Fibre has become most popular across the globe. The fibre optic cabling services rendered by prominent concerns play a great role as regards the information that may travel at high speeds.
Those intending to choose the right fibre optic cable may follow the under mentioned steps:
- Number of fibres – Number of spare fibres must be taken into account. It is recommended that maximum number of fibres is used while making any installation. Fibre is reasonably priced and as such you can use as many of them for the installation.
- Indoor or outdoor – Any conduit is prone to moisture. As such the cables must be able to resist water. Outdoor cables are expected to protect the fibres from exposure to moisture. Gel-filled and loose-tube cables have been in use till the recent past. However, fibre cables have been successful in resisting moisture to great extent. Breakout kits in tiny plastic tubes may be used for providing maximum protection from direct termination.
- Simplex or duplex cables are usually used for patch cords. Distribution cable with a number of 900-micron buffered color coded fibres inside a single jacket are most popular these days. This may be the lightest and smallest cable with each fibre sturdy enough for direct termination.
- Breakout cable – This is another option for indoor use. It comprises of a bunch of simplex cables inside a common jacket for convenience of ruggedness and pulling. It is possible to terminate each individual cable in direct manners. It is best suited for industrial accomplishments where ruggedness is considered as an important aspect.
- Ratings and markings – The National Electrical Code, i.e. NEC recommends identification and ratings for all indoor cables. Those without these markings may not be able to pass the requisite inspections. Bright colors like orange for multimode and yellow for single-mode distinguish them from other cables.
- Multimode vs. single-mode:- Applications involving short distances may choose the multimode. Fibre optic cabling services including multimode cabling are available in varied performance levels for different distances. OM1 is applicable for a large section of the installed legacy systems while OM2 supports Gigabit Ethernet up to 550 m. OM3 supports 10G Ethernet up to 300 m and is laser optimized. OM4 standard on the horizon is suitable for faster higher bandwidth on the horizon with 10G application and may be supported up to 550m.
- Choosing the right cable – It is recommended that the installers should evaluate the existing needs of the network. They must make a perfect assessment that helps in perfecting the build-out of a viable fibre-optic solution. Choosing the right fibre depends on the type of application. It may be noted that the cable used for upgrading the current backbone may differ from the cable that is used to connect directly to surveillance cameras. The connections used for multiple service applications like environmental control and physical security etc affect the fibre strand count.
The installers must consider the upcoming applications and capacity needs for choosing the right type of cables. A careful examination of the potential network is a must.