Two Commonly Used Patch Cables in Harsh Environments

With the fast growing of telecommunication industry, fiber optic cable jumpers have been increasingly needed in applications, such as data center, local area network and Ethernet network to achieve smooth connectivity between fiber optical equipment. There are various patch cables available on the market, like LC fiber cable or SC patch cable, which can be only used in “safe environments” (environment do not exist moisture or animal biting, etc. ). How about fiber optic patch cables used in harsh environments? The following text will introduce two commonly used patch cables—armored patch cable and waterproof patch cable, that are still able to work well in really tough surroundings.

Armored Fiber Optic Patch Cable

Definition

Armored patch cable is a special fiber jumper, which is designed to withstand twisting, kinking, crushing, and to prevent rodent damage in applications where traditional fiber-optic cables may fail during installation and operation. As its name indicates, this patch cable is wrapped by stainless-steel armored flexible tubing inside the outer jacket and is available with single-mode and multimode fiber. Similar to traditional patch cords, this fiber jumper can be also terminated with different connectors, such as SC, LC, ST, and so on.

Structure

The outer jacket is usually made of plastics like polyethylene to prevent it from solvents and abrasions. The layer between the outer jacket and inner jacket is strength member which is an armored layer made of materials that are difficult to cut, burn or chew. In addition, this kind of material is able to protect the fiber optic cable from being stretched during cable installation. And the inner jacket is a protective and flame retardant material to support the inner fiber optic cable bundle. The following picture shows the structure of armored patch cable.

Benefits

Armored patch cable retains all the features of standard patch cables, but it is much stronger and tougher. Thus it can provide higher durability and longer service life from strong pressure resistance. With armored structure, this patch cable will not get damage even it is stepped by an adult, while the standard patch cable may get distorted and be out of work. Besides, the special structure design also makes it anti-rodent, which means it can be easily used in harsh situations where people no longer worry about animal biting.

Waterproof Fiber Optic Patch Cable

Definition

Like the armored patch cable, water-proof patch is also applied in a tough circumstance. It is specially designed for installation where the cable will come in contact with water or moisture, such as aerial, direct buried, or in conduit. Traditional patch cables used in such applications will be out of work, but with a water-proof gel-filled or gel-free (dry gel) polymer, water-proof patch cable can work in good condition. There are generally two types of water-proof patch cable, one is tight-buffer cables (primarily used inside buildings), the other is loose-tube cables (used for OSP and indoor/outdoor).

Two Types of Water-proof Fiber Optic Patch Cable

Tight-buffer Cable—Although most tight-buffered cables are used for indoor application, some of them are designed with water-proof powder and yarn, making them available for indoor/outdoor use. Tight-buffer cable has a two-layer coating. One is the soft plastic that allows deformation and reduces forces endured by the fiber, while the other is the hard outer buffer to provide physical protection. With the use of a buffer attached to the fiber coating, this patch cable is generally smaller than loose-tube cable. Besides, it combines the design requirements of traditional indoor cable and adds moisture protection and sunlight-resistant function to meet the standards for outdoor use.

Loose-tube Cable—Loose tube contains 250 microns fibers which are often surrounded by gel and contained within a central tube or multiple tubes around a central strength member. There is an aramid yarns between the fiber tubes and the outer jacket. The optical gel inside the rugged, abrasion resistant and oversized tube can help protect the fibers from moisture, making the cables ideal for high humidity environments. Generally, loose tube cable can be used for the LAN applications where reliability, attenuation stability over a wide temperature range and low installed cost are the priorities. The following picture shows the structure of tight-buffer and loose-tube cables.

Conclusion

With more and more patch cables for different applications available on the market, it is essential for us to choose the right patch cables according to the installation locations. In some harsh environment, like high humidity or threats from animal biting, armored patch cable and water-proof patch cable are the ideal solutions. As a professional optical communication products manufacturer and supplier, FS.COM provides plenty of armored patch cables and water-proof patch cables in different specifications according to your requirement. Besides, we also offer a wide variety of traditional patch cables, such as LC fiber optic cable, SC to LC fiber patch cable and ST fiber cable, etc. All products are through a professional inspection to ensure high quality. If you have any need, please kindly visit FS.COM.

Why We Use Pre-terminated Cabling System in Data Center?

As we all know, field termination has been widely used during the deployment of data center in the past years. However, with the data center increasingly depending on high-density cabling, traditional field termination methods will result in extended deployment time, higher installation costs and increased downtime. To solve these issues, pre-terminated cabling system, which can accelerate the installation process, reduce costs and errors, is introduced to the data center. There are many reasons to consider pre-terminated cabling system in data center solution. The following part will illustrate them one by one.

Benefits from Using Pre-terminated Cabling System

Time Saving

Pre-terminated solutions help to save time in a number of ways. Firstly, as the products are terminated in a factory environment and delivered to site, minimal engineering or assembly work is required on site. Many leading pre-terminated cabling solutions are provided in a cassette format, allowing the installer to plug-and-play multiple connections with one cassette, which contributes toward installation time saving when compared with the traditional method of individual connections. Pre-terminated solution also saves testing time. The pre-terminated solutions can be tested at the factory and the test reports including test results for attenuation, propagation delay, near end and far end crosstalk or more, will be transported to the site with the cable assemblies. Ultimately, only continuity testing is left to perform in the field, saving testing and rework time on site.

Labor Saving

Generally, when using conventional cabling system, groups of engineers should be employed to make connections, testing and troubleshooting during the deployment of cabling in data center. The use of pre-terminated cabling system simplifies the entire manpower planning process. As all the connections are pre-terminated, the need for labor to make terminations on site will be mitigated. And fewer labor means more savings on the labor bill.

Reducing Space and Material Wasting

Traditional cabling installations require loose components and tools to be brought to site. So much space will be needed to store these components and engineers also need work area to make termination. However, with pre-terminated cabling solutions, the wastage of space can be reduced, since the pre-terminated links are “made to measure” and if they are delivered to site at appropriate time, they can be used immediately without being stored. Additionally, some manufacturers have developed recyclable reels for pre-terminated links in the effort to minimize the material wastage.

Choices for Pre-terminated Cabling Assemblies

With all the advantages listed above, there is no doubt that pre-terminated cabling system is an ideal solution for data center and other applications where speed of installation is important. The following part will further introduce some commonly deployed pre-terminated cabling assemblies.

Fiber Patch Cable

Divided by different connector type, core diameter and fiber cable structure, there are a wide range of fiber patch cables, such as LC fiber cables, single-mode patch cables and duplex patch cables and so on. Fiber patch cable helps to ensure a reliable temporary fiber optic interconnection, making it become the most commonly used pre-terminated fiber cable in data center. Here shows a LC LC fiber cable.

MTP/MPO Pre-terminated Cables

Pre-terminated with high-quality and good-performance MTP/MPO connectors, this pre-terminated cable can meet the demand for high speed and high density in the current and future network. Generally, there are MTP/MPO trunk cable and MTP/MPO harness cable in this category. Both these two pre-terminated cables can be used for 40G, or even 100G applications. The following image shows a 12-fiber female to female MTP single-mode trunk cable for 40G network.

Pre-terminated Copper Trunk Cable

Pre-terminated copper trunk cables provide a quick plug-and-play solution for links between switches, servers, patch panels, and zone distribution areas in the data center. With the right upfront planning and coordination, these trunks can offer major benefits over terminating twisted-pair cable in the field. Copper trunks are typically comprised of bundles of 6, 12, or 24 and factory terminated with jacks and plugs. There are various pre-terminated copper trunk cables available in cat5e, cat6 and cat6a UTP and STP cable construction with different termination types, such as jack to jack, jack to plug, plug to plug, etc. on the market. The picture below shows a jack to jack cat5e UTP pre-terminated copper trunk cable.

Summary

Pre-termination cabling system is not a fad, it is an increasingly popular way to deliver a project in a more timely and cost-effective manner. Through the information discussed above, hope you can understand why we use pre-terminated cabling system in data center and know some choices for pre-terminated cable.

Migrate to 40G Network Cost-effectively with BiDi QSFP+ Transceiver

As data center consolidation, server virtualization, and new applications require higher data transmission speed, it is imperative to migrate from 10G network to 40G network. However, to support the 40G connectivity, data center managers have to upgrade the existing 10G cabling infrastructure, which could be too expensive or disruptive to allow data center to quickly adapt and migrate to the 40G technology. Therefore, innovative 40G BiDi QSFP+ transceiver, which allows reuse of existing 10G fiber infrastructure for 40G connections, is designed to solve this problem. However, what is BiDi QSFP+? How does it work? And what are the advantages of BiDi QSFP+ over traditional QSFP+? This post will answer these questions one by one.

What Is BiDi QSFP+ Transceiver?

BiDi QSFP+ transceiver is a latest product used for 40G short-reach data communication and interconnect applications. Compliant with the QSFP MSA specification, it is terminated with a duplex LC connector interface to transmit data over laser-optimized OM3 and OM4 multimode fiber cables for the length of up to 100 m and 150 m respectively, that is the same as the traditional QSFP-40G-SR4 (like Arista QSFP-40G-SR4). This 40G transceiver has two 20G channels, and each channel transmits and receives two wavelengths over a single multimode fiber strand. The following image shows a Cisco 40GBase-SR BiDi QSFP+ transceiver.

How Does BiDi QSFP+ Work with Existing 10G Optics?

As we all know, 40GBase-SR4 QSFP transceiver uses four 10G lanes to support 40G through a 12-fiber MTP-MPO interface, with four for transmitting and receiving and the rest are unused. However, a BiDi QSFP+ transceiver can accomplish both the transmitting and receiving via a duplex LC patch cable. So it can be deployed in the existing 10G cabling infrastructure, which also uses duplex transmission mode.

Inside this module, four channels each of 10G signal transmission and reception are converted to two bidirectional channels of 20G signals over two different wavelengths (usually 850 nm and 900 nm) respectively (shown in the following picture). The signal is sent to the target device via 850 nm, then the signal from the target device is sent via 850 nm on the other fiber. This principle also works for the signals on 900 nm. This is why BiDi QSFP+ can achieve the migration from 10G to 40G without changing the existing infrastructure. It is more straightforward than the traditional 40G connections for short distance.

Economic Advantages of BiDi QSFP+ Transceiver

As we have mentioned above, a BiDi QSFP+ transceiver can give you 40G over your existing 10G cable plant, which means that you can connect your top-of-rack switches using the same multimode fiber and patch cables you are using right now, but get 40G performance. So data center managers won’t worry about the high cost of changing cable plant. Besides, compared to traditional QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi QSFP+ transceivers uses fewer fibers (about 2 fibers) to support 40G signal transmission, which can save another amount of money for you. For example, if you are building a new 40G data center fabric in the traditional way, you would need to run 8-multimode fiber strands between your access and aggression layer: a cost of $2000 per port. However, with BiDi QSFP+ transceivers, you can get 40G performance using just 2 fiber strands: a quarter of cabling. For a standard server rack (384 ports), that translates to a savings of more than $550,000.

Conclusion

Through the information we have discussed above, there is no doubt that 40G BiDi QSFP+ transceiver is really a cost-effective solution for the migration from 10G to 40G network. Although the price of BiDi QSFP+ transceivers are higher than that of common QSFP+ transceivers, BiDi QSFP+ transceiver utilizes much fewer fibers per unit distance. For many networks, the cost savings of utilizing less fibers far exceed the higher purchase price of BiDi QSFP+ transceivers. With advanced manufacturing facilities, strict reliability test and quality control, FS.COM ensures that our customers can get the highest-quality BiDi QSFP+ transceivers with the lowest price. We also provide plenty of traditional QSFP+ transceiver modules, like Cisco 40G-QSFP-CSR4, for your needs. Besides QSFP+, there are also many other types of fiber optic transceivers for different Ethernet networks, such as SFP, SFP+, 100G QSFP28. If you are looking for any related products, please visit FS.COM or contact sales@fs.com.

Introduction to Cisco 40G QSFP+ Transceiver Modules

As the increasing growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, like virtualization and high-performance computing, the need for faster data transfer rates is relentless and carries significant implications with regard to network productivity as well as operating expenditure costs. So 40G Ethernet network, which can provide higher bandwidth and better performance comes into being. 40G transceiver module, especially 40G QSFP+ transceiver module, plays an important role in 40G Ethernet network. Cisco, as one of the most recognized name in terms of technology and devices in the telecommunication industry, provides a large range of 40G QSFP+ transceivers. This passage will mainly introduce several types of Cisco QSFP+ modules.

QSFP+ Transceiver

To begin with, let’s have a review of QSFP+ transceiver. QSFP+ (quad small form-factor pluggable plus) is a new multi-source agreement (MSA) complaint transceiver for high speed application, which provides four channels of data in one pluggable interface. Each channel is capable of transferring data at 10Gbps and supports a total of 40Gbps. The 40G QSFP+ transceiver combines the higher density attractions of parallel modules with some of the advantages normally associated with SFP+ based modules. It offers customers a wide variety of high-density 40G Ethernet connectivity options for data center, high-performance computing networks, enterprise core and distribution layers, and service provide transport applications.

Cisco 40G QSFP+ Transceiver module Types

QSFP+ transceivers provided by Cisco have many features, such as flexibility of interface choice, and support for “pay-as-you-populate” model. There are three types of Cisco QSFP+ modules commonly used on the market.

Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4

Cisco QSFP-40G-SR4 module (see in the picture) is designed to operate over OM3 and OM4 multimode fibers respectively for the length up to 100 m and 150 M using a nominal wavelength of 850 nm. It primarily enables high-bandwidth 40G optical links over 12-fiber parallel fiber terminated with MPO/MTP connectors. Four of the twelve fiber for receive, other four for transmit, leaving the middle four fiber unused. Each lanes operates at a data rate of 10.3125Gbps with maximum channel insertion loss allowed at respectively 1.9dB over OM3 cable or 1.5dB over OM4 cable.

Cisco QSFP-40G-CSR4

Cisco QSFP-40G-CSR4 module is similar to the 40GBase-SR4 interface, but can support link lengths of 300 m and 400 m, respectively, on laser-optimized OM3 and OM4 multimode fibers. The transceiver can be used in a 4x10G mode with parallel to duplex fiber breakout cables for connectivity to four 10GBase-SR interface. Cisco-40G-CSR4 is optimized to guarantee interoperability over the complete specification range of 10GBase-SR. The following image shows QSFP-40G-CSR4.

Cisco QSFP-40G-LR4

Cisco QSFP-40G-LR4 (shown in the picture below) is designed to operate over single-mode fiber system using four 10Gbps CWDM channels in 1300 nm. It is based on two duplex LC connectors for optical connectivity and supports 40Gbps data rate link lengths of up to 10 km.

Cisco Compatible QSFP+ modules in FS.COM

With higher bandwidth and higher density devices increasingly needed, Cisco QSFP+ modules become indispensable components in network communication. When we choose Cisco QSFP+ modules, you will find that they are so expensive that many managers can’t afford it. FS.COM, as a professional supplier and manufacturer of transceiver modules, provides a wide range of Cisco compatible QSFP+ transceivers, which efficiently solves this problem. And FS.COM’s compatible transceivers have the following features:

• Low cost—Compatible QSFP+ is at least the half price of the original Cisco QSFP+ module. For example, a Cisco SFP-10G-SR compatible 10GBase-SR SFP+ transceiver in FS.COM is only 16 dollars.
• Consistent Availability—In FS.COM, different types of Cisco Compatible QSFP+ transceivers are always available all year around, so you won’t worry about the one you need is out of stock.
• Long-time Warranty—Customers will be provided with long-time warranty after they bought our compatible modules. Once failures happen on the modules, we will be able to troubleshoot and replace the transceiver for you.

Besides Cisco compatible QSFP+ transceivers available in FS.COM, we also provide many other compatible brands QSFP+ modules, such as Arista QSFP-40G-SR4, and Brocade QSFP-40G-CSR4, etc. Each module is 100% compatible with the original one. If yo have any requirement for these products, please visit FS.COM.

LC Uniboot Fiber Patch Cable—An Effective Solution for Easier Cable Management

As the continuous advancement of networking technology, data center is required to accommodate more high-density and high-speed cables to satisfy the increasing demand for faster data transmission. However, this posts an urgent issue for managing those massive high-density cables in such limited space. Many vendors have put forward various solution to this problem, and today, I’d like to introduce a more favorable high-density cabling solution—LC uniboot fiber patch cable (shown in the following image). It is an optimum alternative for easier cable management, designed to deliver maximum connectivity performance.

Main Features of Uniboot LC Fiber Patch Cable

As we all know, LC fiber optic connectors can support higher density and better performance in various environments than other connectors, making it a reliable and popular choice for many applications. That is also the reason why uniboot fiber patch cable is terminated with specially designed LC connectors. And uniboot LC fiber patch cable has several unique features illustrated in the following text.

Easier Polarity Reversal

Changing polarity of a traditional duplex LC LC fiber patch cable could be a headache to many data center managers, especially in high density cabling environments. And for traditional LC duplex patch cable polarity changing, additional tools and fiber re-terminating are usually required, resulting in a waste of time and money. Furthermore, you should be highly concentrated, when changing polarity for a standard LC patch cord. Otherwise a minor mistake could cause various faults. However, with the appearance of uniboot LC fiber patch cable, the polarity reversal becomes easier. Uniboot LC patch cable with a finger latch release, eliminates the need for tools when making the polarity change. It is color-coded and labeled “A” and “B” to provide visual references when making a polarity flip. Throughout the market, there are two basic types of design principle used in LC uniboot patch cord for polarity reversal (see in the following picture).

Cable Congestion Reduction

Traditional LC duplex patch cable usually uses a two-cable design with two fibers separately enclosing in two different cables, which is terminated with a standard duplex LC connectors at both ends, but uniboot LC fiber patch cable utilizes a special “round duplex” cable that allows duplex transmission within a single 3mm or 2.4mm cable. Thus, this uniboot LC patch cord can reduce cable management space by cutting down the cable count up to 50% compared with the standard LC duplex patch cords.

Uniboot LC Fiber Patch Cables on the Market

As we have mentioned above, there are two commonly used versions of LC uniboot fiber patch cables polarity reversal steps. One is switching the A and B positions of the patch cord, the other is rotating connector 180 degree to exchange the position. Based on these two design principles, there are a variety of uniboot LC patch cables on the market. In type one, the early uniboot LC patch cords requires stop-ring and kevlar crimp sleeve for the best cable retention support, but now, switchable uniboot LC patch cables with more convenient design have launched to the market. Moreover, uniboot fiber patch cable with push-plug tab has already been available on the market. This little change can make easier finger access and quicker latch release available, and it can also help to connect or disconnect a single fiber patch cable without affecting other surrounding links.

Summary

With the advantages of easier polarity reversal and cable congestion reduction, there is no doubt that uniboot LC fiber patch cable is the most favorable solution to address the increasing demand for more high-density cables in a given space. FS.COM provides different kinds of uniboot fiber patch cables in different cable lengths, different cable jackets, and different fiber modes, etc. Besides, we also have plenty of traditional LC duplex patch cables in stock. If you want to know more, please visit FS.COM.