Fiber Cable

Fiber-Optic Cable

• Core
  • Optical fiber
  • Typically made of glass
• Cladding
  • Prevents light from leaving core
  • Also made of glass
  • Different refractive index
• Jacket / buffer
  • Strengthen / protects cable
  • PVC or plastic

Light Propagation

• Light propagation: path that light travels
• Models of propagation
  • Multimode Fiber (MMF)
    • Larger core
    • Cheaper LED transmitters
    • Shorter distances mitigates delay distortion
    • Common in data centers/buildings
  • Single-Mode Fiber (SMF)
    • Smaller core
    • Expensive laser transmitters
    • Longer distances
    • Common with WAN/MAN providers

Ethernet standards

• 10GBase-LR:
  • Speed: 10 Gbps
  • Medium: Single-mode fiber (SMF)
  • Max Distance: Up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)
  • Use Case: Long-distance connections in data centers or enterprise networks.
• 10GBase-SR:
  • Speed: 10 Gbps
  • Medium: Multi-mode fiber (MMF)
  • Max Distance: Typically up to 300 meters (984 feet) with OM3 fiber
  • Use Case: Short-range, high-speed connections within data centers or between equipment racks.
• 100Base-FX:
  • Speed: 100 Mbps
  • Medium: Fiber optic (usually multimode fiber)
  • Max Distance: 2 km (using multimode fiber)
  • Use Case: Used for Fast Ethernet over fiber in enterprise LANs or between network switches where EMI is a concern or longer distances are needed than copper allows.