Typical Cable Components for Network Connection

This article will describe some typical cable components involved in transmitting data from the network area to the telecommunications room or enclosure. These typical cable components are horizon cable, backbone cable, and patch cables which is used in cross-connections and for connecting to network devices.
Patch Cords
Patch cords are used in in patch panels to provide the connection between field-terminated horizontal cables and network connectivity devices and connections between the telecommunications outlets and network devices such as printers, computers, and other Ethernet-based devices. They are part of the network wiring you can actually see. Since the fact that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Because of their exposed position in structured cable infrastructures, patch cords are always the weakest link. Patch cords include optical fiber patch cable.
Horizontal and Backbone Cables
The name horizontal cable and backbone cable have nothing to do with the cable's physical orientation toward the horizon. Horizontal cables run between a cross-connect panel in a telecommunications room and telecommunications room and a telecommunications outlet located near the work area. Backbone cables run between telecommunications rooms, and enclosures, and the main cross-connect point of a building, it usually located in the equipment room.
Whereas horizontal UTP cables contain solid conductors, patch cords are made with stranded conductors because they are more flexible. The flexibility allows them to withstand the abuse of frequent flexing and reconnecting. Although you could build your own field-terminated patch cords, we strongly recommend against it.
At first glance, patch cords may seem like a no-brainer, but they may actually be the most crucial components to accurately specify. When specifying patch cords, you may also require that your patch cords be tested to ensure that they meet the proper transmission-performance standards for their category. Fiber patch cables are used for fiber optic cabling. Usually it is divided into single mode fiber patch cord and multimode fiber patch cord. Single mode fiber operators to a long transmission distance, while multi-mode fiber is a short transmission distance.
Choosing the right cables for your job
Professional cable installed and cable-plant designers are called upon to interpret and/or draft cable specifications to fulfill business' structured-cabling requirements. Anyone purchasing cable for business or home use may also have to make a decision regarding what type of cable to use. Installing inappropriate cable could be unfortunate in the event of a disaster such as a fire.
Cable plant designer can held accountable in court and held responsible for damages incurred as a result of substandard cable installation, Cables comes in a variety of ratings, and many of these rating has to do with how well the cable will fare in a fire.
Using the general overview informations provided here, you should now have adequate information to specify the proper cable for your installation.
First, you must know the installation environment and what the applicable NEC and the local fire-code requirements will allow regarding the cables' flame rating. In a commercial building, this usually comes down to where plenum-rated cables must be installed and where a lower rating is acceptable.
The second decision on cabling must be on media type. The large majority of new installations use fiber optic cable in the backbone and UTP cable for the horizontal.
For fiber optic cable, you will need to specify the fiber type first, single-mode or multimode. If it is multimode, you will need to specify the core diameter. That is 62.5/125 or 50/125. Most new installations use an 850nm, laser-optimized 50/125 multimode fiber, better know to the industry as OM3 fiber. A special fiber patch cable takes multimode ST patch cable for example, it can be either with OM1 62.5/125 types or OM2 50/125, simplex or duplex, connector types of ST-ST, ST-MTRJ, ST-LC, etc. The large majority of new networks use an 850nm, laser-optimized 50/125 multimode fiber, better knows to the industry as OM3 fiber. Of UTP cable, you need to specify the appropriate transmission-performance category. Most newly installations today use Cat6, and there is a growing migration to Cat6A. Make sure that you specify that patch cords are rated in the same or higher category than the horizontal cable.

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.