Fiber Optic Communication

Multimode fiber has been highly favored by Ethernet users and gained the widest acceptance in network backbones where it has offered users the opportunity to extend link distances, increase network reliability, and lower costs by centralizing electronics. OM3 fiber emerges just at the right time. The predominance of OM3 fiber is that utilizes laser-optimized fiber, which is the highest-capacity medium for short-wave 10G optical transmission. OM4 fiber just joined multimode fiber family after OM3 fiber in order to meet the requirement of longer range applications. This passage would give a brief introduction to OM3 and OM4 fiber, give a further analysis on their differences and selection guide, as well as list their applications. Introduction to OM3 & OM4 Fiber Both OM3 and OM4 fiber meet the ISO 11801 standard. The standard specifies that OM3 fibers are capable of 10 Gb/s performance over distances of up to 300m. Like being mentioned, the laser optimized 50/125 mm multimode O...

As a worldwide leader in IT and fiber optical networking, Cisco switches play a leading role in manufacturing network switches and in providing switching solutions for data center and enterprise networks with large and medium-size forms. MikroTik, a Latvian company which was founded in 1996 to develop routers and wireless ISP systems. Their cloud switches are highly favored by many Ethernet users in recent years. And thus, people are entangled with Cisco and Mikrotik switches. This article would give brief introduction to Cisco and Mikrotik switches, and put emphasis on Mikrotik Switches Vs Cisco Switches. Cisco Switches According to different usage, Cisco divided their switches into the following categories: LAN Access Switches, LAN Digital Building Switches, LAN Core and Distribution Switches, Data Center Switches, Service Provider Switches, Industrial Ethernet Switches , Virtual Networking and Small Business Switches. And every category has its switching series. The Cisco Ca...

25G Ethernet and 40G Ethernet are two “transiting” approaches for upgrading network from 10G to 100G. Some analysts believe 25G could be the second highest Ethernet server connectivity technology sold and shipped in the next five years, behind 10G. Meanwhile, a number of comments from industry experts declaring that 40G Ethernet is dead. Is that true? And how to make a right decision? This passage would give a brief introduction on 25G switch and 40G switch and put emphasis on 25G switch Vs. 40G switch. 25G Switch 25G technology is the new standard that offer significant density, cost and power benefits for server to top of rack connections. Its single higher speed 25 Gb/s lanes maximize bandwidth and switch fabric utilization. A single lane per physical port maximizes the number of connected servers or uplinks per switch. Generally, 25G switch is a 48 port switch on the 25G switch market right now. Nowadays, many major brands of switch manufactures have launched their 25G swit...

Fiber jumper cables are mainly used for connection in the context of optical fiber communications including applications like cable TV (CATV), inside buildings and in fiber to the home (FTTH) installations. Nowadays, optical fiber jumpers are varied in cables and connector types. It is hard to determine the differences between one fiber optic cable jumper and another. This article would put emphasis on guiding you to select the perfect fiber jumper cables from the following six perspectives. Cable Type of Fiber Jumper Cables Fiber jumper cables comes in two general types, singlemode and multimode optical fiber jumper. They are different in fiber diameter, classifications of fiber strands, jacket color, transmission speed and etc. Singlemode fiber jumper cable generally has a 9 micron diameter glass fiber. There are two sub groups (referred to as OS1 and OS2) but most cable is "dual rated" to cover both classifications. Multimode optical fiber jumper can have several ...

We may quite familiar with indoor fiber optic cable, because it is an indispensable part of our daliy life. But for outdoor fiber optical cables, there are many factors needed to be considered, such as Ultraviolet, specific environment and etc. Different outdoor fiber optic cable matches for different environment. So what are they? And how they apply? This article would put emphasis on introducing the following four types of outdoor fiber optic cable, both singlemode fiber outdoor cables and multimode fiber outdoor cables are fully covered. Aerial outdoor cable Aerial outdoor cable is a kind of fiber optic cable , which is designed to be easier to install and faster to terminate than loose tube cables. 900-µm tight-buffered cables (one kind of aerial outdoor cable) are UL riser- and plenum-rated fiber optic patch cable, which are specially suited for duct and aerial installation points. No transition points are required at the building entrance. The construction of this ki...

It is universally acknowledged that price is one of the key factors when we buy something. We may heave a sigh of the soaring cost of the switches of the major brands on the current market, such as Cisco, Arista, Juniper...However, that is not a good deal for home and some small enterprises to make Ethernet network connectivity. Ubiquiti POE switches provide a perfect solution for this deadlock. This article would provide the detailed information about Ubiquiti US-8-150W POE switch—its compatible Ethernet cables and SFP modules as well as connection solution. Why Choose Ubiquiti US-8-150W POE Switch? Nowadays, a lot of families choose Unifi to make Ethernet connection and Ubiquiti sells Unifi-compatible POE switches. Lately, the company has just launched its line of Unifi switches with two more models better suited for home use: the 16-port US-16-150W and the fanless 8-port US-8-150W. They are silent and unobtrusive. The highlight lies in their price, they only cost $299 and $19...

Multimode fiber optic cable has been widely used in our daily life for its cost-effective, low power consumption and etc. The OM family recently was added a new member, called as OM5. Different from the previous OM1 to OM4, OM5 is a wideband multimode fiber, which will support short wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM). This article would provide general information about OM5 and differences between OM5 and OM3, OM4. Information About OM5 As early as 2016, Commonscope introduced their LazrSPEED Wideband Multimode Fiber (WBMMF), and the ISO/IEC decided the nomenclature for WBMMF is OM5 in October 2016. Later, wideband OM5 fiber was defined by IEEE 802.3bs, which refers as a multimode 400Gb/s link, 400GBASE-SR16, using 16 transmit and 16 receive fibers (32 fibers total) over a link distance of 100 m. Currently it shows that OM5 wider operating window offers no immediate advantages compared with OM4 fiber. But using OM5 will make the network ready for future use of SWDM technolo...

In the later year of 2011, Cisco launched 3750 Series switch, with a purpose to improve LAN operating efficiency and resiliency for stackable switches. Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series is one series of Cisco 3750 Series, which featured as high availability, scalability, security, energy efficiency, and ease of operation. The detailed information about Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series switch would be provided in this article. In addition, we will guide you to plug your optical modules into this switch, all the installation and removing procedures as well as cautions are fully covered in the following passage. Overview on Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series switch Cisco Catalyst 3750-X Series switch are 12-port and 24-port Gigabit Ethernet Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) switches. You can see it more clearly in the following figure. Different from the traditional switch design, they additionally added some other functions, such as four optional network modules, redundant power su...

Most us of us may quite familiar with 10G, 40G and 100G Ethernet network, but we know little about 25G Ethernet, or even never heard about it. In the race of 10G, 40G and 100G Ethernet, it seems that 25G Ethernet lagged far behind. However, it is a good choice for network connectivity indeed. So what is 25G Ethernet and its benefits? And what about its cables and optical modules? The detailed information about 25G Ethernet would be provided in this article. Overview on 25G Ethernet Researched and developed by IEEE group, 25G Gigabit Ethernet is a standard for Ethernet connectivity. Compared with 10G, 40G and 100G Ethernet, 25G and 50G Ethernet were the latest developed Ethernet specification. 25G Ethernet Consortium was formed in July 2014 to support the specification of single-lane 25G Ethernet. It is an open organization to all third parties who wish to participate as members to enable the transmission of Ethernet frames at 25 or 50 Gigabit per seconds (Gbps) and...

Over the years, 40G and 100G networks are developing rapidly, but nearly all new network building or network upgrading are based on 10G network. As an indispensable part in 10G network building, 10G optical transceiver has been designed and standardized by IEEE group as early as 2006. Compared with the prevalent 10GBASE-SR, 10GBASE-LR optical modules on the 10G transceiver market, 10GBASE-T SFP+ copper transceiver receives little attention. Different types have their own pros and cons, so why should we choose 10GBASE-T SFP+ transceiver for 10G network connection instead of others? This article would provide a satisfying answer for you. Basic Information About 10GBASE-T SFP+ Transceiver 10GBASE-T meets all the bit-error rate (EDR) requirements of all the Ethernet and storage over Ethernet specifications, which is specifically designed for high speed communication links that require 10G Ethernet over cat6a or cat7 cable. It uses the familiar RJ45 connector and provid...

Generally speaking, a cabling upgrade is indispensable if we intend to migrate network from 10G to 40G. It is no doubt that this would afford the extra expense and time. Is there a solution to allow us to get the best of both worlds—save both money and time? The answer is yes—Juniper’s QSFP+ LX4 transceivers provide 40 Gbps connectivity with immense cost savings and simplicity for next-generation data center 40GbE deployments. But what is it? And how does it work? This article would provide a satisfying solution for you. Overview on Juniper QSFP+ LX4 LX4 is a new 40G Ethernet optical technology, which represents a new way to deploy 40GbE that meets all of the performance criteria of today’s data centers. The Juniper QSFP+ 40G LX4 transceiver, a short-reach optical transceiver that delivers 40 Gbps over duplex OM3 or OM4 MMF, allows 40 Gbps connectivity to connect directly to the 10 Gbps fiber and fiber trunk. It has four 10 Gbps channels, each of which can transmit...

In recent decades, Cisco 1000BASE SFP transceivers have been widely used by many Ethernet users. There are many types of 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP transceivers on the market, such as Cisco GLC-LG-SM, GLC-LG-SM-RGD, GLC-LG-SM-20, which are operating on standard single-mode fiber-optic link spans of up to 10 km and up to 500 m on any multimode fibers. Among them, Cisco GLC-LG-SM and GLC-LG-SMD are two types of Cisco 1G SFP transceivers which are warmly welcomed by lots of Ethernet users. Do you know about them? And how to select? The detailed information about Cisco GLC-LG-SM and GLC-LG-SMD would be provided in the following passage. Overview on Cisco GLC-LH-SM The Cisco GLC-LH-SM 1000BASE-LX/LH Ethernet transceiver is a Duplex SFP transceiver for optical communications. It is fully compliant to Multi-Source Agreement (MSA), allowing it to function with other third party MSA compliant networking equipment. This 1000BASE SFP optical transceiver is capable of transmitting data at speeds of u...

Among all the 100G transceivers, most Ethernet users intended to use 100G QSFP28 transceivers instead of other 100G transceivers to connect switches, routers and servers. There are several common types of 100G QSFP28 modules, including 100G QSFP28 LR4,100G QSFP28 SR4, 100G CWDM4 and 100G PSM4. LR4, SR4 and IR4 are three common types of 100G QSFP28 modules. It is known to all that LR is set for long-reach transmission while SR for short-reach transmission. How about IR4? What is the difference between IR4 and SR4? A satisfied answer will be provided in this article. Introduction to 100G QSFP28 SR4 100G QSFP28 SR4 is a pluggable and parallel fiber optic transceiver for 100G Ethernet. This transceiver is a high performance module for short-range multi-lane data communication and interconnect applications. It offers 4 independent transmit and receive channels, each capable of 25Gbps operation in each direction with 112.2Gbps bandwidth for an aggregate data rate of 100Gbps with each la...

Nowadays, QSFP28 transceivers play a leading role on the market of 100GBASE transceivers for their smallest form-factor and lowest power consumption among other 100G optics. The common QSFP28 transceivers are 100GBASE-SR4, 100GBASE-SR10, 100GBASE-LR4, 100GBASE-ER4, 100G CWDM4 and 100G PSM4... Data can be transmitted through 100G QSFP28 transceivers connected with MTP/MPO patch cable or duplex LC patch cable. Different patch cables have different connector types, which must be plugged into corresponding interface correctly. Thus, it is imperative to be aware of 100G  QSFP28 connectors , interfaces as well as patch cables and that will be mainly covered in this passage. Detailed Information About Common 100G QSFP28 Transceivers Different types of QSFP28 transceivers match different patch cables. Here, we list some common 100G QSFP28 transceivers in detail, especially for their connectors and interfaces. MTP/MPO Connectors Applied For QSFP28 Transceivers As we can s...