Simplify the Migration from Copper to Fiber

For years, copper has dominated the telecommunication market for data transmission. However, driven by the explosive demand for faster speed transmission, today’s networking needs an infrastructure capable of handling higher and higher data rates. Fiber comes into being. But how can we migrate from copper to fiber infrastructure more easier? Read this post, and you can get some useful suggestions.

The Necessities for Migrating from Copper to Fiber

To begin with, we should figure out why we need to migrate from copper to fiber, and I conclude several aspects listed below. More detailed information can be seen in the following table.

• Demands for Higher Data Rate: People never stop chasing for higher speed in every aspects in our daily life, so does in networking field. A copper-based cable is commonly used in 1GbE, 10GbE, or some types may be for 40GbE, but a fiber-based cable can used in all types of Ethernet network applications, including 100GbE.
• Longer Distance: Although copper-based cable can be used in 10GbE or 40GbE, but it only can support very short transmission distance at such high data rate. There is 100-meter limitation for a copper-based cable. However, this limitation does not exist in fiber infrastructure. The distance range of fiber can be from 550 meters to 40 km, depending on different cable types, different data rates and different wavelengths.
• Great Reliability and Security: Since copper uses electricity and will produce EMI when transmitting data, which can easily cause spark or fire, if not operate correctly. But fiber is made of glass, which will never produce EMI, so it can offer safer and more reliable networking performance.

Pre-terminated Cabling For Building Your Fiber Infrastructure

For those engineers and managers who want a stress-free and easy solution for integrating an optical fiber infrastructure into their facilities, using factory pre-connectorized cable assembly solution is the best approach.

Pre-terminated cabling is guaranteed to work out of the box to the highest performance specifications. Under the best circumstances, factory-terminated cables will provide consistent loss values, thereby maximizing reliability and performance. Besides, factory pre-terminated cables not only eliminate the labor costs associated with installing connectors in the field, but also do away with the need to spend money on redoing work that has failed, as well as the cost to purchase additional connectors.

Recommendation for Pre-terminated Cable Assemblies

Standard 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. The image below is a LC to LC fiber patch cable.

MTP/MPO Pre-terminated Cable for High Data Rate

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 as shown below in this category.

MTP/MPO Harness Cable: MTP/MPO harness cable or MTP/MPO breakout cable is terminated with MTP/MPO connector at one end, while the other end is with other connector types, such as LC, SC, FC, etc. The cable is available with at most 144 fibers which can be applied to the high-density networking and devices of 100G transceivers as CFP, CFP2, CFP4. Here is a 24-fiber MTP to LC breakout cable.

MTP/MPO Trunk Cable: Pre-terminated with MTP/MPO connectors at both ends, MTP trunk cable provides a quick-to-deploy, scalable solution that improves reliability and reduces installation time and cost. This type of pre-terminated cable is available with 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, or 144 fibers. Generally, 12- and 24- fiber MTP/MPO pre-terminated cable are commonly used separately for 40G and 100G applications, providing future readiness for the smooth migration from 10GbE to 40 and 100GbE. Here is 12-fiber MTP/MPO trunk cable.

Summary

We have been hesitated between copper and fiber for years, but it is clear that fiber takes more advantages in today’s networking applications. To build a fiber infrastructure smoothly and simply, pre-terminated cable assembly with easy installation and low cost is a good choice. Different pre-terminated cables are suitable for different circumstances. Do choose the right one according to your requirement.