With vast demanding of the higher bandwidth and faster speed, the growth of single mode fiber optic cable market has enhanced over the past several years. Maybe there are still a lot of people who do not know what single mode fiber optic cable is and why it can improve the development of the network communication. So the following article will solve all your problems. This article will focus on its definition, types, advantages and disadvantages.

The Definition of Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable

Single mode fiber (SMF), is an optical fiber that is designed for the transmission of a single ray or mode of light as a carrier to propagate at a time. Single mode fiber optic cable core is 8 to 9 micons which is about one-tenth of a human hair. So the core diameter of single mode fiber optic is smaller than multimode fiber optic cable. But it can provide higher transmission speeds and higher information transmission capacity.

Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable Types: OS1 VS OS2

From “Fiber Optic Cable Brings to a New Era of Network,” we can know that fiber optic cable is divided into two kinds—single mode fiber optic cable and multimode fiber optic cable. As we know, multimode fiber optic cable is usually divided into OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4 and OM5 fiber types. And what about single fiber optic cable? According to SMF specifications, single fiber optic cable can be categorised into OS1 and OS2. The main difference between OS1 and OS2 single fiber optic cable is the cable constructions. In general, OS1 cabling is tight-buffered which can be used for indoor applications. On the contrary, OS2 cabling is loose-tube design which can be used for outdoor applications. The maximum transmission distance of OS2 single mode fiber optic cable is up to 10 km but OS1 single mode fiber optic cable can just reach 2km. Both OS1 and OS2 fiber optic cable allow a distance of gigabit to 10G Ethernet. Besides, OS2 fiber can support 40G and 100G Ethernet.

Single Mode Fiber Optic Cable: Advantages and Disadvantages

Single mode fiber optic cable is perfect for long distance transmission and has greater bandwidth capacity than multimode fiber optic cable. The use of single mode fiber cable can limit data dispersion and external interference. Single mode fiber cable has fast transmission speed which can support data transmission speed up to 10Gbps, 40Gbps, 100Gbps.

Due to smaller core diameter, coupling light into the core is more difficult. Besides, compared with multimode fiber optic cable, single mode fiber optic cable costs more.

Conclusion

The use of single mode fiber optic cable realizes signal transmission over long distance. So it is popular to be widely applied in some places, like data center, CATN, FTTH, WDM/DWDM. As we talk above, it has two types of single fiber optic cable for you to choose. If you want to use it indoor, you can choose OS1, or if you want to use it outdoor, you can choose OS2. There will always be one for you.

The world of telecommunications is rapidly moving from copper wire networks to fiber optics. Different from copper wire, fiber optic cable provides one of the most effective means today for safe and long-distance, and it also offers a number of advantages for us. For example, it can reduce the electrical fires in the transmission which is different from copper wire. Because they transfer information using light which do not cause electromagnetic interference. Fiber optic cable brings us so many benefits, and do you know what fiber optic cable is, how many kinds it has. This article will introduce everything about fiber optic cable.

What Is Fiber Optic Cable?

Fiber optic cable contains core, cladding, coating, strengthening member and outer jacket. The core of fiber optic cable carries the actual light signal and the cladding is a layer of glass surrounding the core. The outer jacket provides for the shielding and conductors within the cable because of the fragility of the bare fiber. Fiber optic cable is a very thin strand of pure glass which acts as a waveguide for light over long distances. It uses a principle known as total internal reflection. From this description, we know the basic information about fiber optic cable. We will divide fiber optic cable into two categories in the following part.

The Types of Fiber Optic Cable: Single Mode and Multimode

In fiber optic communications, single mode and multimode fiber constructions are used depending on the application. In single mode fiber optic cable, only one mode is propageted “straight” through the fiber. In multimode fiber optic cable, light travels through the fiber following different light paths called “mode.”

Single mode fiber optic cable can transmit information with higher capacity. Compared to multimode fiber, it can keep the fidelity of each light pulse over long distance, and it exhibits no dispersion caused by multiple modes. Single mode fiber optic cable also exhibits lower fiber attenuation than multimode optic cable fiber. So it can transmit more information at the same time. Because of smaller core diameter, coupling light into the core is more difficult. Tolerances for single mode connectors and splices demand more. There is another important feature—single fiber optic cable ensure the great performance of system based on its nonlinearities.

Multimode core diameters are much bigger than single mode fiber, and it can transfer more light. Multimode core is set up with multiple rings with different refractive light indexes. These rings allow the light to travel over longer distance without loss of continuity. Multimode fiber optic cable are less expensive and easy to work with. Multimode fiber provides high bandwidth at high speeds like single mode. But transmission distance is shorter than that of single mode fiber. The key benefit of multimode fiber optic cable is the inexpensive electronics used to terminate the fiber.

Conclusion

Fiber optic cable is used to connect servers and users in a variety of network settings and also help in increasing the accuracy and speed of data transmission. Fiber optic cable is divided into two kinds: single mode fiber optic cable and multimode fiber optic cable. Single mode fiber optic cable can transmit signal over a long distance but it is expensive. Multimode fiber optic cable is cheaper but it can just transmit signal over a shorter distance. Two kinds of fiber optic cable can satisfy the different demand of customer.

With the constantly updating network, 10G transceiver is appearing in order to provide a better channel for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. But then 10 Gigabit Ethernet can not satisfy people to pursuit the faster data transmission rate, so there comes 40 Gigabit Ethernet. 40 Gigabit Ethernet is a standard that enables the transfer of Ethernet frames at speeds of up to 40 gigabits per second(Gbps). 40G QSFP+ transceivers are designed for 40 Gigabit Ethernet try to keep up with the continuous development of the network. And how many do we know about 40G QSFP+ Transceiver? The next paragraph will answer this question.

What Is 40G QSFP+ Transceiver?

40G QSFP+ transceiver is a product developed on the basis of 40G QSFP transceiver. 40G QSFP transceiver has four independent full duplex transceiver channels, and is a four channel minitype plugable optical transceiver. It is used for high-density applications. Compared with the traditional SFP+ optical transceiver, the port density is higher and the cost of whole system is lower. 40G QSFP+ transceiver conforms to various standards such as SCSI, 40G Ethernet, 20G/40G Infiniband and so on. It has four data transmission channels, the transmission rate of each channel is about 10Gbps, and the transmission of four channels can get 40Gbps at the same time. This optical transceiver mainly has two kinds of interfaces: LC and MTP/MPO. They can also be divided into several categories according to the transmission distance: 40GBASE-SR4, 40GBASE-LR4, 40GBASE-ER4.

Different Types Of 40G QSFP+ Transceiver

We have already knew three kinds of 40G QSFP+ Transceiver in the above. And in this paragraph we will introduce them that mentioned in the last section.

Many vendors use “QSFP-40G-SR4” to identify 40G QSFP+ modules that support by 40Gbase-SR4 standards. 40Gbase-SR4 QSFP+ is the most popular 40G fiber optic transceiver for transmission in short distances, that is, 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ module supports link lengths of 100m and 150m, respectively, on OM3 and OM4 multimode fibers. It is a parallel fiber optic transceiver containing an MTP/MPO interfaces, which uses 4*10G transmission pattern.

40GBASE-LR4 QSFP+ transceiver is a parallel single-mode optical transceiver with duplex LC connector. Moreover, it offers four independent transmit and receive channels and each channel is capable of 10G operation for an aggregate data rate of 40G on 10 km of single-mode fiber. The guide pins inside the receptacle could ensure proper alignment. Usually, the cable cannot be twisted for proper channel to channel alignment.

40GBASE-ER4 QSFP+ permit link lengths up to 40km with duplex LC connectors. The 40GE or OTU3 signal is carried over four wavelengths in the 1310nm range. It also offers four independent transmit and receive channels.

Conclusion

As mentioned above, three of 40G QSFP+ transceiver are suitable for different  transmission distance and all have four channels for higher rate transmission. 40GBASE-SR4 QSFP+ transceiver supports MTP/MPO connector which is different from the others. Anyway, they are the same in function to transmit 40G data. In a word, 40G QSFP+ transceiver promotes the development of high-density and high speed signal transmission, which brings the optical communication into a new era.