Take Fiber Optic Connector Cleaning Seriously

Fiber optics infrastructures have become quite common in a number of markets and applications. In conjunction with this fiber infrastructure are a variety of fiber interconnect solutions. Clean, reliable optical connector are paramount in maintaining the high performance and stability of the whole network. Routinely inspecting and cleaning fiber optic cleaner is very essential for the fiber infrastructure.

Why Should We Attach Importance to Fiber Optic Connector Cleaning?

Fiber optic communications rely on very small fibers to carry beams of light. Most fiber optic cores are between 9 um and 62.5 um in diameter, much thinner than the typical strand of human hair, which is about 90 um in diameter. Because of its small diameter, even the tiniest bit of dust, dirt, oil, or other contaminates can degrade an optical signal. Fiber optic cable contains many fibers and are designed with the knowledge that some fibers will be occluded by dirt or other contaminates at some point. However, most can only afford so much blockage before they become ineffective, resulting in diminished service or even down time for the networks they serve. Slow connections and downtime can be costly for business relying on their fiber optic networks. That’s why keeping connectors clean is so important.

How Does the Fiber Optic Connector Get Contaminated?

Dust and oils are the two most common forms of contamination on fiber connectors and can come from a variety of normal maintenance activities. Oils from your fingers will leave a noticeable defect easily seen with the use of a fiber scope, the oil will also tend to trap dust against the fiber, which can result in scratches on both the fiber connector and the optic it is being mated to. Inserting and removing a fiber tends to create a small static charge on the ends, which can result in the attraction of airborne dust particles. Simply removing and re-inserting a fiber has the possibility of contaminating the end of the connector in a facility that may have a higher level of dust(newly constructed or renovated data center).

Common Methods Used for Fiber Optic Connector Cleaning

There are a variety of methods deployed to clean fiber optic connectors, some more effective than others. Here will introduce two common methods and some cleaning tools.

Dry Cleaning Method

Dry cleaning is a type of cleaning method which does not require the use of any solvent. One-click fiber cleaner, MTP/MPO cleaner, and cassette cleaner are tools using dry cleaning method.

One-Click Fiber Cleaner for LC/SC Connector: One-click fiber cleaner as shown below or fiber cleaning pen is an affordable and effective way to clean LC/SC style optical connectors. Inserting the head into the adapter and pushing until the “click” removes dust by swabbing the fiber. At around $19 for 800 times use, it is a must-have for fiber cleaning. (Note: for pinned connections, a different tool that accommodates the pinned adapter is required.)

One-Click Fiber Cleaner for MPO/MTP Connector: This type of one-click cleaner is also called as MPO or MTP cleaner as shown below. It comes with a barrel on the end for cleaning both connectors and endpoints. It works in the same way as the reel cleaner with a refillable “tape” used to clean but works on both the fiber and the port allowing for quick and easy cleaning.

Fiber Optic Cassette Cleaner: Dry cleaning without alcohol in palm size housing with cleaning around 500 times for the male connectors only without solvents left and second pollution. The cassette cleaner as shown in the following image can be reused by replacing the cleaning reel/cartridge to reduce the general cost.

Wet Cleaning Method

Wet cleaning is another type of cleaning method which requires the use of a solvent such as isopropyl alcohol.

Lint-Free Isopropyl Alcohol Wipes: Gently wiping fiber connectors with these wipes as shown below is the most effective way to remove resistant dust particles, oil or other contamination. When the dust and isoprophyl alcohol make contact, the duct is pulled into the alcohol, and the wipe clears both the dust and liquid from the fiber surface.

Note: Once a fiber optic connector is cleaned, it’s best to reconnect it immediately or cover it with a cap to ensure it will not get dirty again.

Summary

Keeping fiber connector clean is essential for the reliability of the whole network. We have introduced four types of fiber optic cleaners. Each cleaner has its own features, also you have your own references for fiber cleaning work, more detailed information of the specific cleaner or material, you may turn to FS.COM.

RJ45 Connector for Ethernet Cable Termination

It is known that fiber optic cable is often used fiber optic connector, like LC, SC, to achieve termination. How about Ethernet cables? That is RJ45 connector or RJ45 plug, which is a common component terminated with Ethernet cables to achieve the connection between computer and Ethernet-based local area network(LAN). The letter “RJ” means registered jack, which is a standardized telecommunication network interface for connecting voice and data equipment to a service provided by local exchange carrier or long distance carrier. This post aims to introduce this type of Ethernet connector and offers some simple guidance for terminating Ethernet cable with RJ45 connectors.

What Is RJ45 Connector?

RJ45 is the commonly used twisted-pair connector for Ethernet cable and networks. It is usually made of a transparent plastic piece with eight pins on the port as shown below. Four of the pins are used for sending and receiving data, and the other four are used for other technologies or power networking devices. So this type of connector is also called as 8P8C (Eight Position, Eight Contact) modular connector. It can be inserted along a fixed direction and automatically prevent shedding used for most applications, such as Ethernet networking, telecommunications, factory automation and so on. The RJ45 is originally invented to replace the bulkier connector for connecting modems to telephones in the telecommunication industry, but nowadays, it is most commonly applied for networking devices including Ethernet cables, modems, computers, laptops, etc.

Differences Between RJ45 and RJ11

Besides RJ45, there are many other types of RJ-style connectors on the market, RJ11 is one of them. RJ11 connector has similar appearance as RJ45, so people often mix them together. Actually, these two connector types have their own specific purposes. The biggest difference between them is in where they are actually used. RJ45 connector is used in networking, where you connect computers or other network elements to each other, while RJ11 is the cable connector that is being used in telephone sets.

Aside from the application, there are also differences that an individual can easily see and identify. The first of which is in the number of cables that are accommodated in each connector. If you look closely at both connectors, you would see that there are only four wires inside the RJ11, while eight wires inside an RJ45. As a consequences of having to accommodate more wires, RJ45 is a little bit bigger than RJ11. You should keep in mind although it is possible to physically fit an RJ11 connector into an RJ45 receptacle, this will never function for an actual Ethernet connection, or you will damage the device that has the RJ45 slot. We can see their differences in the image below.

RJ45 Wiring Diagram For Ethernet Cable

According to ANSI, TIA & EIA, there are two variations of RJ45 wiring diagram: T568A and T568B. Both T568A and T568B provide wiring schemes for terminating twisted-pair copper network cable to RJ45 connectors. The pairs in these cables consist of four colors (blue, orange, green, and brown), with each pair includes a solid-colored wire twisted with a wire of the same color, with white stripes.

When looking closely at the two wring diagrams below, the only visual difference between T568A and T568B is that the pin positions for the green and orange pairs are flipped as shown below. Besides the color placement variances, there are a couple of compatibility factors that can affect the choice of an RJ45 wiring scheme. T568B is a more up-to-date scheme and also the most widely chosen wiring schematic, because it matches AT & T’s old 258A color codes, meanwhile, T568B accommodates for current and future needs.

When building a new network, one may technically pick any one of the wiring schemes. No one scheme is better than the other, or is better suited for specific things. Both schemes are perfectly fitted for any installation type. But when an existing network is being expanded, it is crucial to use the scheme in place.

How to Terminate Ethernet Cable With RJ45 Connector?

Step1: Using a crimping tool, trim the end of the cable you’re terminating, to ensure that the ends of the conducting wires are even. Then strip off approximately 1 inch of the cable’s jacket.

Step2: Separating the 4 twisted wire pairs from each other, then unwind each pair, so that you end up with 8 individual wires. Flatten the wires out as much as possible, since they’ll need to be very straight for proper insertion into the connector.

Step3: Holding the RJ45 connector, so that its pins are facing away from you. Moving from the left to right, rearrange the wires according to the wiring scheme.

Step4: Holding the connector, and carefully insert the wires into the connector, pushing through until the wire ends emerge from the pins. Check to make sure that the wire ends are in the correct order. If not, repeat the steps2 to step3 again.

Step5: Inserting the prepared connector/cable assembly into the RJ45 slot in your crimping tool. Firmly squeeze the crimper’s handles together until you can’t go any further.

Step6: Carefully cut wire ends to make them as flush with the connector’s surface as possible.

Step7: To make sure you’ve successfully terminated each end of the cable, use a cable tester to test each pin.

Conclusion

The RJ45 plug, with easy plug-and-play style, reducing the difficulty of installation, is one of the most popular connector type nowadays. A lot of people have begun to place RJ45 connectors on wall outlet inside their houses in order to reduce the number of visible wiring. Hope this post can help you better understand RJ45 connector and how to use them to terminate Ethernet cables.

Smooth Migration to 40/100GbE with OM3 and OM4

The continued requirement for expansion and scalability in the data center drives the migration to 40/100GbE. In the process of upgrading to higher-bandwidth data center, cable deployment plays an important part. The fiber optic cable used in data center should provide reliable performance not only for current but also for future applications. OM3 and OM4 were available as the future-proof cabling for 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet network. Today, we are going to introduce these two types of cable in details.

Multimode Fiber Cable - OM3 and OM4

As we all know, multimode fiber is often categorized into four types—OM1, OM2, OM3 and OM4. OM3 and OM4 are laser-optimized, high-bandwidth 50 micron multimode fiber cables, which are designed to enhance the system cost benefits enabled by 850nm vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for existing 1G and 10G applications as well as future 40G and 100G applications. The following image shows OM3 and OM4.

Advantages of OM3 and OM4

As increasing bandwidth requirements are called out in new installations, particularly 40 and 100GbE standards, transmission distances over fiber optic cables contained in existing infrastructure may become increasingly limited. And these higher bandwidth system requirements have dictated a need to transition from cost-effective multimode systems to more costly single-mode systems. Until OM3 and OM4 was formally specified, many next-generation 40/100GbE applications would have had to make the leap to single-mode system solutions. OM3 and OM4 provides many advantages that helps the smooth migration to 40/100GbE.

High Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the first reason why OM3 and OM4 are preferable. OM3 and OM4 are optimized for 850nm transmission and have a minimum 2000 MHz•km and 4700 MHz•km effective modal bandwidth(EMB) respectively, while OM1 and OM2 with maximum 500 MHz•km as we can seen in the following table. It is obvious that with OM3 and OM4, the optical infrastructure deployed in the data center will meet the performance criteria set forth by IEEE for bandwidth.

Long Transmission Distance: The transmission distance of fiber optic cables will influence the data center cabling. Compared to traditional multimode fiber, OM3 and OM4 can support longer transmission distance. Generally, OM3 can run 40/100Gbps at 100 meters and OM4 can support the link length up to 150 meters at the data rate of 40/100Gbps.

Low Insertion Loss: Insertion loss has always been an important factor that technically should consider during the data center cabling. The lower the insertion loss, the better the performance. According to the 40/100G standard, OM3 is specified to a 100m distance with a maximum channel loss of 1.9dB, and OM4 is specified to a 150m distance with a maximum channel loss of 1.5 dB, including a total connector loss budget of 1.0 dB as we can seen from the table below.

Cost Saving: Budget is always the most vital factor that should be taken into consideration when setting up data center. As we have mentioned above, when upgrading to higher bandwidth network previously, many IT managers will choose costly single-mode fiber to achieve connections, but with the appearance of and OM4, the cost used in the migration to 40/100GbE will greatly reduce.

With OM3, Why We Still Need OM4?

Actually, OM3 has the similar performance as OM4 from the four aspects that we have discussed above, but with OM3, why we still need OM4?

It is important to note that OM4 is not necessarily designed to be a replacement for OM3. For most systems, OM3 is sufficient to cover the bandwidth needs at the distances of the current installation base. Most system requirements can still be reliably and cost-effectively achieved with OM3. The primary benefit that OM4 provides is additional reach at extended bandwidth at an overall cost still less than that of an OS2 single-mode system. In other words, OM4 provides a solution that allows more installations to avoid the significantly higher costs of single-mode systems. Additionally, OM4 provides an opportunity to future-proof cabling infrastructure. OM4 is completely backward-compatible with existing OM3 systems. The additional bandwidth and lower attenuation of OM4 offer additional insertion loss margin. As a result, users of OM4 gain additional safety margin to help compensate for less-than-ideal cabling installations as well as provide margin for degradation due to moves, adds, and changes over the life of the installation.

Summary

As the ever-increasing need for higher-speed transmission, upgrading to 40/100GbE is underway. OM3 and OM4, as future-proof cabling, play an important role in the smooth migration to higher bandwidth networks. FS.COM provides a range of OM3 and OM4 in different types according to your requirements, and we devote to offer the most affordable fiber optic cable price for customers. Want to know more information, kindly visit FS.COM.

Twisted Pair Cable VS. Coaxial Cable VS. Fiber Optic Cable

As we all know, in every communication system, all the sending and receiving devices, like fiber optic switch, need to adopt massive bundles of wires or cables to achieve connections for data transfer. Nowadays, the most common cable types used in communication systems are twisted pair cable, coaxial cable and fiber optic cable. With these three cable types equally deployed in network communication, people may feel confused which one is the ideal choice for their networks? This article aims to introduce some differences among twisted pair cable, coaxial cable and fiber optic cable and to tell you how to distinct them from each other in terms of features and specifications as well.

Twisted Pair Cable

Twisted pair cable is a type of ordinary wiring which connects home and many business computers to the telephone company. It is made by putting two separate insulated wires together in a twisted pattern and running them parallel to each other which helps to reduce crosstalk or electromagnetic induction between pairs of wires. Twisted pair cable is good for transferring balanced differential signals. The practice of transmitting signals differentially dates back to the early days of telegraph and radio. The advantages of improved signal-to-noise ratio, crosstalk, and ground bounce that balanced signal transmission brings are particularly valuable in wide bandwidth and high fidelity systems.

According to whether the cable has a shielding layer, there are two common types of twisted pair cables—shielded twisted pair (STP) cable and unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable. STP cable is available for Token Ring networks, while the UTP cable is more suitable for Ethernet networks. The most common UTP cable types applied in Ethernet network are cat5e, cat6a and cat7 cables, etc. The following image shows the different structure of UTP and STP cables.

Pros: Twisted pair cable is more flexible and cheaper than coaxial cable and fiber optic cable, and it is easy to install and operate.

Cons: It encounters attenuation problem and offers relatively low bandwidth. Besides, it is susceptible to interference and noises.

Coaxial Cable

Like twisted pair cable, coaxial cable or coax cable is another type of copper cable which has an inner conductor surrounded by a foam insulation, symmetrically wrapped by a woven braided metal shield, then covered by in a plastic jacket (as shown in the following image). This special design allows coaxial cable runs to be installed next to metal objects such as gutters without the power losses that occur in other types of transmission lines. Coaxial cable acts as a high-frequency transmission cable while contains a single solid-copper core, and compared to twisted pair cable, it has over 80 times the transmission capability. This kind of cable is mainly adopted in feedlines connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their antennas, computer network connections, digital audio (S/PDIF), and distributing cable television signals. 75 ohm coaxial cable and 50 ohm coaxial cable are two coaxial cable types. 75 ohm cable aims to transmit a video signal, while the 50 ohm cable is designed to transmit data signals in a two-way communication system.

Pros: Coaxial cable can be installed easily, relatively resistant to interference.

Cons: It is bulky and just ideal for short distance transmission.

Fiber Optic Cable

Unlike twisted pair cable and coaxial cable with wires inside, fiber optic cable consists of a bundle of glass threads, each of which is capable of transmitting message modulated onto light waves. There exist various types of fiber optic cables, which are determined by the number of fibers and where it will be installed. Currently, two types of fiber optic cables are widely adopted in the field of data transfer—single-mode fiber optic cable and multimode fiber optic cable. A single-mode fiber optic cable has a small fiber core and only allows one mode of light to pave through at a time, so it is available for high-speed and long-haul applications. By contrast, a multimode fiber optic cable has a much bigger fiber core and it can carry multiple light rays at a time, so it is more ideal for short distance data transmission. The following table shows some differences between single-mode and multimode fiber optic cables.

Pros: Compared to the above mentioned copper cables, fiber optic cable takes more advantages, such as lighter, better performance and higher bandwidth. But the biggest advantage of fiber optic cable is that it can transmit much more data with the lowest loss at higher speed for longer distance.

Cons: Nevertheless, it needs complicated installing skills, and much more expensive than copper cables.

Conclusion

Whether to choose twisted pair cable, coaxial cable or fiber optic cable totally depends on the specific circumstances where you should take cost, performance and supporting transmission rate and length into consideration. Through this passage, hope you can figure out the differences between these three cable types.

Cat5e VS Cat6 Cable – Which One Will You Choose?

With low cost, easy operation and great flexibility, twisted pair cables are widely used in telephone communications and modern Ethernet networks. Nowadays, there are many categories of twisted pair cables available on the market, such as cat3 cable, cat5/cat5e cable, cat6/cat 6a cable, and cat7 cable, etc. Today, I’d like to give a brief but complete discussion about two common categories—cat5e and cat6, which are so similar to each other that the general public may feel confused to know which cable is suitable for their tasks.

What Is Cat5e Cable?

Cat5e is an enhanced specification of the cat5 standard which was introduced to the market in early 2001. While similar to cat5 cable in appearance, cat5e cable introduces some new links in the equation. For one thing, cat5e cable uses four pairs of copper wire rather than the two that cat5 cable relies on. In addition, the wire pairs are twisted more tightly to eliminate crosstalk. Due to its internal upgrades, including faster transmission rate and higher bandwidth, cat5e cable has become the most common type of cabling found in modern homes and offices for Ethernet purposes. The following picture shows Cat5e cable.

What Is Cat6 Cable?

Only a year after cat5e was introduced, a new standard—cat6 was born. The cat6 standard improved upon the cat5e by increasing frequency responses, tightening crosstalk specifications, and introducing more comprehensive crosstalk specifications. Usually, cat6 cable (shown in the picture below) consists of four unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) terminated with RJ45 connectors, which is often used for 10Base-T (Ethernet), 100Base-TX (Fast Ethernet), 1000Base-T (Gigabit Ethernet) and 10GBase-T networks.

Differences Between Cat5e and Cat6 Cables

Transmission Speed

When we think about advances in cabling, transmission speed is the first thing that should be taken into consideration. As we mentioned previously, cat6 cable can be used to power 10GBase-T or 10G Ethernet, while the maximum speed that cat5e cable can support is 1GBase-T or 1G Ethernet. This is because cat6 cable performs up to 250 MHz, which is more than twice that of cat5e cable (100 MHz). 

Distance

Since cat5e and cat6 are made of copper wires, both of them are only available for short distance data transmission. If the cable is used for lower data rate transfer, both cat5e and cat6 cable can support the length of up to 100 m. However, when the data rate achieves the maximum speed, cat5e cable can reach 50 m, while cat6 cable can only reach 37 m.

Cost

In general, cat6 cables are 10 to 20% more expensive than cat5e cables. However, cables are comparatively cheap which makes the cost differences between cat5e and cat6 cables come to be very small portion of the total network budget. Besides, the speed boost offered by cat6 cables usually makes the price premium worthwhile, especially in long run transmission.

Reliability

When installing a network, many users may concern whether there will be electrical interference that can negatively influence the performance of their network. Compared with cat5e cable, cat6 cable has improved reliability that it can deter signal interference from affecting your network. You’ll be able to have a longer and more reliable period of uptime, regardless of how close you are to other network connections in your area. The following table shows some differences between cat5e and cat6 cables.

Conclusion

Cat5e and cat6 cables are two commonly used categories of twisted pair cables. They are different from supporting distance, transmission speed, cost, and reliability. After reading this post, hope you can choose the right one for your project. If you need cat5e, cat6 or other types of twisted pair cables, FS.COM is a good place to go. Besides these copper cables, we also supply a wide range of fiber patch cables with different connectors, such as SC, FC and LC connector. For more information, please visit FS.COM.

Why We Choose Fiber Optic Cable Over Copper Cable?

When installing network cable, fiber optic cable or copper cable, which one do you prefer? Both of them have advantages and specific features. Copper cable has already existed in many places and it is economical in network devices connection. However, with the dramatic reduction of cost of optical deployment, fiber optic cable has become one of the most popular mediums for both new cabling installation and upgrades, including backbone, horizontal, and even desktop applications. There are several advantages which make it a more enticing cable infrastructure solution than its copper counterpart. This passage will present five reasons for the choice in fiber cable instead of copper cable from bandwidth, speed&distance, security, immunity&reliability, and cost.

Bandwidth

Copper cable has very limited bandwidth that is perfect for a voice signal, while fiber cable provides more bandwidth than copper cable and has standardized performance more than 10 Gbps (experimentally car reach to 100 Gbps). More bandwidth means fiber cable can carry more information with greater fidelity than copper cable. For example, cat6a cable is classified by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) to handle a bandwidth up to 600 MHz over 100 meters, which theoretically could carry around 18,000 calls at the same time. By the way, the signal losses over 100 meters in fiber are negligible, but copper has very high losses at high frequencies.

Speed and Distance

Fiber optic transmission versus copper transmission can be boiled down to the speed of photons versus the speed of electrons. Since the fiber optic signal is made of light, which will cause little signal loss during transmission, data can move at higher speeds and greater distances. In addition, fiber does not have the 100-meter (328-ft.) distance limitation of unshielded twisted pair copper (without a booster), so distances can range from 550 meters (928.2-ft.) for 10Gbps multimode to 40 km for single-mode cables.

Security

The data transmitted over the fiber are always safe. Eavesdropping on a LAN using copper cables only requires a sensitive antenna to pick up the energy radiated from the cable. Since fiber optic doesn’t transmit electricity, it won’t radiate energy and cannot be tapped by an antenna, while the copper using electricity is easy to be tapped which will cause the entire system to fail. The optical fiber does not produce EMI, so it cannot catch on fire. Besides, you will not have to worry about replacing fiber cables as frequently as copper cables. Because the fiber core is made of glass, the optical fiber won’t break as easily.

Immunity and Reliability

 

There are a number of factors that can cause outages when an organization is reliant on copper cable-based network, such as temperature fluctuations, severe weather conditions, and moisture. However, fiber cable is completely immune to these environmental factors that makes it extremely reliable in data transmission. What’s more, it is also impervious to electrometric interference (EMI) and radio-frequency interference (RFI), crosstalk, impedance problems and so on. You can apply fiber cable next to industrial equipment without worry.

Cost

A few years ago, the overall price of fiber cables was 100% to 200% higher than copper cables. With the maturity of production technology, the cost for fiber cables, components, and hardware has steadily decreased. Fiber cable is certainly more expensive compared to copper cable when you are looking at it on a short term basis, but cheaper in the long term. Since fiber cable costs less to maintain and needs less networking hardware compared to its copper counterpart.

Summary

With its wide bandwidth, high speed, long distance, great security and reliability, as well as low cost, fiber cable has already replaced the copper cable in many aspects of networking. As fiber optic connectivity improves, fiber construction will become more convenient.