Solutions > IT Cabling > What Fibre Should You Install
In the past the decision on which fibre to use has been a complicated one requiring a detailed knowledge of fibre technology and the applications and equipment being used. Detailed calculations would then be needed to determine the type of fibre and equipment needed in each specific application. This has now been simplified somewhat for Local Area Network applications by the introduction of some new categories of fibre cable and optical fibre channel performance leading to the specification of new classes of fibre cabling...
The new classes of optical fibre cabling allow for a more simplified channel selection with the fibre optic cable type selected to acheive a minimum length of transmission.
The Classes of fibre optic cabling specified in the standards range from OF-25 up to 25 metres on plastic optical fibre, to OF-10000 up to 10Km for single mode optical fibre. However the main choices for LAN and MAN solutions are OF-300 up to OF-10000
The key parameters specified in the standards are the centre core and outside diameters and the Modal Bandwidth as follows;
· OM1 – 62.5/125 and 50/125 Multi-Mode Fibre
· OM2 – 62.5/125 and 50/125 Multi-Mode Fibre
· OM3 – 50/125 Multi-Mode Fibre
· OS1 – Single Mode
· OS2 – Single Mode
Please note that although the standards specify OM1 and OM2 fibre cable can be either core size manufacturers now generally produce OM2 cable to 50/125 core size only as this fits more ICT applications, in particular 1 Gigabit Ethernet.
With these new categories in place it is now possible to choose the fibre you need using the table below.
| Distance and relationship to Optical Channel Classification | ||||||||
| ICT Application | Data Rate | 300M | 500M | 2KM | 5Km | 10Km | ||
| 10Base-FL | 10Mbps | OM1* (OF-2000) | OM1* (OF-2000) | OM1* (OF-2000) | N/A | N/A | ||
| 100Base-FX | 100Mbps | OM1 (OF-2000) | OM1 (OF-2000) | OM1 (OF-2000) | N/A | N/A | ||
| Fibre Channel | 1063Mbps | OM1* (OF-300) | OM2* (OF-500) | OS1 (OF-2000) | N/A | N/A | ||
| 1000Base-SX | 1Gbps | OM1** max 275m | OM2* (OF-500) | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| 1000Base-LX | 1Gbps | OM1* (OF-500) | OM2 (OF-500) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS2 (OF-5000) | N/A | ||
| 10GBase-SR/SW | 10Gbps | OM3 (OF-300) | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| 10GBase-LX4 | 10Gbps | OM1 (OF-300) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS2 (OF-10000) | OS2 (OF-10000) | ||
| 10GBase-LR/LW | 10Gbps | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS2 (OF-10000) | OS2 (OF-10000) | ||
| 10GBase-ER/EW | 10Gbps | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS1 (OF-2000) | OS2* (OF-10000) | OS2* (OF-10000) | ||
· OM1* - Assume 62.5/125 OM1 specification fibre optic only.
· OM1* - Assume 62.5/125 OM1 specification fibre optic only.
· OM1** - Assume 62.5/125 OM1 fibre optic and a MAXIMUM length of 275m not classified as OF-300.
· OM2* - Assume 50/125 OM2 specification fibre optic only.
· OS2* - 10GBase-ER/EW has an extended distance of 22,250m (OF-10000)
For reference 10GBase-SR/SW , 10Gigabit Ethernet has the following length restrictions.
· On 62.5/125 OM1 fibre optic a MAXIMUM length of 32m.
· On 50/125 OM2 fibre optic a MAXIMUM length of 82m .
Whilst he above table provides a simple guide and the minimum fibre optic cable that should be specified, there are key design criteria that would benefit the use of a higher Category cable in many solutions and we would therefore still recommend you ask the advice of a registered RCDD (Registered Communications Distribution Designer) before specifying your requirements.
If you are still not sure what fibres you will need in the future then opt for a Blown Fibre solution or contact us.