Some Notes Of Buying Fiber Pigtails

In any fiber optic cable installation, the way the cables are attached to the system–is vital to the success of the telecommunications network. If done well, the connection allows optical signals to pass with low attenuation and little return loss. One of the proven ways to join optical fibers is with a fiber pigtail–a fiber cable with a installed connector on one end and unterminated fiber on the other end.

Pigtails are basically cable assemblies. Ninety-nine percent of singlemode applications use pigtails, also used in many multimode applications. One of the benefits of using pigtail is lower labor costs. The end of the pigtail is stripped back and fusion spliced to another single fiber. This is done easy in field with a multi-fiber trunk to break out the multi-fibers cable into its component for connection to the end equipment. Installers working with singlemode fiber typically have access to a fusion splicer–an expensive piece of equipment that costs $6000 to $30,000 or more. With a fusion splicer you just splice the pigtail right onto the cable in a minute or less.

Pigtails bridge a critical junction in the fiber-optic network. Pigtails consist of–a connector, a ferrule, standard fiber and jacket types, including singlemode and multimode varieties. The most important element you should know is that the quality of the connector itself. You need to know certain characteristics, such as insertion loss, the type of polish used and how well the connector is terminated to the cable. As fiber cable termination is the addition of connectors to each optical fiber in a cable. The fibers need to have connectors fitted before they can attach to other equipment. Two common solutions for fiber cable termination are pigtails and fanout kits or breakout kits.

Ferrule material, whether zirconia ceramic, plastic or stainless steel, must also be specified when buying a pigtail. If you go with a metal ferrule, it is a waste for any singlemode application.

The length of the pigtail is another element that must be specified. The extra slack allows for splicing errors to be corrected, without it, you may have to start with another pigtail.

Pigtails can have female connectors and be mounted in a wall mount or patch panel, often in pairs although single-fiber solutions exist, to allow them to be connected to endpoints or other fiber runs with patch cables. Alternatively they can have male connectors and plug directly into an optical device. Pigtails are different from patch cords, as both ends with connectors, like common patch cord LC-LC.

Testing a pigtail in the field is not easy. The unterminated end is difficult to check until the pigtail is actually spliced to the equipment.
Quality is typically high because the connectorized end is attached in a controlled environment–FiberStore. FiberStore can make singlemode pigtails more accurately than a field termination can be done.

Classification of Fiber Optic Patch Cords

This article is designed specially for those who want to quickly while without going into details to understand the wide range of fiber patch cable types.

What is fiber optic patch cord?

Fiber optic patch cable, which is often referred to as fiber optic patch cord or fiber jumper, is the segment of fiber optic cable with optical connectors on both ends. It applies in two main areas: a computer work station – the output fiber optic patch panels or optical cross – rapredelitelny center. Optic patch cords are used only indoors.

The most common types of optical patch cords

Fiber optic patch cords can be divided into different types depending on the type of optical fiber structures such as optical connectors, polishing type and cable length.

Fiber type of fiber optic cable

Single-mode optical fiber patch cables (SM): A single mode fiber patch cord consists of a piece of fiber optic cable with a core diameter of 9/125 micron, terminated on both sides of single-mode optical connectors. Sheath-mode fiber optic cable usually has a yellow color.

Multimode fiber patch cables (MM): Multimode optical patch cord consists of a piece of multimode fiber optic cable with a core diameter of 62.5/125 microns or 50/125 microns connectorized on both sides with multimode connectors. The shell of a multimode fiber optic cable, usually has an orange color, and the connectors are gray.

10G multimode fiber optic patch cable (such as OM3, OM4): 10Gib multimode optical fiber patch cable 50/125 micron is specially designed and optimized for laser VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface

Emitting Laser – semiconductor vertical cavity lasers) is based on 10Gig Ethernet. They have backward compatibility with existing network equipment and provide the bandwidth three times larger than conventional optical fibers with a core diameter of 62.5/125nm. 10Gib is targeted at distances up to 300 meters using a wavelength of 850nm. The shell of such a cable is usually celadon.

Structure of the fiber cable:

Simplex optical cords: an optical fiber patch cable has a single fiber cable and one connector on each end.

Duplex optical cables: double optical patch cord has two fibers with two connectors on each end. Each fiber is marked with a marker to indicate polarity.

Ribbon optical cords: ribbon cable has one connector on one side, such as MTP (12 fibers) and other multiple fiber optic cables with connectors SC, LC, FC, etc.

Difference in the types of optical connectors:

Optical cable with identical connectors: the optical connectors on both ends of the optical fiber patch cable is the same.

Transient optical cables: fiber optic patch cord has different optical connectors on the ends of fiber optic patch cord, allowing connection of equipment with different optical adapters.

Difference in the type of polishing

Fiber optic connectors are designed and polished to different shapes. This is done in order to minimize back reflection. This is especially important when using a single-mode optical fiber. Back

reflection depending on polishing can have the following values: -30 dB, -40 dB, -50dB and -60dB.

PC (Physical Contact): Typical back reflection < – 40 dB for single-mode and multimode optical fibers.

UPC (Ultra Physical Contact): Typical back reflection < -50 dB for single-mode optical fiber. (usually connector SC, LC blue, and shanks to the FC and ST – Black)

APC (Angled Physical Contact), angular polishing: Typical back reflection < – 60dB for single-mode optical fiber. (Connector SC, LC and FC shank on ST and green)

Multimode Fiber Patch Cables

Multimode fiber patch cable is popular in computer industry that is standard for data applications like LAN, WAN, etc. Its connerctor is available in SC, ST, LC, FC, MT-RJ, E2000 and MU etc. Included in this, SC fiber optic cable gives unlimited bandwidth at high speeds over long distances. And it is core/cladding diameter will come in 62.5/125 micron (OM1) and 50/125 micron (OM2).

OM1 and OM2 patch cables were one of the most reliable cables for networking there were lots of people who prefer these cables instead of any others. But because the introduction of network, people require increasingly more to the multimode patch cord and than there appeared some problems.

One of the most common problems with these cables is that they aren’t that much competent to transfer data in a very high and excessive rate which may be up to 10GB. Therefore, these fiber optic cables aren’t the perfect networking solution for you and you’ve got to discover a much better and a good one in order to avoid various complications.

There are numerous aspects which require to be included in your considerations in order to avoid things you aren’t expecting. However, the unique multimode fiber that has the ability to provide amazing speed of data transfer involves be the greatest one for your network. And the OM3 multimode fiber patch cable is such a good example. Therefore, you aren’t required to find every other fiber cables if you can to get hold of OM3 patch cable. It is considered to be a very good cable offering multimode operations in order to improvise brilliance for the network when it comes to performance and speed. You can get brilliant and speedy networking performance without any distortions and decrease in speed. It will be easier for you to access and transfer great deal of data with the help of this specific fiber cable also is regarded as a high notch laser optimized cable.

If you’re prepared to get brilliant recent results for your networking performance and enhancements of speed is needed then this may be the right choice for you and you’ll be really satisfied with your Aqua color cabling. LC-SC fiber patch cable may also be presented to you with the aid of the very best provider-FiberStore, in order to ensure that there will be no connection problems so if you’re prepared to have any other mode of connectivity it can also be done with ease through FiberStore. You just have to find out which is definitely providing OM3 patch cables with 100 percent reliability and better quality measures ought to be included to ensure that there won’t be any troubles for you afterwards while using the cabling setup. This surely is a supreme networking solution for you personally and you won’t be able to get something better still than this. These superb 10GB patch cables are surely the best for your networking issues because they have the ability to provide great stability for your network.

Most of the networking problems arise because of heavy load of data transferring as most of the fiber optics doesn’t have capability of transferring data to some very high extent which might be causing various networking complications. Connection issues and connectivity with complete reliability can’t be possible if you aren’t while using finest optic cables. So, in order to avoid these kinds of issues and bring a brand new charm of excellence with performance you should not prefer every other cable instead of OM3 multimode fiber patch cable.

Fiber Optic Pigtails

Cable types include copper and fiber. Copper cable is a group of insulated conductors enclosed within a common jacket while fiber optic cable refers to one or more optical fibers enclosed within a protective covering and material to provide strength. Cable assembly is a cable that has connectors installed on one or both ends. If connectors are attached to only one end of the cable, it is a pigtail. If its connectors are attached to both ends, it is known as a fiber jumper & fiber patch cable. General use of these cable assemblies includes the interconnection of multimode and single-mode fiber optic cable systems and optical electronic equipment.

FS is the professional supplier of fiber pigtails SC, SC/APC, ST, ST/APC, FC, FC/APC, LC, LC/APC, MT-RJ, MPO, MTP, E2000, E2000/APC, bunch/ribbon/bundle fan out fiber optic pigtails. Fiber optic pigtail is used to splice outside plant cable to the backside of a fiber optic patch panel.

Generally speaking, pigtail fiber optic cable is a fiber end with a connector factory-attached for future splicing into a system. It starts as a manufactured patch cord or jumper with a connector at each end. Then you can cut the jumper in half and have two pigtails ready to splice. Pigtails are available with a variety of connectors, depending on your needs. These products have advantages over field terminations because the connectors are factory-installed and polished to exacting standards. By this way to save time over attaching a connector to the end of an optical fiber, and it typically produces a better connection. They are especially useful in situations where many connectors have to be added to cables in a relatively short time, or in a location where is easier to make a splice than it is to add a connector. On the downside, fiber pigtails require hardware to protect the splice and investment in a fusion or mechanical splicer, in addition to the cost of the connector and hardware itself.

Common connector type of fiber pigtails is SC, LC, FC, ST, MU, MTRJ, etc. ST pigtail connector is with metal outer body and with a long spring located ferrule hold the optical fiber. ST cable can be 9/125 single mode or 50/125 multimode or 62.5/125 multimode. ST fiber pigtails connector ferrule interface can be PC, UPC or APC.

Besides, FS supply various kinds of fan out pigtails, include ribbon, bunch, bundle fan out fiber pigtails. Fanout fiber pigtail is designed for easy connectorization. The break out cables can be 3mm outer diameter or 0.9mm outer diameter, the break out part of the pigtail can be with break out kits or with heat shrinkable tubes, and the cable length can be customized to fit for your special needs.

FS also offer the armored and waterproof fiber optic pigtail, they are produced strictly according to IEC standards, the products feature low insertion loss, high return loss, good interchangeability and repeat push-pull performance, which make them easy to use.

Ethernet Over Fiber Compared To Copper Cables

Although Ethernet technologies have been used since the 1970s within LANs, it just recently has been around us like a wide area network transmission medium due to the development of fiber optic technology. With communication technology inching its way forward, fiber optic cable is slowly taking over the cable technology by replacing copper cable as a way of communication signal transmission. There are many benefits of converting to Ethernet over fiber when compared to traditional copper wires or cables.

The main advantage is the fact that when compared with copper cables, Ethernet over fiber can provide 1000 times more bandwidth covering a distance which is 100 times farther, which is a major step forward when compared with traditional forms of accessing bandwidth. With fiber optic’s unlimited bandwidth, it may communicate information more dedicatedly. As a result, you can imagine the rate from the connection which goes in circles around the bandwidth assigned. Ethernet for broadband can be delivered over fiber optic cables installed throughout an entire building which could substantially reduce normal provisioning time for clients residing in that building. Fiber optic cable also provides you the opportunity to expand your bandwidth and have new technologies like MPLS, DWDM, etc.

Since fiber optic cable is based on glass, it doesn’t conduct electrical current. Hence, that you can do away with grounding. It’s also protected against electromagnetic interruption like lightning. Fiber optic cable uses light pulses which make it convenient to use outdoors and close to electrical cables. It is not prone to water and chemicals as it is made of glass. Therefore, it cannot be damaged by abrasive elements. Therefore cuts down on the cost of maintenance of Ethernet. The highest quality technology utilized in fiber optic cables is stronger in comparison with copper cables. This produces high definition picture quality and is devoid of any outside influences.

In case of breakage of fiber optic cables, there is no chance of physical injuries. In contrast to conveying information through electricity, fiber-optics does it through light. There is also no risk of harm because of fire or electrocution. Providers hardly have concerns about hardware failure when they use fiber optics.

Optical fiber can’t be tapped easily as well as if it’s, no light is going to be transmitted. Hence, it is more secure than copper wires. Although, Ethernet isn’t available everywhere, it is still a cost effective option at places where it is obtainable. Whether for a small office or a large setup, it is an economical and practical solution. With regards to speed, fiber optic cables can transmit good signals over 10GB per second.

Surely, the advantages of converting to Ethernet fiber optic cables are enormous. With cutting edge technology in your hands, data communication isn’t restricted by distance and you may possess the best quality transmission for the phones, Internet and television. Ethernet fiber optic cable has been a great development in telecommunications. It has a lot of positive features. Telecom companies do not need to disrupt or divert your phone, Internet or television services when they upgrade their relays or to make repairs. You get non-stop, fast and clear signals.

As Ethernet over fiber became the most commonly used technology, an Ethernet patch cable is needed for the purpose of interoperability between several electronics. Ethernet patch cable is almost just like an optical or electrical cable that is needed when connecting one optical or electrical device to another with regards to routing signals. Once the two devices that should be connected and therefore are dissimilar you may need a patch cable. Ethernet patch cables can be split into fiber optics patch cords with fiber connectors (LC LC patch cable, SC-SC patch cord, ST connectors fiber, etc.) and copper patch cables with RJ45 connectors (CAT5e patch cable, CAT6 patch cable, etc).