What is Ribbon Fiber Optic Cable

Ribbon fiber optic cable is a typical fiber optic cable. Unlike beam optical cable, ribbon fiber optic cable is arranged into a strip. Ribbon fiber optic cable is a convenient solution for space and weight problems. The cable ribbons are actually coated optical fibers placed side by side, encapsulated in Mylar tape, similar to a miniature version of wire ribbons used in computer wiring. A single ribbon many contain 4, 8 or 12 optical fibers. There ribbons can be stacked up to 22 high.

Because the ribbon contains only coated optical fibers, this type of cable takes up much less space than individually buffered optical fibers. As a result, ribbon cables are denser than any other cable design. They are ideal for applications where limited space is available, such as in an existing conduit that have very little room left for an additional cable.

Fiber optic ribbon cable comes in two basic arrangements: Loose tube ribbon cable, fiber ribbons are stacked on top of one another inside a loose-buffered tube. This type of arrangement can hold several hundred fibers in close quaters. The buffer, strength members, and cable jacket carry any strain while the fiber ribbons move freely inside the buffer tube. Jacket ribbon cable looks like a regular tight-buffered cable, but it is enlongated to contain a fiber ribbon. This type of cable typically features a small amount of strength member and a ripcord to tear through the jacket.

Ribbon cables is commonly used in urban construction of circle trank cable network, the large capacity and multi-core features facilitate the jumper box crossing task in the local optical area network. Ribbon cables is rarely used in inter-provincial long distance fiber optic trunk cable.

Ribbon fiber provides definite size and weight saving, which required the connector, strippers, cleavers, and fusion splicers to be tailored to the ribbon fiber. Below is the simple steps of ribbon fusion splicing:
Ribbon fusion splicer is also called mass fusion splicers, it can splice the entire cable ribbons at on time. Ribbon splicers looks similar to single fiber splicers and work in much the same way, except the ribbons are treated as one assembly, stripped, cleaved and spliced by special tools while held in a special holder. The holder is inserted in a special stripper that uses heat to make stripping easier. After stripping, the holder is placed in a special cleaver that will cleave all 12 fibers at once. Then the fixure with all the cleaved fibers is placed in the splicing machine. When the second ribbon is prepared, the unit is set for automated splicing.

FiberStore, as one of the main fibre optic cable manufacturers provides a compact, efficient, and versatile solution to applications requiring maximum connectivity in a minimum amount of space. Our ribbon cable assemblies provide up to 72 fiber connections in a single point, reducing the physical space and labor requirement, while providing the same bandwidth capacity of a multi-fiber cable with individual fiber/connector terminations per fiber. The advantage of ultilizing ribbon fiber cables resides in the ability to achieve a much higher density in patch panel, cable routing/ducting, and device connection environments, without compromising the quality or quantity of the connection.

What It Meaning by Cabling Management and Data Security Protection

When doing data cabling, it is necessary to make sure that all of the cables to be installed in its intended destination without damaging it or its data-carring capabilities. Most networking suppliers including fibre optic cable manufacturers provides many different cabling products protect cable. Cable management tools helps you cable plant looks good, and help you find the cables faster. There are three categories: physical protection, electrical protection and fire protection.
Physical protection
Cable can be fragile, easily cut, stretched and broken. Cable should be protected in ways of conduit, cable strays, standoffs and D-rings.
Conduit is the simplest form of cable protection which can a metal or plastic conduit to protect the cable as it travels through walls and ceilings. Conduit is a thin-walled plastic or metal pipe which is used in many commercial installations to contain electrical wires. When conduit is put in place, the individual cables are run inside it.
Cable trays is needed when the cable must be supported every 48” or 60” handing horizontally. It is installed in ceilings to prevents the cable from sagging and putting stress on the conductors inside. The horizontal cable from the telecommunications rooms that run to the individual telecommunications outlets are usually placed into this tray to support them as they run horizontally.
When terminating UTP wires for telephone applications in a telecommunications room, you will often see telephone wires run from a multipair cable to the 66-punch-down block. To be neat, the
individual conductors are run around the outside of the board that the punch-down blocks are mounted to (as show in Figure 13.11). To prevent damage to the individual conductors, they are bent around devices know as standoffs.
After the cables come out of the cable tray and enter the telecommunications room to be terminated, special metal rings called D-rings are needed to keep the individual cables in bundles and keep them close to the track. D-rings are also used on punch-down boards on the wall to manage cables, much in the same way stanoffs are. It is put in pace to support the individual cables, and the cable are run to the individual punch-down block on the wall.
Electrical protection
In addition to physical protection, electrical protection is also important during the designing and installing you cabling system. Electricity powers the network, switches, hubs, PCs and computer servers. Variations in power can cause problems ranging from having to reboot after a short loss of service to damaged equipment and data. A number of products-including surge protectors, standby power suppliers, uninterruptible power suppliers. And line conditioners are used to protect sensitive systems from the dangers of lighting strikes, uneven power, and accidental power disconnection.
Fire Protection
A few cabling-design concerns to prevent fire, smoke, or heat from damaging your cabling system, the premises on which they are installed and any occupants. Make sure you specify the proper flame rating for the cable according to the location in which it will be installed. 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 cables.
Another concern is the puncturing of fire barriers. In most residential and commercial buildings, firewalls are built specifically to stop the spread of a fiber within a building. Whenever there is an opening in a floor or ceiling that could possibly conduct fire, the opening is walled over with fire-related drywall to make a firewall that will prevent the spread of fire. In commercial buildings, cinder-block walls are often erected as firewalls between rooms.
After the proper cable management job done, data and cabling security protection is needed if your cable carry is sensitive and should not be view by just anyone. You may need to take extra steps when designing and installing your cabling system to ensure that the data stays when it belongs: Two ways to prevent data from being intercepted are EM (electromagnetic) transmission regulation and tapping prevention.
EM signal interception is the process of prevent the magnetic signals and turn them back into electrical signals that can be sent to another unwanted location. Susceptibility to EM signal
interception can be minimized by using shielded cables or by encasing all cabling runs from source to destination in a grounded metal conduit. These shielding methods reduce the amount of stray EM signals.
Tapping is the interception of LAN EM signals through listening devices placed around the cable. Some stapping devices are invasive and will actually puncture the outer jacket of a cable, or the insulation of individual wires, and touch the metal inner conductor to intercept all signals sent along that conductor. To prevent taps, the best course of action is to install the cables in metal conduit or to use interlocked armored cables. If it is practical. Grounding of the metal conduit will provide protection from both EM and invasive taps but not from taps at the cross connection.

What Should You Know about Low-Smoke Zero Halogen Cables

Halogen is a nonmetallic elements such as fluorine, chlorine, iodine or bromine. It is generally used as flame inhibitors in many plastics, including PVC that goes into cable insulation and electronic products. Halogens are a group of chemical elements including iodine, bromine, fluorine, astatine, and chlorine. When these elements are exposed to fire, they form hazardous gases which are harmful to harm the eyes, nose, lungs, and throat.
LSZH is a material category used to classify cable insulation. LSZH (Low Smoke Zero Halogen) cable insulation is made of materials designed to give of reduced smoke and no halogen when exposed to fire. When combined with other fire deterrents and control practices, Zero Halogen Cables can help reduce fire related casualties and property destruction. These cables will also don't give off hazardous gas/acids or toxic smoke when exposed to fire.
LSZH cables decrease the extent of smoke produced through fire and is normally used in inadequately ventilated areas, for instance, airplane and some areas that people may be affected by smoke and toxic fumes.
Beside the halogen free features, LSZH cable also has lighter weight, this is convenient especially if the cables are run overhead in a dropped ceiling. At the same time, the impact of halogen free cables will also be lower if there is a fire because there are fewer toxic chemicals involved.
Many different Fiber Optic Cable suppliers are now making low-smoke, zero-halogen cables. And it is currently widely used in Europe 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. UL specs demand that the flame be extinguished, but it can still be emit poisonous/dangerous gases.
Most safety advocates are calling for the used of LSZH cables, especially 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 when burned; such acids may theoretically further endanger equipment.

How to Choose Fibre Optic Cable Manufacturers

If you get a fiber optic cabling project on hand, you must know what fiber optic equipment is needed. Use structured fiber optic cables and cabling components are very important. Cabling is the foundation of your network, if the cabling fails, nothing else will matter. For a given grade or category of cabling, you'll see a range of price, but the highest prices don't necessarily mean the highest quality. Buy based on the manufacturer's reputation and proven performance is essential, here comes the title of this article how to choose fibre optic manufacturers, see some tips on this regarding this question.

Reasonable price
Price is the first factor that we should take into consideration. Price of fiber optic products is commonly higher than other industrial products.Take fiber optic cable for example, price of fiber optic cable is calculated by meter & foot. The minimal length of fiber optic cables is 3 meters, larger projects may need thousands of meters, which will result in a huge cost on fiber cables. When buying online, you will see most fiber optic cable vendors list the fiber optic cable price per foot, you can compare three or more store to choose the most proper one.
Excellent quality
Most expensive prices do not mean the best quality, that's true, while the cheapest is more likely sacrifice to quality. So it is hard to judge the quality of fiber optic cable just by how much of the seller priced them. You need to do something by yourself now, check out the customer reviews on the products. Good vendors are willing to open the review functions online if they are confident with their products, so find out several such web-store and compare the satisfaction, although this cannot include all, it's helpful for reference!
If you have enough time and patience, you are also suggested buying a small sample before placing a big order.
Technical supports & Good customer service
Customer service is another important point that determine your fiber optic cable manufacturer is good or not. Power company always invests huge to build professional technical supports and
customer service teams, which are also the software of a company. Make some inquiries before buying, on general issues or technique issues, you will soon check out their service level, it is necessary to do the test before buying other than after-sales.
Warranty policy
It is well known that stuff bought online should be guaranteed, otherwise, you will lose you money easily. The warranty period of the products is varied from different sellers.Take fibre optic cable manufacturers for example, some vendors guarantee weeks, or months of the exchange of refund. Some are one or two year, which is very usual. But if you see a company that gives you a lifetime warranty, why not choose the lifetime warranty one to the years or month ones? The longer their warranty period is, the more reliable their products would be. No one is willing to pay more than the earned after sale, only if the quality is unbeatable enough!
Reputation of the supplier
Last but not the least, check the reputation of your possible fiber optic cable supplier is also important, this is especially necessary when doing purchase online. Enter the name of your supplier like "FiberStore" in Google, you will see many informations related to this company, check this informations about their social network account, forum talking topics, products reviews, or even the latest news or activities, the general impressions of this company will form on your mind.
Above only listed several typical aspect that you need to take to judge your fiber optic cable suppliers, some other points are also important if you want to rigorous decision on where to buy fiber optic cable, keeps an eye on the new products updating frequency of the supplier, their custom capability for your special requirement. Powerful fibre optic cable manufacturers always keeping research and develop new products and keep pace with the latest industrial technologies!

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.
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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.

Size and Weight Advantages of Fiber Optic Cable over Copper Cable

Size and weight factors are always needed to be taken into consideration when preparing for an cable plant installation. Fiber optic cables are now running existing conduits or raceways that are partially or almost completely filled with copper cable. This is another area where small fiber optic cable has an advantages over copper cable.
In this article, we will do a comparison and try to determine the reduced-size advantage that fiber optic cable has over copper cable. As we already know, a coated optical fiber is typically 250um in diameter. We learn thatfiber optic ribbon cable sandwich up to 12 coated optical fibers between two layers of Mylar tape. Twelve of these ribbons stacked on top of each other form a cube roughly 3mm by 3mm. This cube can be placed inside a buffer and surrounded by a strength member and jacket to form a cable. The overall diameter of this cable would be only slightly larger than an RG6 coaxial cable or a bundle of four Category 5e cable.
So how large would a copper cable have to be to offer the same performance as the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable? That would depend on transmission distance and the optical fiber data rate. Take Category 5E cable for example, let’s place a bundle of Category 5e cables up against the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable operating at a modest 2.5Gbps data rate over a distance of just 100m.
A Cat5e cable contains four conductor pairs and as defined in ANSI/TIA-568-B.2 is 0.25” in diameter. Each pair is capable of a 100MHz transmission over 100m. 100MHz transmission carries 200 million symbols per second. If each symbol is a bit, the 100MHz Category 5e cable is capable of a 200Mbps transmission rate. When the performance of each pair is combined, a single Category 5 cable is capable of an 800Mbps transmission rate over a distance of 100m
Now let's see how many Category 5e cables will be required to provide the same perfor-mance as the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable. The 144 optical fiber ribbon cable has a combined data transmission rate of 360Gbps. When we divide 360Gbps by 800Mbps, we see that 450 Category 5e cables are required to equal the performance of this modest fiber-optic system.
When 450 Category 5e cables are bundled together, they are roughly 5.3 inches in diameter. As noted earlier in this chapter, the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable is approximately the size of four Category 5e cables bundled together. The Category 5e bundle thus has a volume roughly 112.5 times greater than the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable. In other words, Category 5e bundles need 112.5 times more space in the conduit than the 144 optical fiber ribbon cable.
This comparison we just made is very conservative. This distance we used was kept very short and the transmission rate for the optical fiber was kept low. We can get even a better appreciation for the cable size reduction fiber optic cable offers if we increase the transmission distance and the data rate.
In this comparison, let’s increase the transmission distance to 1,000m and the data transmission rate to 10Gbps. The bandwidth of a copper cable decreases as distance increases, just as with fiber-optic cables. Because we have increased the transmission distance by a factor of 10, it’s fair to say that the Category 5e cable bandwidth will decrease by a factor of 10 over 1000m.
With a reduction in bandwidth by a factor of 10, we will need ten times more Category 5e cables to equal the old 2.5Gbps performance. In other words, we need 4,500 Category 5e cables bundled together. In this comparison, however, the bandwidth has been increased from 2.5Gbp to 10Gbps. This means we have to quadruple the number of Category 5e cables to meet the ban width requirement. We now need 18,000 Category 5e cables bundled together. Imagine how many cables we would need if the transmission distance increased to 80,000m. We would need whopping 1,440,000 Category 5e cables bundled together.
These comparisons vividly illustrate the size advantage that fiber optic cable have over copper per cables. The advantage becomes even more apparent as distances increase. Th enormous capacity of such as small cable is exactly what is needed to install high-bandwidth systems in buildings where the conduits and raceways are almost fully populated with copper cables.
Now we have calculated the size advantages of optical fiber over Cat5e cable. Let’s look at the weight advantages. It is pretty easy to see that thousands, tens of thousands, or millions of Cat5e cable bundled together will outweigh a ribbon fiber optic cable roughly one half of an inch in diameter. It’s difficult to state exactly how much less a fiber optic cable would weigh than a copper cable performing the same job - these are just too many variables in transmission distance and data rate. However, it’s not difficult to imagine the weight savings that fiber-optic cables offer over copper cables. These weight savings are being employed in commercial aircraft, military aircraft, and the automotive industries, just to mention a few.
Related: fiber optic cable price per foot

Common Fiber Optic Cable Types Review

Fiber optic cables has become a standard component in most contemporary cable infrastructures. As used for optical fibers varies, fibre optic cable manufacturers have produced cables to meet specific needs, and it is likely that moe will be created as future applications emerge. Bear in mind that different cable arrangements are variations on theme. Different combinations of buffer types, strength members, and jackets can be used to create cables to meet the needs of a wide of industries and uses.

Let's go over several common types of fiber optic cables

Cordage

The simplest types of cables are actually called cordage, and are used in connections to equipment and patch panels. They are typically made into patch cords or jumpers. The major difference between cordage and cables is that cordage only has one optical-fiber/buffer combination in a jacket, while cables may have multiple optical fibers inside a jacket or sheath.

The two common types of cordage are simplex and duplex.

Simplex cordage consist of a single optical fiber with a tight buffer, and aramid yarn strength member, and a jacket. Simplex cordage gets its name from the fact that, because it is a single fiber, which is typically used for one-way, or simplex, transmission, although bidirectional communications are possible using a simple fiber.

Duplex cordage, also known as zipcord, is similar in appearance to household electrical cords. It is a convenient way to combine two simplex cords to achieve duplex, or two-way, transmissions without individual cords getting tangled or switched around accidentally.

Distribution cable

Distribution cables is need when it requires to run a large number of optical fibers through a building. Distribution cable consist of multiple tight-buffered fibers bundles in a jacket with a strength member. These cables may also feature a dielectric central member to increase tensile strength, resist bending, and prevent the cable from being kinked during installations.

These cable are ideal for inter-building routing. Depending on the jacket type hey may be routed through plenum areas or riser shafts to telecommunications rooms, wiring closet, and workstations.

The tight-buffered optical fibers are not meant to be handled much beyond the initial installation, since they do not include a strength member and jacket. Distribution cables may carry up to 144 individual tight-buffered optical fibers, many of which may not be used immediately but allow for future expansion.

Armored cable

Armored fiber optic cable has two jackets. The inner jacket is surrounded by the armored and the outer jacket or sheath surrounds the armor. This cable can be used for indoor and outdoor applications.

Armored cables are used for outdoor application is typically a loose tube construction designed for direct burial applications. The armor is typically a corrugated steel tape surrounded by an outer polyethylene jacket. This combination of outer jacket and armor protects the optical fibers from gnawing animals and the damage that can occur during direct burial installations.

Armored cables used for indoor applications may feature tight-buffered or loose-buffered optical fibers, strength members, and an inner jacket. The inner jacket is typically surrounded by a spirally wrapped interlocking metal tape armor. This type of armor is rugged and provides crush resistance. These cable are used in heavy traffic areas and installations that require extra protections, including protection from rodents.

Ribbon Cable

As it name indicate that fiber optic ribbon cable contains fiber ribbons, which are actually coated optical fibers placed side by side, encapsulated in Mylar tape, similar to a miniature version of wire ribbons used in computer wiring. A single ribbon may contain 4, 8, 12 optical fibers. Ribbon cable can be stacked up to 22 high.

Because the ribbon contains only coated optical fibers, this type of cable takes up much less space than individually buffered optical fibers. As a result, ribbon cables are denser than any other cable design. They are ideal for applications where limited space is available, such as in an existing conduit that has very little room left for an additional cable.

Besides, ribbon cables come in two basic arrangements wich is loose tube ribbon cable and jacket ribbon cable.

In the loose tube ribbon cable, fiber ribbons are stacked on top of one another inside a loose-buffered tube. This type of arrangement can hold several hundred fibers in close quarters. The buffer, strength members, and cable jacket carry any stain while the fiber ribbons move freely inside the buffer tuber.

The jacket ribbon cable looks like a regular tight-buffered cable, but it is elongated to contain a fiber ribbon. This type of cable typically features a small amount of strength member and a ripcord to tear through the jacket.

Ribbon fiber provides definite size and weight savings, it does require special equipment and training to take advantage of those benefits. Connectors, strippers, cleavers, and fusion splicers must all be tailored to the ribbon fiber. For these reasons, ribbon fiber may not be the best solution in all situations.

Expect the above cables, there are also other fiber optic cable types like Submarine cable for carrying optical fiber underwater; Aerospace cable designed to be installed in aircraft and spacecraft; Aerial cable (figure 8 cable) for aerial installations; Hybrid cable combined multimode and single-mode optical fibers in on cable as well as the composite cable that designed to carry both optical fiber and current-carrying electrical conductors in the same run.

Pre Order FAQs Regarding Buying Fiber Optic Cables

Fiber optic cable is a large, long-distance optical signal transmission unit, by means of which we can spread out the various optical signals with low attenuation rate to meet signals transmission needs between different fields. There are more than 15.000 varieties of fiber optic cables in the telecommunication field. Choosing the right fiber optic cable is extremely important for any installation. Purpose of the cable is to protect the fibers during installation and the service lifetime. This article is written to address your concerns regarding what types of fibers do you need, where they will be installed, and where to buy fiber optic cable.

What types of fiber should I choose and how many fibers?
It may be familiar for you that optical fibers are divided into two different mode which is multimode and single mode.
Single-mode has a core that is 8.3 microns in diameter. Single-mode fiber requires laser technology for sending and receiving data. With a laser used, light in a single-mode fiber also refracts off the fiber cladding. Single-mode has the ability to carry a signal for mile, making it ideal for telephone and cable television on providers.
Multimode fibers, as the name suggests, permits the signals to travel in multiple modes, or pathways, along the insides of the glass strand or core. It is available with fiber core diameters of 62.5 and a slightly smaller 50 micron. 62.5 micron multimode is referred to as OM1. 50 micron fiber is referred to as OM2, OM3 and the recently added OM4. OM4 has greater bandwidth than OM3 and OM3 has greater bandwidth than OM2.
While single-mode has a core that is 8.3 microns in diameter. Single-mode fiber requires laser technology for sending and receiving data. With a laser used, light in a single-mode fiber also refracts off the fiber cladding. Single-mode has the ability to carry a signal for mile, making it ideal for telephone and cable television on providers. Fifty micron OM3 fiber is designed to accommodate 10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 300 meters, and OM4 can accommodate it up to 550 meters. Therefore, OM3 and OM4 fiber are always chosen over the other glass types. In fact, nearly 80% of 50 micro fiber sold is OM3 or OM4
Except the fiber mode, the number of fibers are necessary to know. Usually, unless you are making patchcords or hooking up a simple link with two fiber, it is highly recommended that you include a number of spare fibers. Corporate network backbones are often 48 fibers or more. Most backbone cables are hybrids - a mix of 62.5/125 multimode fiber for today’s networks and single-mode fiber for future networks. If the slowest network planned today is as gigabit speeds, it might even be better to us the new 50/125 multimode fiber optimized for the laser sources used in gigabit networks.
Where they will be installed, indoor, outdoor or both?
Outdoor cables are designed to protect the fibers from years of exposure to moisture. Until recently, your only choice for outdoor cables was loose-tube, gel-filled cables. But now you can buy dry water-blocked cables similar to indoor designs that are easy to terminate without breakout kits, saving incredible amounts of time. In a campus environment, you can even get cables with two jackets: an outer PE jacket that withstands moisture and an inner PVC jacket that is UL-rated for fire retardancy. You can bring the cable into a building, strip off the PE jacket and run it anywhere, while normal outdoor cables are limited to 50 feet inside the building.
Indoor cables are what we called “tight-buffered” cables, where the glass fiber has a primary coating and secondary buffer coatings that enlarge each fiber to 900 microns - about 1 mm or 1/25- inch- to make the fiber easier to work with. These cables can be directly terminated.
The most popular cable for indoor use is distribution cable, which has a number of 900-micron buffered, color-coded fibers inside a single jacket. It’s the smallest and lightest cable, and each fiber is sturdy enough for direct termination. Another choice for indoor use is the breakout cable, which is just a bunch of simplex cables inside a common jacket for convenience in pulling and ruggedness.
Where to buy fiber optic cable
Once knowing what kind of fiber optic cables is needed, last but not least is to decide where to buy your required fiber optic cables. In the actual production of fiber optic cable, materials which is wearable, radiation proof and adaptable to temperature is very important. Good core material and the external packages. When buy fiber optic cable, qualification of the fibre optic cable manufacturers should been taken into consideration, choosing qualified and professional manufacturers will ensure you quickly get the problem resolved after the sale.
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FiberStore Launches New LSZH Fiber Optic Cable Series

FiberStore is introducing new families of Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH) cables. LSZH cable is constructed utilizing the superior design and engineering standards to fit for aerial, direct buried, duct, general purpose horizontal, vertical riser applications.
"For work spaces with strict environment or safety regulations or where ventilation is a concern, FiberStore's LSZH cables provides a solution that supports both compliance to strict NFPA 70guidelines as well as greatly reduces potentially toxic emissions when subjected to high heat or flame conditions," stated Wilson John, commercial manager for bulk fiber cable at FiberStore

LSZH Loose Tube Cables
LSZH Loose Tube Cables are double-Jacket wich are designed for industrial building backbones and harsh environments atyptial of traditional datacom system. With two durable LSZH jackets, these cables are ideal for applications requiring the added mechanical and environmental protection. Double Jacket combines flexibility with extra mechanical protection for a durable, reliable cabling solution that is easy to handle and install. Due to halogens in the jacket compound, these cables pose little risk in the controlled and protected environment of typical building air spaces, such as behind walls, under floors and in conduit.
LSZH cable with Metal Strength member FTTH Cable
LSZH metal strength menber FTTH cable include FTTH indoor cable, drop cable and armored duct cables.
Armored Duct cables are designed for use in direct installation in villas and multi dwelling units. With two parallel Metal strength members ensure good performance of crush resistance to protect the fiber.There was a layer of skin resistance hose and a layer of aluminum tape armored, let the cable can adapt to all kinds of bad environment and artificial damage.
FTTH Drop Cables with two parallel metal strength members ensure good performance of crush resistance to protect the fiber. A steel wire as the additional strength member is also applied to ensure good performance of tensile strength. The LSZH sheathed with high flame resistance enables the FTTH drop cable can operate in high-temperature. This cables is mainly designed for indoor riser level and plenum level cable distribution and between instruments, communciation equipments.
FTTH indoor cables with LSZH jacket are novel flute design with metal strength member. this cable is suitable for indoor and outdoor along the wall, roof, sandwich and duct connected directly cloth fiber optic cable to standard and solid structure design produce communication equipment tail fiber and activity connecting line can be applied directly to the connection between the equipment.
LSZH cable with FRP & KFRP Strength member FTTH Cables
Low smock zero halogen cables FRP & KFRP Strength member FTTH cables also include FTTH indoor, drop, and armored duct types.FTTH indoor cables with LSZH jacket are designed for use in horizontal, vertical, and corner cabling. With two parallel FRP & KFRP strength members to ensure good performance of crush resistance and protect the fiber. Its special low-bend-sensitivity fibers provide high bandwith and excellent communciation transission property.
LSZH Armored FTTH duct cable are designed for use in direct installation in villas and multi dwelling units. There are a layer of skiin resistance hose land a lay of alluminum tape armored, let the cable can adapt to all kinds of bad environment and artifical damage. Two sheath of the cables will protect the FTTH duct cables from Rat bit and other damage.
FTTH drop cable with FRP & KFRP stength member is optical communication unit in the center, which can realized the telephone, data, cable TV's combinatiion of three nets and video monitoring. With small diameter, water-resistant, soft and bendable featuers, the cable is suitable for plenum level cable distributin and indoor riser levels as well as installations between instruments and communications equipments.
Besides, FiberStore also provides single mode gel-filled ribbon LSZH indoor/outdoor riser cables. These cables can maximized the use of criticl dust space with excellent installtion results as their smallest and lightes standard. The precise fiber and ribbon geometries result in excellent mass splicing yields. Cables are available in preconnectiorized assemblies which made easy field installation and reduced labor costs.
All of FiberStore low smoke halogen free cables sare customizable with options of different jacket & fiber colors, fiber counts, sheath materials and cables length. Fore more informations about Fiberstore LSZH fiber optic cable and other, please visit fiberstore.com
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How to Calculate Fiber Optic Loss Budget

Fiber optic loss budget calculation is conduct to analysis a fiber optic system's operation characteristics. It included the items such as routing, electronics, wavelengths, fiber type, and circuit length, attenuation and bandwidth of which are the key parameters for budget loss analysis.

Design of a fiber optic system is a balancing act. As with any system, you need to set criteria for performance and then determine how to meet those criteria. It's important to remember that we are talking about a system that is the sum of its parts.

Calculation of a system's capability to perform is based upon a long list of elements. Following is a list of basic items used to determine general transmission system performance:

Fiber Loss Factor – Fiber loss generally has the greatest impact on overall system performance. The fibre optic cable manufacturers provide a loss factor in terms of dB per kilometer. A total fiber loss calculation is made based on the distance x the loss factor. Distance in this case the total length of the fiber cable, not just the map distance.

Type of fiber – Most single mode fibers have a loss factor of between 0.25 (1550nm) and 0.35 (1310nm) dB/km. Multimode fibers have a loss factor of about 2.5 (850nm) and 0.8 (1300nm) dB/km. The type of fiber used is very important. Multimode fibers are used with L.E.D. transmitters which generally don't have enough power to travel more than 1km. Single mode fibers are used with LASER transmitters that come in various power outputs for "long reach" or "short reach" criteria

Transmitter – There are two basic type of transmitters used in a fiber optic systems. LASER which come in three varieties: high, medium, and low (long reach, medium reach and short reach). Overall system design will determine which type is used. L.E.D. transmitters are used with multimode fibers, however, there is a "high power" L.E.D. which can be used with Single mode fiber. Transmitters are rated in terms of light output at the connector, such as -5dB. A transmitter is typically referred to as an "emitter".

Receiver Sensitivity – The ability of a fiber optic receiver to see a light source. A receiving device needs a certain minimum amount of received light to function within specification. Receivers are rated in terms of required minimum level of received light such as -28dB. A receiver is also referred to as a "detector".

Number and type of splices – There are two types of splices. Mechanical, which use a set of connectors on the ends of the fibers, and fusion, which is a physical direct mating of the fiber ends. Mechanical splice loss is generally calculated in a range of 0.7 to 1.5 dB per connector. Fusion splices are calculated at between 0.1 and 0.5 dB per splice. Because of their limited loss factor, fusion splices are preferred.

Margin – This is an important factor. A system can't be designed based on simply reaching a receiver with the minimum amount of required light. The light power budget margin accounts for aging of the fiber, aging of the transmitter and receiver components, addition of devices along the cable path, incidental twisting and bending of the fiber cable, additional splices to repair cable breaks, etc. Most system designers will add a loss budget margin of 3 to 10 dB

Let's take a look at a typical scenario where a fiber optic transmission system would be used.

Two operation centers are located about 8 miles apart based on map distance. Assume that the primary communication devices at each center is a wide area network capable router with fiberoptic communication link modules, and that the centers are connected by a fiber optic cable. The actual measured distance based on walking the route , is a total measured length (including slack coils) of 9 miles. There are no additional devices installed along the cable path. Future planning provides for the inclusion of a freeway management system communication link within 5 years.

(Assume that this system will have at least 4 mid-span fusion splices. )

Fiber Loss: 14.5 km × 35dB = -5.075

Fusion splice Loss : 4 × .2dB = -.8

Terminating Connectors : 2 × 1.0dB = -2.0

Margin: -5.0

Total Fiber Loss : -12.875

Because a loss margin of 5.0dB was included in the fiber loss calculation, the short reach option will provide sufficient capability for this system. In fact, the total margin is 8.0db because the difference between the loss budget and receiver sensitivity is 3.0db.

Remember FiberStore provides all the components in the complete fiber optic cable plant, including all the passive and active components of the circuit. As a main fiber optic cable supplier, you can find different designs of cable such as tight buffer, loose tube or even fiber optic ribbon cable, which are manufactured compliant high industry standard and will save your cable plant loss budget largely.

Understanding Singlemode and Multimode Fiber Optic Cables

Fiber optic cables are generally divided into two types: single mode and multi-mode. Understanding characteristics of each fiber types help understand the applications for which they are used. Earlier in 1970, fiber optic cables are researched to have the capabilities of carrying 65,000 times more information then just regular copper wire, through with information carried by a pattern of light waves that could be detected at a distance of even 1000 miles away.

Real life uses of fiber optics
There are two basic types of fiber optic cables: multi-mode and single mode fiber. Multimode fiber is best designed for short transmission distances, and is suitable for use in LAN systems and video surveillance. Single-mode fiber is best designed for longer transmission distances, making it suitable for long-distance telephony and multichannel television broadcast systems. Fiber optics is very important in communications, because it can be used to transmit information very efficiently. Fiber optics also have visual users. Fiber optics is used in medicine to look inside the body. By using optical fiber cables, doctors can examine organs and diagnose illness without surgury or X-rays. Optical fibers can also deliver laser light to specific points in side the body to help surgons with delicate surgery. A local radia station uses fiber optical cables instead of FM waves.

Multimode and Singlemode Fiber
Multimode fiber is the first to be manufactured and commercialized, simply refers to the fact that numerous modes or light rays are carried simultaneously through the waveguide. Modes result from the fact that light will only propagate in the fiber core at discrete angle within the cone of acceptance. This fiber type has a much large core diameter, compared to single-mode fiber, allowing for the larger number of modes, and multimode fiber is easier to couple than single-mode optical fiber. Multimode fiber may be categorized as step-index or graded-index fiber. Multimode Step-index Fiber core’s index of refraction is higher than the cladding’s index of refraction, the light that enters at less than the critical angle is guided along the fiber. Multimode graded-index fiber core’s refractive index is parabolic, being higher at the center. They follow a serpentine path being gradually bent back toward the center by the continuously declining refractive index.

Single-mode fiber allows for a higher capacity to transmit information because it can retain the fidelity of each light pulse over longer distances, and it exhibits no dispersion caused by multiple modes. Single-mode fiber also enjoys lower fiber attenuation than multimode fiber. Thus, more information can be transmitted per unit of time. Like multimode fiber, early single-mode fiber was generally characterized as step-index fiber meaning the refractive index of the fiber core is a step above that of the cladding rather than graduated as it is in graded-index fiber. Modern single-mode fibers have evolved into more complex designs such as matched clad, depressed clad and other exotic structures.

A interesting fact is that an optical fiber cable is less than 1/2 inch in diameter, which could carry more than 40,000 telephone conversations at once. Today more than 80% of the worlds long-distance traffic is carried over optical fiber cables.Additional important variety of multimode and single mode fiber includes polarization-maintaining, Low smoke zero halogen, armored fiber.

This article is source from fibre optic cable manufacturers.

FiberStore Introduced the New 10G OM3 Indoor Outdoor Plenum Distribution Cables

FiberStore introduces the new 10G OM3 Indoor/Outdoor plenum distribution cables, which are ideal for networking in ducts, risers, and air handing spaces where small size, lightweight, and versatile installation capacity are required.

FiberStore has updated its line of OM3 OM4 10G fiber cables with the new OM3 Indoor/Outdoor Plenum distribution cables. The new simplex to 24 strand multimode 50/125 10G OM3 indoor/outdoor plenum distribution cables supports installation where small size, lightweight, and versatile installation capability are required for ducts, risers, and air handing spaces.

This distribution plenum rate fiber optic cable is composed of 2 to 24 colored tight buffers, plus the high specific strength-to-weight radio and compact cable design for limited conduit space and tight bends in long cable pulls, allowing designers, installers and operators of enterprise networks to use multimode optical fiber in a package that is easier to handle and install.

Based on 900 μm tight buffered designs, FiberStore's Indoor/Outdoor Plenum cable eliminates the need for costly and time-consuming installation of fanout kits or pigtail splices since the connectors terminate directly to the fiber. The outer jacket is moisture, fungus and UV-resistant, making FiberStore Indoor/Outdoor Plenum Distribution Cable reliable for both outdoor and underground buried-duct applications.

"With a strong focus on engineering and design, FiberStore continually works on improving our solutions by listening to our customer base. The new design of the indoor/outdoor plenum-rated cable was a direct result of customer feedback in order to meet the need for networking in areas with limited space or tight bends. " explained Thomas Cole, commercial manager for enterpriser cables at FiberStore. "Our updated family of Indoor/Outdoor plenum-rated cables provides a sound building block for those networks."

The new Indoor/Outdoor Plenum distribution cable is suitable for spaces requiring plenum, riser, general purpose and outside plant UL flame ratings. Available in single-mode and multimode, including laser-optimized 50 μm OM3, cables within the family are also available with options up to 24 fibers and customized fiber or sheath colors, sheath material and cables length.

About FiberStore
FiberStore is one of the industry fast growing fiber optic cable suppliers offering industrial-leading products and services to electric utility, broadband, communications, OEM, enterprise, wireless and transit rail markets as well as the emerging markets of oil and gas, mining, nuclear, avionics, medical, renewable and intelligent grid. The company's diverse products portfolio includes fiber optic cable, transmission and substation accessories, outside plant equipment, connectors, fusion splicer, test equipment and training. Since its establishment in 2001, FiberStore is proud to offer engineering expertise, exceptional products and reliable service that help customers improve their critical and electrical infrastructure. For more information, visit www.fiberstore.com