multi-mode fibre optic cabling

We provide a complete design, installation, termination & testing service for campus-wide fibre optic networking.  Fibre optic networks provide connectivity for long distance and very high bandwidth network communications.

Fibre optic cables contain strands of glass fibres inside an insulated casing. These glass fibres carry communication signals using pulses of light. Fibre optic cabling is becoming increasingly common in networking because this method of data transfer offers more capacity and is less susceptible to outside electrical interference.

OM1

OM1 fibre optic cable is a traditional 62.5/125 multi-mode fibre cable.  Available in either tight-buffered or loose tube construction, OM1 is a very basic form of fibre optic cable by today’s standards. Offering support for gigabit ethernet only up to lengths of 275m, it is slowly being phased out of modern data networks, in favour of higher specification alternatives.

OM2

OM2 fibre optic cable refers to the 50/125 traditional fibre cable. Capable of supporting gigabit applications up to 550m apart, OM2 cable has proved very popular and our customers with small fibre networks often prefer this over its predecessor, OM1.

OM1 and OM2 fibre optic cables appear to be identical when sheathed in their outside jackets. This is because the 50/125 and 62.5/125 measurements refer, not to the whole cable diameter, but to the fibre cable inside.

OM3

The present decade has seen unprecedented advances in the development of multimedia. These advances have left consumers needing more and more broad bandwidth to run audio and video applications and, as a result, many organisations now require their network to transmit data at 10-Gigabits per second.

Much like category 6a cable can transmit 10-G signals through copper cable, OM3 can transmit 10-G signals through multi-mode fibre optic cable.  As OM3 cable can transmit 10GbE across distances of up to 300m, it is very much the current generation of fibre optic backbone cabling and is a natural progression from the successful OM2 standard.

OM4

OM4 is likely to be the future of short-distance fibre optics for two primary reasons. Firstly, it can provide OM3 standard 10-G signal speeds across a distance of as much as 550m and secondly, because it can support extremely fast optical fibre signal speeds of 100-Gigabits per second across a distance of 125m. If you are looking to future-proof your network then OM4 is certainly worth considering.