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.

High Density MPO/MTP Fiber Patch Cable in Data Center

With the advent and popularity of cloud computing and big data, the demand for high-speed transmission and data capacity is becoming much greater than ever before. In the meanwhile, as the data throughput increases, 40G and 100G are more commonplace and now become a hotspot for data center cabling system, plus the fact that MPO/MTP connector is the up-and-coming standard optical interface for 40G and 100G Ethernet network. In the following part, I will introduce two high-density MPO/MTP fiber cables types—MPO/MTP trunk cable and MPO/MTP harness cable, one by one.

MPO/MTP Connectors

Before the introduction to MPO/MTP fiber cable, we still have to review some knowledge about MPO/MTP connectors.

MPO connectors (multi-fiber push on) is used to connect or cross-connect equipment and cables with minimum attenuation and reflection. It is a multi-fiber connector which is standardized within the international regulatory framework (the ICE 61754-7 standard) and also the U.S. (TIA-604-5 standard). MTP (multi-fiber termination push on) connectors are fully compatible with all MPO connectors standards, regulations, and requirements; however, they also have a number of other features that most generic MPO connectors do not possess. For example, MTP connectors have a removable housing allowing users to rework, re-polish, and scan the ferrule, as well as change the gender, even after assembly or in the field. Here shows a picture of MPO/MTP connectors.

High Density MPO/MTP Fiber Cable

Unlike standard fiber optic patch cords (SC patch cable with maximum rate of 10Gbps) a patch cable terminated with the customers’ choice of 12-fiber or 24-fiber MPO connectors can be applied for 40G, or even 100G Ethernet network. Available in a male-to-male version (with guide pins) and a female-to-female version (without pins), MPO/MTP fiber cables can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as backbones, warehouse, disaster recovery, building fiber optic distribution, and so on. The following part will introduce two commonly used high density MPO/MTP fiber cables respectively—MPO/MTP trunk cable and MPO/MTP harness cable.

MPO/MTP Trunk Cable—MPO/MTP trunk cables, terminated with MPO/MTP connectors at both ends, are typically 12 to 144 fibers and create the permanent fiber links between panels in a structured environment. For example, a 72-fiber trunk cable can be terminated with 6 MPO/MTP connectors (shown in the following picture) and the connectors are manufactured specifically for multi-fiber loose tube or ribbon cable. The MTP/MPO trunk cables, which are constructed from loose tube and gel-filled indoor/outdoor rated cables, are applied to interconnect cassettes, panels or ruggedized MPO/MTP fan-outs, spanning MDA, HAD and EDA zones, or other high fiber environments reducing network installation and reconfiguration. Besides, they offer the flexibility which means that if we need change the connector style in the patch panels, new cassettes might be installed with the new connector style on the cross-connect side of the patch panel, but the connector style on the trunk cable won’t have to be changed. What’s more, MTP/MPO trunk cables greatly reduce the installation and maintenance costs with their efficient plug and play architecture.

MPO/MTP Harness Cable—MPO/MTP harness cable, also named MPO/MTP fan-out cable or MTP/MPO break cable, is terminated with a male/female MTP connector on one side and several duplex LC/SC connectors on the other side, providing a transmission from multi-fiber cables to individual fibers or duplex connectors. There are three commonly used MPO/MTP fiber cables types—MPO/MTP to MPO/MTP harness cable, MPO/MTP to secure keyed LC harness cable and MPO/MTP to standard LC harness cable. Compared to normal LC fiber optic cable, these cables are designed for high density applications which require high performance and fast installation. MTP/MPO harness cables are ideal for interconnecting MTP cassettes, panels or backbone MTP assemblies with the active equipment, saving costly data center rack space and easing fiber management. An image of MPO/MTP harness cable is listed below.

Conclusion

MPO/MTP cables are generally used for 40G or 100G network environment, and they play a significant part in structured cabling. It is predicated that MPO/MTP cables will eventually replace the standard for fiber optics. Whether this prediction will come true or not, no one can deny that MPO/MTP assemblies are absolutely best solutions for high-density deployment.