My TN Connection

In many of our recent posts we have been addressing some advanced fiber optic topics like the proposed 100 Gig Ethernet standard, the use of fiber in the data center, and the advantages of the MTP connector. There is no doubt that these are all relevant topics for a lot of today’s data networking professionals, but what if you have never given any thought to the physical layer or have no idea why you would choose a fiber optic cabling infrastructure over copper? If you fall into this category or are just looking for a refresher on all things fiber related, Fiber FAQs series will be for you. In each post I will tackle a specific question directly related to fiber optics with the hope of shedding some light on this subject…pun fully intended!

Since its invention in the early 1970’s, the deployment of fiber optic cabling within voice, data, and video networks has steadily grown. What is driving this continued growth and why should people jump on the fiber bandwagon? Well in this edition of Fiber FAQS, I would like to cover the benefits of integrating fiber into your network infrastructure.

Many of the benefits that I am about to list are highlighted in our Fiber Optics White Paper.

• Large Bandwidth in a Small Package: While the applications that today’s networks need to support require more and more bandwidth, the physical size of optical fiber cables continue to decrease. In the screen shot to the right from Corning Cabling System’s Discovery Center website, both the copper cable and fiber optic cable have roughly the same bandwidth capacity – need I say more?

• Distance: The low attenuation and superior signal integrity found in fiber optic systems allow for much longer intervals of signal transmission than copper cabling. By standard, copper cabling can be run 100m in a fast Ethernet environment – while multimode fiber can be run 2km.

• Electromagnetic Immunity: Since fiber optic uses light and glass as the medium to pass information from one point to another as opposed to an electrical current and copper conductor, it can be used in areas with high electromagnetic interference

• Future Proofing: With virtually unlimited bandwidth potential in such a small form factor, the option to pull extra fiber optic cable for future growth is more of a viable option than copper cabling. By leaving “dark” fiber within your network, you are prepared for technological advances and increased bandwidth demands.

• Security: Fiber optics’ popularity has grown within government entities and financial institutions because unlike copper cable, the dielectric nature of fiber makes it impossible to remotely detect the signal being transmitted within the fiber. The only way to detect the signal would be to physically access the optical fiber, which would be detectable by IT or network security personnel.

Next up in the Fiber FAQs series will be an introduction to fiber optic connector types.

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