Types of Fiber Optic Cable (Most Popular Fiber Optic Cable Types)

1. Indoor Cables

Simplex Fiber Cables
A single cable structure with a single fiber. Simplex cable varieties include 1.6mm & 3mm jacket sizes.

        

Duplex Fiber Optic Cable
Duplex-zip. This cable contains two optical fibers in a single cable structure. Light is not coupled between the two fibers; typically one fiber is used to transmit signals in one direction and the other receives.

    

Distribution Fiber Cables
This compact building cable consists of individual 900µm buffered fiber, is smaller in size and costs less than breakout cable. Connectors may be installed directly on 900µm buffered fiber at breakout box location.

       

Breakout Fiber Cables
Breakout cables are also called fanout cables. In tight buffered cables each fiber is only a 900um tight buffered fiber, but in breakout cables every fiber is a subcable by itself. Each fiber has a 2~3mm jacket, then outer jacket covers these subcables, aramid yarn and ripcord inside. This design allows users to divide the cable to serve users with individual fibers, without the need for patch panel. Breakout cable enables the quick installation of connectors onto 2+mm robust jacketed fiber.

Ribbon Fiber Cables
Consists of up to 12 fibers contained side by side within a single jacket. Often used for network applications and data centers.

LSZH Fiber Cables
Low Smoke Zero Halogen cables are offered as an alternative for halogen-free applications. Less toxic and slower to ignite, they are a good choice for many internal installations. They are available as simplex, duplex and 1.6mm designs. This cable may be run through risers directly to a convenient network or splicing closet for interconnection.

2. Outdoor Fiber Cable

Indoor/outdoor Tight Buffered Fiber Cables
Indoor/outdoor rated tight buffered cables have riser and plenum rated versions. These cables are flexible, easy to handle and simple to install. Since they do not use gel, the connectors can be terminated directly onto the 900um fiber without difficult-to-use kits. This provides an easy and overall less expensive installation.

Outdoor Loose Tube Fiber Optic Cables
Tube encloses multiple coated fibers that are surrounded by a gel compound that protects the cable from moisture in outside environments. Cable is restricted from indoor use, typically allowing entry not to exceed 50 feet.

     

Indoor/Outdoor Dry Loose Tube Fiber Optic Cable
This cable is suitable for both indoor and outdoor applications. One advantage of this cable is that it eliminates the need for a splice or connector at the point where the cable transitions between an outdoor and indoor environment.

3. Aerial/Self-Supporting

Figure 8 Fiber Optic Cables (Aerial/Self-Supporting Fiber Cables)
Figure 8 (aerial/self-supporting) fiber cables are designed to be strung from poles outdoors and most can also be installed in underground ducts. They have internal stress members of steel of steel or aramid yarn that protect fibers from stress.
Aerial cable provides ease of installation and reduces time and cost. Figure 8 cable can easily be separated between the fiber and the messenger. Temperature range -55 to +85°C.

4. Direct-buried

Armored Fiber Optic Cable
Armored cables are similar to outdoor cables but include an outer armor layer for mechanical protection and to prevent damage. They can be installed in ducts or aerially, or directly buried underground. Armor is surrounded by a polyethylene jacket.
Armored cable can be used for rodent protection in direct burial if required. This cable is non-gel filled and can also be used in aerial applications. The armor can be removed leaving the inner cable suitable for any indoor/outdoor use. Temperature rating -40 to +85°C.

5. Submarine Fiber Optic Cable (Undersea Fiber Optic Cable)

Submarine cables are used in fresh or salt water. To protect them from damage by fishing trawlers and boat anchors they have elaborately designed structures and armors. Long distance submarine cables are especially complex designed.

Fiber Optic Cable

Fiber optic "cable" refers to the complete assembly of fibers, strength members and jacket. Fiber optic cables come in lots of different types, depending on the number of fibers and how and where it will be installed. Choose cable carefully as the choice will affect how easy it is to install, splice or terminate and, most important, what it will cost!

Choosing a cable

What hazards will it face?
Cable's job is to protect the fibers from the hazards encountered in an installation. Will the cables be exposed to chemicals or have to withstand a wide temperature range? What about being gnawed on by a woodchuck or prairie dog? Inside buildings, cables don't have to be so strong to protect the fibers, but they have to meet all fire code provisions. Outside the building, it depends on whether the cable is buried directly, pulled in conduit, strung aerially or whatever.
You should contact several cable manufacturers (two minimum, three preferred) and give them the specs. They will want to know where the cable is going, how many fibers you need and what kind (singlemode or multimode or both in what we call "hybrid" cables.) You can also have a "composite" cable that includes copper conductors for signals or power. The cable companies will evaluate your requirements and make suggestions. Then you can get competitive bids.
Since the plan will call for a certain number of fibers, consider adding spare fibers to the cable - fibers are cheap! That way, you won't be in trouble if you break a fiber or two when splicing, breaking-out or terminating fibers. And request the end user consider their future expansion needs. Most users install lots more fibers than needed, especially adding singlemode fiber to multimode fiber cables for campus or backbone applications.

Cable Types

Simplex and Zip Cord: Simplex cables are one fiber, tight-buffered (coated with a 900 micron buffer over the primary buffer coating) with Kevlar (aramid fiber) strength members and jacketed for indoor use. The jacket is usually 3mm (1/8 in.) diameter. Zipcord is simply two of these joined with a thin web. It's used mostly for patch cord and backplane applications, but zipcord can also be used for desktop connections.

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FIBER OPTIC PATCH CABLES

TMC manufactures and stocks a wide variety of Fiber Optic Cables in lengths up to 300 meters. These RoHs compliant cables exceed international manufacturing standards through stringent quality control, aided by state-of-the-art production and test equipment.

	10GB Duplex Multimode Cables OM3 Our 10GB OM3 50-Micron (50/125) patch cords combine scalable 10-Gigabit performance and backwards compatibility with legacy equipment. These cables are specifically designed for use with VCSEL light sources and provide an impressive 2000/500 MHz/km bandwidth. Cable Color: Aqua
	Duplex Multimode 62.5-Micron Cables The 62.5-Micron (62.5/125) OM1 Multimode Fiber (MMF) cable has become the standard optical interface of choice for fiber-to-desktop applications, LAN backbones, educational networks, Gigabit Ethernet, media converters, and transceivers. These cables have compatibility with both LED and laser based light sources ensuring great operation at 500 meters. Cable Color: Orange
	Duplex Multimode 50-Micron Cables The 50-Micron (50/125) OM2 Multimode Fiber (MMF) cable is rapidly gaining its popularity due to the expanded bandwidth potential over traditional multimode fiber runs. Supporting nearly 3X the bandwidth over twice the distance, 50/125 fiber is recommended for all new premise applications including intra-building connections. Cable Color: Orange
	Duplex Single-Mode 9-Micron Cables The 9-Micron (9/125) Single Mode Fiber (SMF) cable provides excellent headroom with minimal signal attenuation. Its near limitless bandwidth easily supports high speed communications standards such as Serial 10-Gigabit Ethernet. Cable Color: Yellow
	Couplers Our fiber couplers provide a simple and easy way to link together two fiber optic cables with LC and SC connectors. We carry duplex and simplex fiber optic cable couplers.

The Fiber Optic Association - Tech Topics

From the top: LC, SC, Biconic, Deutsch 1000

Connector Identifier
 In the development of fiber optic technology over the last 30 years, many companies and individuals have invented the "better mousetrap" - a fiber optic connector that was lower loss, lower cost, easier to terminate or solved some other perceived problem. In all, about 100 fiber optic connectors have been introduced to the marketplace, but only a few represent the majority of the market. Here is a rundown of the connectors that have been the leaders of the industry.

Design
Most fiber optic connectors are plugs or so-called male connectors with a protruding ferrule that holds the fibers and aligns two fibers for mating. They use a mating adapter to mate the two connectors that fits the securing mechanism of the connectors (bayonet, screw-on or snap-in.) The ferrule design is also useful as it can be used to connect directly to active devices like LEDs, VCSELs and detectors.
History
The big silver connector at the bottom of the photo at the right is the Deutsch 1000, what was probably the first commercially successful fiber optic connector. It was really a "pin vise" holding a stripped fiber. The nose piece is spring loaded and was pushed back when the connector was inserted into a mating adapter. The fiber stuck out into a drop of index matching fluid on a plastic lens. This solution was state of the art in the late 70s, yielding about 3 dB loss. Many users remember it as the connector on the front panel of the original Tektronix OTDR.
Above it is the Biconic, the yellow body indicating a SM version. Developed by a team led by Jack Cook at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, the Biconic was molded from a glass-filled plastic that was almost as hard as ceramic. It started with the fiber being molded into the ferrule. This lasted until the company could get a 125 micron/5mil pin insert into the plastic mold, at which point the fiber was glued into the ferule with epoxy. When singlemode versions first appeared, the ferrules were ground to center the fiber core in the ferrule to reduce loss. Since it was not keyed and could rotate in the mating adapters, it had an airgap between the ferrules when mated, meaning loss was never less than 0.3 dB due to fresnel reflection. Usually MM Biconics had losses of 0.5-1 dB and SM 0.7 dB or higher.
The advent of the ceramic ferrule in the mid-80s in Japan changed the connector designs forever. The ceramic ferrule was hard and precise. Fibers were accurately located for alignment and ferrules could be allowed to touch. Adding in convex ferrules for PC (physical contact) between connectors reduced losses to levels below 0.3 dB for both MM and SM varieties.
In the late 90s, small form factor (SFF) connectors became popular, but only the LC (top) has been a runaway success, both in telcos and high bit rate LANs, SANs, etc.
Below are some more of the popular connectors over the years.

Color Codes:

Since the earliest days of fiber optics, orange, black or gray was multimode and yellow singlemode. However, the advent of metallic connectors like the FC and ST made color coding difficult, so colored boots were often used. The TIA 568 color code for connector bodies and/or boots is Beige for multimode fiber, Blue for singlemode fiber, and Green for APC (angled) connectors.

NOTE: THIS MAKES A GOOD STUDY GUIDE FOR THE FOA CFOT AND CFOS/C EXAMS!

Fiber Optic Connector Tutorial

SC fiber optic connector basic structure

More than a dozen types of fiber optic connectors have been developed by various manufacturers since 1980s.  Although the mechanical design varies a lot among different connector types, the most common elements in a fiber connector can be summarized in the following picture. The example shown is a SC connector which was developed by NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) of Japan.

A SC Connector Sample

SC Connector Structure

Elements in a SC connector

1. The fiber ferrule.

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Types of Optical Fiber

There are two basic types of fiber:

Multi Mode Optical Fiber:

Used to transmit many signals per fiber (Multi Mode generally are used for in computer networks, lan applications)
MultiMode Optical Fiber produce as 50 / 125 and 62.5 / 125 ( Core / Cladding diameter Microns)

Single Mode Optical Fiber:

Used to transmit one signal per fiber (Single Mode generally are used for in telephones and cable tv applications)
SingleMode Optical Fiber produce as 8 / 125 and 9 / 125 ( Core / Cladding diameter Microns)

Types of fiber optic cable of Design

Two basic cable designs are:

Loose-Tube Fiber ( indoor / Outdoor Loose-Tube) :

fiber optic cable filled with a water blocking gel. Loose-tube cables generally are used for outside-plant installation in aerial, duct and direct-buried applications.

Tight-Buffered Fiber ( indoor / Outdoor Tight Buffer) :

fiber optic cable is tightly buffered by a protective thermoplastic coating. Multi-fiber, tight-buffered cables generally are used for intra-building, risers, general building and plenum applications.
Notice: Loose-Tube Fiber Cable generally cheaper than Tight-Buffered Fiber Cable

Types of fiber optic cable of index

STEP-INDEX

The light rays to travel at many different angles within the Multi Mode Step Index fiber, The light rays follow straight lines within the single mode step index fiber

GRADED-INDEX

The light rays no longer follow straight lines. The light rays follow like sinus signal.

Types of fiber optic cable of structures

Three types of material make up fiber-optic cables

Glass Optical Fiber:

Glass fiber-optic cable has a Glass core and cladding. Glass fiber-optic cable the Fastest and the most expensive.

Plastic Optical Fiber (POF):

Plastic fiber-optic cable has a plastic core and cladding. Plastic fiber-optic cable is cheapest and slowest. It is suitable for short distance.

Plastic Coated Silica Cable:

(PCS). PCS fiber-optic cable has a Glass core and Plastic cladding. PCS fiber-optic cable cheaper than Glass optical fiber and slower than Glass optical fiber.

Other types of Optical Cable

Simplex And Zip Cord

Breakout Cables

Distribution Cables

Armored Cables

Ribbon Cables

Hybrid Composite Cable

Aerial Optical Cables

Here are some common Optical Fiber Types

Breakout
Armored Multi Loose-Tube
Outdoor Multi Loose-Tube
Indoor Armored Single Loose
Outdoor Single Loose-Tube
Indoor/Outdoor Armored
Indoor/Outdoor