Custom Fiber Optic Patch Cables from FiberStore

If the demand for more bandwidth is putting a constant strain on your local area network, fiber optics is the answer. Fiber optic patch cable offers the best mix of capacity, security and reliability, without the worry of electrical interface. Optical fiber patch cable is used in a number of applications both in the network place and the home for transferring data from point to point.
In some cases, you may have to use a special cord that may not be in stock in a company. The company may have to order it for you, which may take up to a few weeks to get, or not be able to get it for you at all. Here at FiberStore, we have the capacities of producing high quality fiber optic cords, without the extreme wait. In most cases, we can have your products out of the door in 2-3 days. If you either looking for a particular length of cord that we or someone else does not stock, a certain core or jacking size or even a different connector configuration we can built it.
The optical fiber patch cord is used at cross-connections to connect optical fiber links. They are also used as equipment or work area cords to connect telecommunication equipment to horizontal or backbone cabling. A patch cord can be regarded as a length of optical fiber cable with connectors on both ends. It uses the same connector type and optical fiber type as the optical fiber cabling that it is connected to. FiberStore offers a variety of fiber patch cable types, which is used for either cross-connection of interconnection to equipment shall have a termination configuration defined in clause 6.4 of ANSI/TIA-568-C.3 Clause 6.4 describes configurations for simplex, duplex, and array patch cords. The patch cord comply with the cable transmission performance requirements and physical cable specifications of clause 4.2 and 4.3.1 of ANSI/TIA-568-C.3 and the connectors and adapter requirements of clause 5.2 of ANSI/TIA-568-C.3.
A simplex patch cord is a single fiber cable with simplex connection terminations. A duplex patch cord is a two-fiber cable with duplex connectors. An array patch cord is a multifiber cable with array connectors on each end. FiberStore offer single mode patch cord and multimode fiber patch cable with a variety of connector types such as LC, FC, SC, ST, MU, MTRJ and E2000 Duplex fiber cable consist of two fiber cores and can be either multimode or single mode. Single mode fiber patch cord is primary used for application involving extensive distances, while multimode fiber is ideal for most common local fiber systems as the devices for multimode are far cheaper. The common core sizes of multimode fiber are OM1 62.5 micron and 50 micron in OM2 or 10 Gigabit Laser Optimized OM3.Duplex fiber cables consist of two fiber cores and can be either multimode or single mode. This due core system allows for the bi-directional transfer of data, as opposed to simplex fiber cables. Which typically only propagate data in one direction.
FiberStore designs, develops and manufactures high quality components and systems for the photonics industry at competitive prices. Whether you’re doing new installations or upgrading your existing infrastructure, FiberStore has the right fiber patch cables and assemblies you need, at an affordable price. Most of our products are available for immediate delivery.

Unshielded Twisted-Pair Cable Development

Unshielded Twisted-pair has been used for many year for telephone systems, it is become common in the late 1980s with the advance of Ethernet over twisted-pair wiring and the 10Base-T standard. UTP is cost effective and simple to install, and its bandwidth capabilities are continually being improved. Media converters allow cost-effective conversion of signals from one cabling media type to another. The most common type converts signals runing over copper UTP cabling to fiber optic cabling. Fiber Ethernet converter also exist to support conversion of coax cable to UTP cable for fiber optic cabling.
UTP cabling typically has only one outer covering jacket that consist of come type of nonconducting material. This jacket cover one or more pair of wire that are twisted together. Unshielded twisted pair cable is most commonly comprised of 4 twisted pair of copper conductors, graded for bandwidth as "level" or "Categories". A typical UTP cable consist of a jacket that surrounds four twisted pairs. Each wire is covered by an insulation material with good dielectric properties. For data cables, this means that in addition to being electrically nonconductive, it must have certain properties that allow good signal propagation.
Older UTP cables that were installed to support telephone systems may not even support 10Base-T Ethernet. The ANSI/TIA-538-C standard helps consumers choose the right cable for their applications.
This standard has been updated over the years and currently defined four categories of UTP cables: Categories 3, 5e, 6, 6A. So, even though two cables may look identical, their supported data rates can be dramatically different.
Category 1: This type of cable usually supports frequencies of less than 1 MHz. Common applications include analog voice telephone systems. It ware never included in any version of the 568 standard.
Category 2: This cable type supports frequencies of up to 4MHz. It's not commonly installed, except in installations that use twisted-pair ARCnet and Apple LocalTalk netwokrs. Its requirements are based on the original, proprietary IBM cabling system specification. It was never included in any version of the 568 standard.
Category 3 (recognized cable type in ANSI/TIA-568-C): This type of cable supports data rates up to 16Mhz. This cable was the most common variety of UTP for a number of years starting in the late 1980s. Common applications include 4Mbps UTP Token Ring, 10Base-T Ethernet. 100Base-T4, and digital and analogy telephone systems. Its inclusion in the ANSI/TIA-568-C standard is for voice applications.
Category 4: Cat 4 UTP cable was designed to support frequencies of up to 20Mhz, specifically in response to a need for a UTP solution for 16Mbps Token Ring LANs. It was quickly replaced in the market when Category 5 was developed, as Category 5 gives five times the bandwidth with only a small increment in price. Category 4 was a recognized cable in the 568-A standard, but was dropped from ANSI/TIA-568-B and also does not appear in ANSI/TIA-568-C.
Category 5 (was included in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B for informative purposes only): Category 5 was the most common cable installed, until new installations began to use an enhanced version. It may still be the cable type most in use because it was the cable of choice during the huge infrastructure boom of the 1990s. It was designed to support frequencies of up to 100MHz.
Applications include
100Base-TX, FDDI over copper, 155Mbps ATM over UTP, and, thanks to sophisticated encoding techniques, 1000Base-T Ethernet. To support 1000Base-T applications, the installed cabling system had to pass performance tests speci-fied by TSB-95 (TSB-95 was a Telecommunications Systems Bulletin issued in support of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, which defines additional test parameters). It is no longer a recognized cable type per the ANSI/TIA-568-C standard, but for historical reference purposes, Category 5 requirements, including those taken from TSB-95, are specified in ANSI/TIA-568-C.2.
Category 5 (was included in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B for informative purposes only): Category 5 was the most common cable installed, until new installations began to use an enhanced version. It may still be the cable type most in use because it was the cable of choice during the huge infrastructure boom of the 1990s. It was designed to support frequencies of up to 100MHz. Applications include 100Base-TX, FDDI over copper, 155Mbps ATM over UTP, and, thanks to sophisticated encoding techniques, 1000Base-T Ethernet. To support 1000Base-T applications, the installed cabling system had to pass performance tests speci-fied by TSB-95 (TSB-95 was a Telecommunications Systems Bulletin issued in support of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, which defines additional test parameters). It is no longer a recognized cable type per the ANSI/TIA-568-C standard, but for historical reference purposes, Category 5 requirements, including those taken from TSB-95, are specified in ANSI/TIA-568-C.2.
Category 5e (recognized cable type in ANSI/TIA-568-C): Category 5e (enhanced Category 5) was introduced with the TIA/EIA-568-A-5 addendum of the cabling standard. Even though it has the same rated bandwidth as Category 5, that is, 100MHz, additional performance criteria and a tighter transmission test requirement make it more suitable for high-speed applications such as Gigabit Ethernet. Applications are the same as those for Category 5 cabling. It is now the minimum recognized cable category for data transmission in ANSI/TIA-568-C.
Category 6 (recognized cable type in ANSI/TIA-568-C): Category 6 cabling was officially recognized with the publication of an addition to ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B in June 2002. In addition to more stringent performance requirements as compared to Category 5e, it extends the usable bandwidth to 250MHz. Its intended use is for Gigabit Ethernet and other future high-speed transmission rates.
Successful application of Category 6 cabling requires closely matched components in all parts of the transmission channel, that is, patch cords, connectors, and cable.
Category 6A or Augmented Category 6 (recognized cable type in ANSI/TIA-568-C): Category 6A cabling was officially recognized with the publication of ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-10 in February 2008. In addition to more stringent performance requirements as compared to Category 6, it extends the usable bandwidth to 500MHz. Its intended use is for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. Like Category 6, successful application of Category 6A cabling requires closely matched components in all parts of the transmission channel, that is, patch cords, connectors, and cable. The cabling standards are discussed inmore detail in Chapter 2. Additional information on copper media can be found in Chapter 7, "Copper Cable Media," and Chapter 10, "Connectors."
Category 7 (recognized cable type in ISO 11801): Category 7 is an ISO/IEC category suitable for transmission frequencies up to 1Ghz. Cat7 Ethernet cable is widely used in Europe and is gaining some popularity in the United States. It is not presently recognized in ANSI/TIA-568-C.

MEMS Based Variable Optical Attenuators

It is commonly known that fiber optic attenuators are used in fiber optic communications, as fiber optic tester tools to test power level margins by temporarily adding a calibrated amount of signal loss, or installed permanently to properly match transmitter and receiver levels. According to its stability, it divided into fixed fiber optic attenuators and variable optical attenuators. Variable fiber optic attenuators generally use a variable neutral density filter, with advantages of being stable, wavelength insensitive, mode insensitive, it offers a large dynamic range.

With the rapid increases in traffic on optical telecommunications systems, there is an active program for developing transmission devices for use in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), which is becoming mainstream technology for providing higher transmission speeds and a larger number of signal channels. It has been suggested that in the WDM systems of the future, variation in power due to the wavelength could be reduced a the quality of transmission improved by adjusting the power after demultiplexing into individual signals wavelengths. It is envisaged that the current method, in which the power of all the multiplexed optical signals is adjusted by a single variable optical attenuators (VOA) would give way to a method in which one VOA is used for each wavelength. Given the number of multiplexed wavelengths, this change will require VOAs that are considerably more compact. Against this background, There have developed a VOA using micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology with loss characteristics that have low wavelength dependence.

Single-mode fiber was used as the input and output of the VOA developed here, with a graded index fiber having the same diameter, 125um, as the SMF fusion spliced for a specified length, to form an optical coupling with a lens function. An anti-reflection coating is applied to the tip of the GIF (graded index fiber). GIF tip is polished at an angle so that the light beam emitted from the end of the GIF is not aligned with the optical axis of the fiber, but is at an angle to it. This angled optical beam is interrupted by means of a shutter that has been formed by inductively-coupled plasma deep reactive ion etching. The MEMS chip uses a silicon-on-insulator wafer, with the shutter, actuator and fiber grooves formed simultaneously on the chip by ICP-DRIE, followed by metal vapor deposition over the whole chip.

The actuator of the MEMS chip is of the comb type, and the GIF is held in the fiber grooves by means of adhesive. The MEMS chip with this GIF optical coupling system is fixed by adhesive within a casing, which is hermetically sealed.

MEMS variable optical attenuators are variable in three different configurations. The VA series works in transmission, whereas the VP series uses reflection to modulate the attenuation. The VX series is the VP or the VA series in mint plastic packing. In terms of performance, the VP series achieves lower insertion loss and better Polarization dependent loss characteristics. Whereas the VA series allows for an easier array integration and is the lower cost.

FiberStore offers a full line of optical attenuator variable testers, they are often combined with an active system component to maintain optical power on a network even if the power changes in the input signals. Our automatical variable optical attenuators are specifically designed for use in DWDM networks with individual channel source elements such as add/drop transmitters. The cost and performance characteristics of our automatically variable optical attenuators are specifically targeted to allow for the use of these devices in volume as principal DWDM channel stabilization components.

FiberStore Explains OM3 and OM4

There are different categories of graded-index multimode fiber optic cable. OM1, OM2 and OM3 are specified by ISO/IEC 11801 Ed 2.1:2009 standard. The TIA/EIA recognizes OM1, OM2, OM3, and OM4. The TIA/EIA ratified OM4 in August 2009 (TIA/EIA 492-AAAD). The IEEE ratified OM4 (802.ba) in June 2010.
Standard, None-Laser optimized multimode fiber, typically is manufactured with an optical defect in the center of the core. While this defect is not detrimental to the transmission of light emitted by LED, coherent light emitted by laser is greatly affected. A mode conditioning cable is always need when it is needed to transmit laser light through multimode cable. These costly patch cable offset the launch of the laser to avoid the center defect. In the early years, optical fiber manufacturers began to producing fiber without the center defect. Laser optimized multimode fiber was born. OM3 was the first standard to emerge, codifying laser optimization of multimode fiber. This technology was the first to allow designs of laser transmission systems utilizing multimode optical fiber without the use of mode conditioning cable. This new fiber when paired with new low cost Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser technology allowed for 10 Gig transmission.
OM1 specifies 62.5-micron cable and OM2 specifies 50-micron cable. These are commonly used in premises applications supporting Ethernet rates of 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. These are also typically used with LED transmitters. OM1 and OM2 cable are not suitable through for today's higher-speed networks.
OM3 and OM4 are both laser-optimized multimode fiber and were developed to accommodate faster networks such as 10, 40 and 100 Gbps, both of which are designed for use with 850-nm VCSELS (vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) and have aqua sheaths.
OM3 specifies an 850-nm laser-optimized 50-micron cable with a effective modal bandwidth of 2000MHz/km. It can support 10-Gbps link distances up to 300 meters. OM4 are sold as premium OM3 or OM3+ fiber. The OM4 designation standardizes the nomenclature across all manufacturers so that the customer has a clearer idea of the product that they are buying. OM4 is completely backwards compatible with OM3 fiber and shares the same distinctive aqua jacket. OM4 specifies a high-bandwidth 850-nm laser-optimized 50-micron cable an effective modal bandwidth of 4700 Mhz/km. It can support 10-Gbps link distance of 550 meters. 100-Gbps distance are 100 meters and 150 meters, respectively. Both rival single-mode fiber in performance while being significantly less expensive to implement.
OM3 and OM4 are manufactured without the center defect. As networks migrated to higher speeds, EDs can’t be turned on and off fast enough to support higher-speed applications. VCSELS provided the speed, but unfortunately when used with older OM1 and 2 cables, required mode-conditioning launch cables. Thus manufacturers changed the production process to eliminate the center defect and enable OM3 and OM4 cables to be used directly with the VCSELS.
The effective modal bandwidth for OM4 is more than double that of OM3 (4700 MHz. Km for OM4 v/s 2000 MHz. Km for OM3).OM4 multimode fiber offers users longer length distances and more wiggle room in optical budgets, while OM3 fiber will still be future proof in most applications, which allows speeds of 10 GB/s up to 100GB/s.
At FiberStore, in order to let our stocked product to fill the widest possible set of standards, we provide both OM3 and OM4 product line as customers have become accustomed to OM3 fiber patch cables for over last 5 years.

Using Underground Tracer Wire to Locate Buried Cable

Underground tracer wire is designed to locate the underground pipes after they are buried, which are required by many building codes for the gas and sewer lines into buildings. When first introduced, it needed to do little more than find buried water, gas, or sewer lines. Today, locating has become more complex as telecommunications cables joint utility lines in the underground environment. Fortunately, today’s underground cable locators rely on the same basic technology found in their early counterparts - injecting an electrical signal onto the cable being located.
Underground Tracer Wire has generally consist of two parts - a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter puts an electrical signal onto the cable or pipe being traced, while the receiver picks up the signal, allowing the locator operator to trace the signal’s patch and follow the cable being located.
Installing a tracer wire creates a safer work environment for excavators or homeowners in the future. Make sure to leave several inches of tracer wire above ground for future use. See the details on how to install underground tracer wire:
Holder the tracer wire at the start of the pipe near the street and fasten it to the pipe by wrapping it with electrical tape.
Roll up the tracer wire along the pipe, taping it to the pipe every 5 feet.
Run the wire up the pipe to the point where it exits above finished grade. Cut the wire so there is 6 to 12 inches of wire above the ground.
Fasten the wire close to the end of the pipe to ensure it is visible for future use.
Tracing buried cables is a relatively simple procedure that comes in handy in outside-plant environments, where you need to know the location of a cable before the backbone rips up earth near the buried cable. Locators can also find the problem-stricken telecommunications cables. What sets these tools apart from their inside-plant counterparts is that they need to be able to differentiate the target cable from other nearby cables and underground utilities and provide an estimate of depth.
Since locating underground cables has taken on increasing significance in recent years as more and more cables are buried underground, many fibre optic cable manufacturers have begun providing these products. Some of the most well-know manufacturer include Radiodetection Corp. (Mahwah, NJ), 3M Telecom Systems Div., ideal Industries, Metrotech Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA), avo International (Blue Bell, PA), and FiberStore Inc.

WDM Technology

After languishing for many years as an interesting technology without a cost-effective application, wavelength-division multiplexing started playing a major role in telecommunications networks in the early 1990s, This resulted from the surge in demand for high-capacity links and the limitation of the installed fiber plant in handling high-rate optical signals over any substantial distance.
This limitation led to a rapid capacity exhaustion of long-haul fiber networks.
While installing an optical fiber cable plant is both expensive and extremely time consuming, expanding the capacity of an installed network is economically attractive. Tradition carries upgraded their link capacity by increasing the transmission rate. This worked well initially, with speeds eventually reaching 2.5 Gb/s. However, when going to the next multiplexing level of 10Gb/s, people starts to encounter the effects that can seriously degrade WDM network performance such as the dispersion, reflections, scattering, etc.
New fiber designs, special dispersion-compensation techniques, and optical isolators can mitigate these limitations, and newly installed links are operating very well as 10Gb/s per wavelength.
However, a large portion of the older installed fiber base is limited to OC-48 rates (2.5Gb/s) at a given wavelength. Thus, a great interest has been established in using WDM, not only for older links but also to have a very high capacity new links.
For a typical WDM link. At the transmitting end, there are several independently modulated light sources, each emitting signals at a unique wavelength. Here a multiplexer is needed to combine these optical outputs into a continuous spectrum of signals and couple them onto a single fiber. At the receiving end, a demultiplexer is required to separate the optical signals into appropriate detection channels for signal processing. At the transmitter, the basic design challenge is to have the multiplexer provide a low-loss path from each optical source to the multiplexer output. Since the optical signals that are combined generally do not emit any significant amount of optical power outside of the designated channel spectral width, interchannel cross-talk factors are relatively unimportant at the transmitting end.
WDM Multiplexers
Wavelength multiplexers are specialized devices that combine a number of optical streams at distinct wavelengths and launch all their powers in parallel into a single fiber channel. This
combination need not be uniform for all wavelengths; that is. One may want to combine 50% of the power from on wavelength, 75% from another source, and 100% from other wavelengths. However, for WDM applications it is usually desirable that the multiplexers combine the optical powers from multiple wavelengths onto a single fiber with little loss. Wavelength demultiplexers divide a composite multichannel optical signal into different output fibers according to wavelength without splitting loss. This section describes a phased-array-based WDM multiplexer and a fiber-grating multiplexer as examples of such components.

FiberStore Plug-and-Play Solutions

Broadcast facilities operate at very high levels of reliability and demand design flexibility to easy accommodate frequent adds and changes to equipment. Managing thousands of cables, should always be a high priority for the network engineer - particularly for maximizing system performance and uptime.
FiberStore plug-and-play solutions are designed to address the reliability, scalability, and thermal needs of today's mission-critical master control. These solutions promote increased reliability of broadcast centers through properly managed and scalable cable density, which encourages proper airflow and reduces overall installation and maintenance costs.

FiberStore latest introduced optical distribution frame with plug-and-play (MPO) cassettes is the highest density optical distribution frame solution available today. It efficiently manages up to 1,728 fiber terminations using the 144-position block in a single frame in either a cross-connector or inter-connection design. It incorporates the fundamentals of cable management while using the industry's highest fiber counts MPO plug-and-play cassettes.
One of the most common questions regarding MPO deployments is how the system design addresses the polarity issue of the fiber. Plug-and-play trunks use a key up/key down fiber array. The plug-and-play cassettes are wired straight through. In addition, duplex jumpers have a duplex clip that is easily removed for polarity changes in the field.
MPO Trunk Cables
Microcable MPO Trunk cables
FiberStore plug-and-play microcable trunk assembles are round 12 fiber optical trunk cables pre-terminated with a high-density MPO fiber connector on both ends. They can be used in conjunction with any of the other plug-and-play connectivity products to rapidly deploy fiber into a broadcast center. The Microcable assemblies can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
High Fiber Count Trunk Cables
FiberStore high fiber count plug-and-play trunks provide the backbone cabling for a plug-and-play system. These high count trunk cables come pre-terminated with a high-density MPO connectors on both ends and provide an easy and efficient way to pull large numbers of fibers at one time to help in the rapid deployment of a plug-and-play system. Each trunk has custom breakouts designed to work with the TE plug-and-play connectivity. High count trunks can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
MPO Hybrid Harnesses Cables
FiberStore 12 fibres plug-and-play hybrid harness cables provide a convenient and efficient method to connect active equipment into the network. These 12 fiber round 3mm cables contain a pre-terminated high density MPO pinned connector on one end and either LC or SC connectors o the other. The 12 fiber plug-and-play array cables assemblies can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
For assistance customizing your MPO plug-and-play solutions, please email FiberStore fibre optic cable manufacturers at sales@fiberstore.com

FiberStore Plug-and-Play Solutions

Broadcast facilities operate at very high levels of reliability and demand design flexibility to easy accommodate frequent adds and changes to equipment. Managing thousands of cables, should always be a high priority for the network engineer - particularly for maximizing system performance and uptime.
FiberStore plug-and-play solutions are designed to address the reliability, scalability, and thermal needs of today's mission-critical master control. These solutions promote increased reliability of broadcast centers through properly managed and scalable cable density, which encourages proper airflow and reduces overall installation and maintenance costs.

FiberStore latest introduced optical distribution frame with plug-and-play (MPO) cassettes is the highest density optical distribution frame solution available today. It efficiently manages up to 1,728 fiber terminations using the 144-position block in a single frame in either a cross-connector or inter-connection design. It incorporates the fundamentals of cable management while using the industry's highest fiber counts MPO plug-and-play cassettes.
One of the most common questions regarding MPO deployments is how the system design addresses the polarity issue of the fiber. Plug-and-play trunks use a key up/key down fiber array. The plug-and-play cassettes are wired straight through. In addition, duplex jumpers have a duplex clip that is easily removed for polarity changes in the field.
MPO Trunk Cables
Microcable MPO Trunk cables
FiberStore plug-and-play microcable trunk assembles are round 12 fiber optical trunk cables pre-terminated with a high-density MPO fiber connector on both ends. They can be used in conjunction with any of the other plug-and-play connectivity products to rapidly deploy fiber into a broadcast center. The Microcable assemblies can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
High Fiber Count Trunk Cables
FiberStore high fiber count plug-and-play trunks provide the backbone cabling for a plug-and-play system. These high count trunk cables come pre-terminated with a high-density MPO connectors on both ends and provide an easy and efficient way to pull large numbers of fibers at one time to help in the rapid deployment of a plug-and-play system. Each trunk has custom breakouts designed to work with the TE plug-and-play connectivity. High count trunks can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
MPO Hybrid Harnesses Cables
FiberStore 12 fibres plug-and-play hybrid harness cables provide a convenient and efficient method to connect active equipment into the network. These 12 fiber round 3mm cables contain a pre-terminated high density MPO pinned connector on one end and either LC or SC connectors o the other. The 12 fiber plug-and-play array cables assemblies can simply be plugged into any plug-and-play cassette in the optical distribution frame or fiber enclosure which eliminates the need for on-site fiber termination and preparation.
For assistance customizing your MPO plug-and-play solutions, please email FiberStore fibre optic cable manufacturers at sales@fiberstore.com

FiberStore LSZH Cable Solutions

The increasing demand of LSZH cables has been driven by published concerns for safety of humans and electronic circuits during fire, the protection of the ozone layer, non-toxic elements to water table and landfills when discarded, and an increase in requirements/specifications by the European and the International communities.
LSZH cables mean the insulation and jacket compound are free of halogenated materials like Fluorine(F), Chlorine (Cl), Bromine (Br), Iodine (I) and Astatine (At), which are reported to be capable of being transformed into toxic and corrosive matter during combustion or decompositions in landfills.
During combustion, Low Smoke Halogen Free Cable produce low levels of halogen gases, which have a minimal effect on the human respiratory system when inhaled, as well as a low level of Hydrogen Chloride (HCl), which is non-damaging to electronic circuits or machinery. Also, a low level of white smoke is generated, improving visibility by increasing the chances of people to visually find their way out to safety during fire.
LSZH cables emit no more than 0.5% of Hydrogen Chloride (HCl)
10-25% considers irritant(HCl) >25% considers corrosive
Low Smoke Fume, or LSF, is another term used by certain manufacturers for LSZH cables, but there are no standards for LSF. This means manufacturers can label their products LSF as long as they give off reduced (HCl) emissions. LSF cable is, in fact, just reduced HCl emissions, giving off <15% (HCl).
FiberStore product line has been developed to address the industry's need for LSZH cable products that are UL listed, flexible, flame retardant and resistant to oil and sunlight. Our LSZH cables may be used and installed in places where safety, performance and concern for the environment are important.
LSZH Flame and Smoke Compliances
Vertical Tray Cable Flame Test, IEEE-383 (70,000 BTU) and CSA FT- 4 / IEEE 1202 flame test
Per UL-1685
IEC 60332-1 & -3 Cat. A: Flammability
IEC 61034-1 & 2 and MIL-DTL-24643B and NES 711 Smoke Index Emission
IEC 60754-1 & 2; MIL-DTL-24643B: Halogen Content and Acid Gas Generation
LSZH Versus PVC
PVC and LSZJ are very different. PVC patchcords are very soft. LSZH patchcords are more rigid because they contain the flame retardant compound, and they are aesthetically more pleasing.
A PVC (polyviny chloride) cable has a jacket that gives off heavy black smoke, hydrochloric acid, and other toxic gases when it burns.
Cost: LSZH components are slightly higher in cost than some PVC compounds, but it is the safety factors as they related to humans and electronic equipment as well as friendliness to the environment that should be considered when it comes to cost.
Flexibility: There is a limited range of compound flexibility available for LSZH compounds versus PVC so it not recommended for robotic or continuous flex applications.
Flame Retardant: There is a higher grade of flame-retardant PVC compounds available on the market like Plenum PVC because of the halogen additive in PVC like Chlorine and Bromine that are not allowed in LSZH compounds.
When selecting or designing a cable for any application, the operating environments where the cable will be used, whether extreme or not, must be considered along with availability, performance, and price, among other things. When the safety of humans and the environment is a consideration, along with high-performance and capability, then FiberStore LSZH cables are what you must specify!

The Next Generation MPO Based Multimode Fiber Architecture

For high density fiber environment, such as data center SAN and backbone implementation, the combination of the 12 fiber MPO fiber connector and factory terminated assembly is a great solution. The cable diameter is small and the architecture doesn't limit network design flexibility, application distance, reliability, or number of connections.
MPO is compatible ribbon fiber connectors based on MT ferrule which allow quick and reliable connection for up to 12 fibers. It is manufactured specially for multi-fiber loose tube or fiber optic ribbon cable. Up to 12 fibers in a ribbon are stripped to 125um cladding and inserted into 250um spaced parallel grooves. The MPO enables you connect many fibers in a snap, but it is not easy to terminate 12 fibers in one rectangular housing. Thanks to the appearance of pre-terminated cable assemblies, with 12 pre-terminated fibers, MPT brand cable is easily connect up to 12 different ports by a simple plug-in, which significantly saved the time to get the revenue-generation applications up and actually generating revenue much faster.
The typical fiber application runs on duplex fiber, one and one RX, making the multi-fiber backbones must be broken out into duplex connections on either end. With pre-terminated modules and fan-out assemblies, the task is accomplished easily. Once installed, the solution appears and behaves just like a well-planned duplex system. What's more, with the correct MPO architecture, people will no longer worry about those dreaded polarity issues - TX will always go to RX. And the days of trouble-shooting by flipping path cable polarity may disappear forever!
As we know, new 40Gb and 100Gb Ethernet standards are based on parallel optics using the 12 fiber MPO connector as the equipment interface. It is very convenient and cost-effective the MPO
architecture can easily migrate to these new high-speed applications. Provide you'v chosen the right keying approach (TIA method B). When the equipment starts showing up with MPO interfaces, simply remove the module for fan-out, use those somewhere else at your side, and connect to the equipment with a 12 fiber MPO patch cords. You can even do a full cross-connect if you like ue structured cabling around 12-fiber increments.
In the end, introduce a good place to buy the MPO architecture products FiberStore.com, one good fibre optic cable manufacturers, from which you can by a wide range of MTP/MPO products including MTP/MPO connectors, MTP/MPO cassettes and many types of trunk cable assemblies. Many additional options and combinations are available and all multi fiber optic cables are customizable.

Opticonx Launched New Micro Distribution Cables

Opticonx, the Putnam, Connecticut-based manufacture of high-quality passive fiber optic cabling system, announced to have launched a new portfolio of micro-distribution cables. The new cables are the latest addition to the company's current fiber optic cable product line. These high-density, compact and cost effective micro-distribution cables are provided to better cater for customers'need.
As is expressed by vice president of Opticonx, Brian Keane, the additional of these cable designs compliment their ribbon cable to offer and provide customers with a more complete choice for their pre-terminated, field terminated or fusion spliced installation. The new micro-distribution cable are ideally suitable for high-density pre-terminated MTP trunks, hybrid MTP/LC trunks, and LC/LC trunks for data center applications, besides, they can also be field terminated when used with breakout kits.
The new cable versions offered by Opticonx including the following: optical fiber noncondutive plenum (OFNP) indoor cables, optical fiber conductive plenum (OFCP) indoor armored cables, and optical fiber nonconductive riser (OFNR) indoor/outdoor cables from 2-27 fibers. All are available with OS2 single-mode and OM1-OM4 fibers and can be customized for hybrid single-mode/multimode combinations.
About Opticonx
Opticonx Inc. Designs, manufactures and markets a full line of passive fiber optic connectivity components and systems in Putnam, Connecticut. The Opticonx team is dedicated to incorporating top-notch design with the highest quality components to produce fiber optic connectivity products and solutions for voice, video, and data applications. Opticonx designs and manufacturers all products under one roof, enabling the company offer rapid prototype and time to time market for customer solutions.
Related: Where to buy fiber optic cable

Exploring the Anatomy of A Fiber Optic Cable

What's really inside a fiber optic cable? That's a question that most customers of fiber optic cable suppliers want to know. Fiber optic is the communications medium that works by sending optical signals down hair-thin strands of extremely pure glass or plastic fiber. Fiber optic cables are capable of carrying high volume of data over long distances. This article is written to take a peek inside fiber optic cables. Starting at the center and working our way outside.
A standard fiber optic cable is comprised of four specific parts:
Core: A fiber optic's center is made of glass, and this tube carries the cable's light signals. Depending on the type of fiber optic cable (single more of multimode), the core varies in size. Single mode fibers consist of a tiny glass core that typically has a diameter between 8.3 and 10 microns. This type of cable is used for telephone and CATV with laser sources at 1300 and 1550nm because it has a lower loss and virtually infinite bandwidth. For multi mode fibers, the core is larger. Their core size ranges from 5 to 7 times larger than a single mode core. With a diameter ranging between 50 to 62.5 microns,it supports the transmission of multiple mode (rays) of light and perfect for high data applications. Multimode is generally used with LED source at wavelengths of 850 and 1300nm for slower local area networks (LANs) and lasers at 850 (VCSELs) and 1310nm (Fabry-Perot lasers) for networks running at gigabyte per seconds or more. Multi mode cables are typically used over shorter distances than single mode fiber optic cables.

Cladding layer: The core is surrounded by an optical material called the "cladding" that traps the light in the core using an optical technique called "total internal reflection." When transmitting data (especially over long distances), light rays can reflect off each other and travel in different directions. The cladding keeps those signals straight.Buffer: Buffer is made to protect fiber from moisture and physical damage. The buffer is what one strips off the fiber for termination or splicing. More often than not, the buffer is made of
Plastic.
Jacket: The fiber optic's cable exterior is typically made of tough, durable polyurethane. Its job is to protect the overall integrity of the fiber optic cable. The jacket is the first line of defense in a fiber optic cable. Routing cables can put stresses on a fiber optic cable and a jacket sometimes contains an extra layer to avoid these potential hazards.
Water Barrier: Common water barriers for ordinary cable include: an axially laid aluminum foil/polyethylene laminated film immediately inside the polyurethane of polyethylene plastic sheaths;
and/or the use of moisture resistant compounds around the fibers.
If you'd like to purchase or know more informations on fiber optic cable price per foot, you can feel free to contact fiberstore customer service team at sales@fiberstore.com

What is MPO Fiber Connector

Data centers are the heart and brains of a commercial enterprise network. More and more larger companies are consolidating their data centers to minimise operating costs. Network uptime is critical, any interruption of ongoing systems can cause significant costs. Installing thousands of connectors in the field using adhesives can take a lot of labor time. To address this, a growing trend in data center cabling involves pre-connectorized cables, which are typically high fiber count cables that are pre-connected with multiple MPO connectors.
MPO fiber connector is one of the typical type of fiber connectors that mainly installed under factory conditions using specialized processes. The MPO connector is built on the MT-style ferrule, designed by NTT. The MT (mechanical transfer) ferrule is designed to hold up to 12 fibers in a ferrule 7mm wide and is ideally suitable for ribbon fiber connections. In addition, precision-machined guide pins maintain the close alignment necessary for connecting 12 fibers at once. These guide pins can be arranged as necessary between the mating connectors depending on the way they will be used. Connectors designed for multiple fibers are also known as array connectors. The MPO connector has a plastic body that is spring-loaded to keep the connectors together.
What is the different between MPO and MTP connector?
MPO was the first generation of multi-fiber connectors designed by NTT. It is now the name of the category of multi-fiber connectors produced by several companies. MTP brand connectors, however, is USCONEC's trade name for their own superior style of MPO connector. MTP brand fiber system is an innovative group of products, which is designed and introduced as a performance version of MPO connectors. MTP brand connector contains 12 fibers of 6 duplex channels in a connector that is smaller than most duplex connections in use today. MTP brand connectors utilize precision molded ferrule which can connect from four to seventy-two fibers using either ribbon or subgroups loose-tube cable. Male MTP brand connectors are pre-installed with two precision guide pins to accommodate precision alignment when mating ferrules. MTP connectors are also utilizing a push-pull connector housing for quick and reliable connectors.
The IT planning group would survey the data center and order specific length of these pre-terminated cables. On installation today, the cables can be simply plugged into factory-assembled patch panel systems. These MPO pre-terminated high-fiber-count cables are commonly called plug-and-play solutions. In designing and costing your networks, it would be wise to compare the material and labor cost of these cables to the cost of bare cables, which require connector installation in the field.