reading e-mail, saving documents, and using the sales database. Other users reported that applications running under Windows 98 and Windows NT were locking up, which often caused them to have to reboot their PC.

After many months of networking annoyances, the company finally had the cable runs tested. Many cables did not even meet the minimum requirements of a Category 5 installations, and other cabling runs were installed and terminated poorly.

Contrary to most peoples thinking, faulty cabling cause the type of intermittent problems that the aforementioned company experienced. In additional to being vulnerable to outside interference from eletric-motors, fluorescent lighting, elevators, cellular phones, copies, and microwave ovens, faulty cabling can cause intermittent problems because of other reasons such as substandard components (patch panel, connectors, and cable) and poor installation techniques. LSZH cables are needed some safety advocates such as the plenum space.

Robert Metcalfe helped coin the term drop-rate magnification. Drop-rate magnification describes the high degree of network problems caused by dropping a few packets. Medicare estimates that a 1 percent drop in Ethernet packets can correlate to an 80 percent drop in throughput. Modern network protocols that send multiple packets and expect only a single acknowledgement are especially susceptible to drop rate magnification, as a single dropped packet may cause an entire stream of packets to be retransmitted.

Click to know fiber optic cable price per foot

Why do We Run LSZH Cable?

If you have concerns on why do we have to run LSZH cables in some special networking cabling environment, FiberStore editor here is pleased to make it all a little clearer. In this article, we’ll explain a little abut what halogens are, what’s the difference between PVC and LSZH cable, and why do we have to run the LSZH cables.

What halogens are?

A halogen is a nonmetallic element, such as fluorine, chlorine, iodine, or bromine. When exposed to flames, substances made with halogens give off toxic fumes that quickly harm the eyes, nose, lungs, and throat. Did you notice tsat fluorine and chlorine are commonly found in cable insulation and jackets? Even when cables are designed to be flame-resistant, any cable when exposed to high enough temperatures will melt and burn. PVC cables contain chlorine, which emits toxic fumes when burned.

What’s the difference between PVC and LSZH cable?

We know, much of the cable currently in use in the United States and elsewhere in the world contains halogens. The European market is demanding that cables used in LANs, WANs, etc. Meet LSZH specification. The IEC 60332-1 governs the Flame Retardant Grade specifications in reference to LSZH cable.

Essentially the compound used in manufacturing cables meeting the above specifications reduces the amount of dangerous/poisonous gases in case of fire. The main difference in specifications between IEC 60332-1 versus UL 5181, UL 1666 and UL 910 is that the cable under the IEC specifications continue to burn while still emitting very low gases. The UL specs demand that the flame be extinguished, but it can still be emit poisonous/dangerous gases.

A PVC cable is made of polyvinyl chloride. It has a jacked that gives off heavy smoke, hydrochloric acid, and other toxic gases when it burns. Low smoke zero halogen cable has a flame-resistant jacket that doesn’t emit toxic fumes even if it burns. PVC patch cords are soft, while LSZH patch cords are more rigid because they contain the flame retardant compound, and they are aesthetically more pleasing.

Many different fibre optic cable manufacturers are now making low-smoke, zero-halogen (LSZH or LS0H) cables.

These cables are designed to emit no toxic fumes and produce little or no smoke when exposed to flames. Tunnels, enclosed rooms, aircraft, and other minimum-ventilation areas are prime spots for the use of LSZH cables because those areas are more difficult to escape from quickly.

Why do we have to run the LSZH cable?

LSZH cables are popular outside the United States. Some safety advocates are calling for the use of LSZH cables in the United States, specifically for the plenum space. Review your local building codes to determine if you must use LSZH cable. Non-LSZH cables will produce corrosive acids if they are exposed to water (such as from a sprinkler system) when burned; such acids may theoretically further endanger equipment. But many opponents of LSZH cable reason that if an area of the building is on fire, the equipment will be damaged by flames before it is damaged by corrosives from a burning cable.

Why, you might ask, would anyone in his or her right mind argue against the installation of LSZH cables everywhere? First, reducing toxic fumes doesn’t necessarily mean the cable is more
fireproof.

The flame-spread properties are worse than for cables in use today. Numerous studies by Bell Labs showed that cables composed of LSZH will not pass the plenum test, not because of smoke generation but because of flame spread. Most Low Smoke cables designs will only pass the riser test where the allowable flame spread is greater. Second, consider practicality. LSZH is an expensive solution to a problem that doesn’t seem to really exist in the United States.

Benefits From Waterproof Cables

Abrasion, vibration and impact damage, extreme temperatures, moisture ingress, chemical vapours and even fire retardancy will deeply damage your wiring cables. To solve this problem, fiber optic cable manufacturers have developed lots of special cables and cable assemblies for these applications. Such as waterproof cables designed for moisture environment, lszh(low smoke zero halogen or low smoke halogen free) cable provides protection from fire, which is not that easy to catch fire, etc.

Many of these cables have been designed and formulated to withstand the long term effects of being immersed in aqueous fluids of different kinds. They have been constructed using special insulation and jacket extrusions, and a variety of tapes, fillers and other compounds help prevent water from penetrating the cables. These materials are designed to absorb and swell so in the event that a cable is accidentally damaged, the point of entry will swell thus blocking and therefore preventing any water penetration.

In environments where additional protection is needed from moisture ingress, thorough water-proofing of an assembly can be achieved with the use of IP rated parts. Aside from preventing moisture ingress, waterproofed assemblies offer protection from abrasion, impact and heat damage and are ideal for application where units are exposed to extreme weather or high humidity either inside or outside. Waterproof cables are easily defined as any type of cable which can withstand being immersed in water. They can be seen in aquariums such as marine and tropical fish tanks where they are used to power the heaters and pumps and other various pieces of important equipment which is used in the running and maintenance of the aquarium. They have a wide variety of applications and may be used in saltwater, freshwater, solvents or even chemicals.

Waterproof cables are also used to power remotely operated underwater vehicles, which is a tethered underwater robot. These underwater robots are tethered or linked to a ship by a group of cables that carry electrical power, video and data signals to and from the ship. Many of these remote vehicles will also use hydraulic as well as electrical cabling.

Waterproof cables are used in communication, and a submarine communications cable is a cable which is laid beneath the sea to carry telecommunications between countries. They are very widely used in many different applications and even cables that run underground have to be waterproofed in some way. Waterproof cables are used in many different industries for various different applications.

Each installer wants to protect the cable as best as possible. There are a huge variety in the types of cables to choose from. Whether that might be a plastic, armored fiber optic cable or corning optical cable(cables from Corning), there are plenty of benefits in purchasing waterproof cables.

Tight Buffer Cable VS Loose Tube Cable

You may familiar with bulk fiber optic cable, but how much do you know the differences between tight buffer fiber and loose tube cable? This article will focus on tight buffer vs loose tube cable.

Tight Buffer vs Loose Tube Cable Design

Tight buffer or tight tube cable designs are typically used for ISP applications. Each fiber is coated with a buffer coating, usually with an outside diameter of 900m.

Loose buffer or loose tube cables mean that the fibers are placed loosely within a plastic tube whose inner diameter considerably larger than the fiber itself. Usually 6 to 12 fibers are placed within a single tube. The interior of the plastic tube is usually filled with a gel material that protects the fibers from moisture and physical stresses that may be experienced by the overall cable. Loose buffer designs are used for OSP applications such as underground installations, lashed or self-supporting aerial installations, and other OSP applications.

Advantages of Tight Buffer vs Loose Tube Cable

Each construction has inherent advantages. The loose buffer tube offers lower cable attenuation from microbending in any given fiber, plus a high level of isolation from external forces. Under continuous mechanical stress, the loose tube permits more stable transmission characteristics. The tight buffer construction permits smaller, lighter weight designs for similar fiber configuration, and generally yields a more flexible, crush resistant cable.

The other fiber protection technique, tight buffer, uses a direct extrusion of plastic over the basic fiber coating. Tight buffer constructions are able to withstand much greater crush and impact forces without fiber breakage.

The tight buffer design, however, results in lower isolation for the fiber from the stresses of temperature variation. While relatively more flexible than loose buffer, if the tight buffer is deployed with sharp bends or twists, optical losses are likely to exceed nominal specifications due to microbending.

Tensile Loading

Cable tensile load ratings, also called cable pulling tensions or pulling forces, are specified under short-term and long-term conditions. The short-term condition represents a cable during installation and it is not recommended that this tension is exceeded. The long-term condition represents an installed cable subjected to a permanent load for the life of the cable. Typical loose-tube cable designs have a short-term (during installation) tensile rating of 600 pounds (2700 N) and a long-term (post installation) tensile rating of 200 pounds (890 N).

Conclusion

Tight buffer vs loose tube cable, each has its own advantages and uses. Nowadays there are many big brands fiber optic cable manufacturers provide tight buffer cables and loose tube cables. FS.COM, also offers a wide range of bulk fiber optic cables, including cables from corning and cables for different applications, bulk fiber optic cable can be made in a variety of lengths and configurations to meet your needs. For more details, please visit FS.COM.