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Things to Know About Laser Optimized Fibers

As transmission speeds over fiber optic networks increase continually, demands for fast speed from 1Gps to 10Gbps, 40Gbps even 100Gbps are also growing day by day. In order to satisfy this demand, a relative term, “laser optimized fiber”, has come into being. However, what is laser optimized fiber? How much do you know about it? Getting to know the answers from this article will help you make preparations for the latest wave in optical communications.

What Is Laser Optimized Fiber?

Laser optimized fiber, usually refers to OM3 and OM4 multimode fibers, is different from standard multimode fiber optic cables such as OM1 and OM2 by incorporating graded refractive index profile fiber optic cable into each assembly. It means, in laser optimized fiber, refractive index of the core glass decreases toward the outer cladding, allowing paths of light towards the outer edge of the fiber to travel more quickly. This increase in speed equalizes the travel time for both short and long light paths, which ensure the accurate information transmission and receipt over much longer distances.

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Laser optimized fiber optic cables are used in high speed fiber optic communications. For instance, 10G OM3 fiber optic patch cable is one of typical laser optimized fibers. It is more and more popular in backbone of the WANs (wide area networks) and data processing centers, for it not only optimizes the fiber transmission channel and space usage, but also simplifies the deployment and system test, as well as provides good performance for density installations.

Why Optical Fibers Are “Optimized”?

As we all know, traditional optical systems utilize inexpensive LED (light emitting diodes) light sources. This kind of light source is suitable for lower speeds but not for higher speeds. As the demand for higher bandwidth increased, LEDs no longer keep pace. They could not support greater transmission rates required. Therefore, a high-speed laser light source named VCSEL (vertical cavity surface-emitting laser) appears. Compared with the traditional one, this light source is well suited for 850nm multimode transmission systems, allowing for higher data rates. With the advent of VCSELs, multimode fiber had to be “optimized” for operations with lasers.

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Benefits of Laser Optimized Fiber Cable

Laser optimized multimode fibers offer a unique solution for premise networking applications by enabling data transmission over longer distances, previously only available through single-mode solutions. After VCSELs appear, in order to fully capitalize on the benefits that VCSELs offer, laser optimized cables have been specifically designed, fabricated, and tested for efficient and reliable use with VCSELs. Here are some major benefits of laser optimized fiber cables.

  • Laser optimized fibers have lower total cost. It reduces immediate capital costs by extending the reach of low-cost optical transceivers, reducing or eliminating the need for higher-cost, single-mode fiber.
  • Laser optimized fibers often use multimode optical transceivers which require less power than single-mode transceivers. Besides, it also offers a superior upgrade path to faster applications without the need to replace cabling infrastructure or reconfigure data center architecture.
  • Laser optimized fiber cables have faster speed over longer distances. It allows 100 gigabit Ethernet at distances of up to 600 feet, which provide a more cost-effective solution for data centers when compared with higher cost single-mode optic fiber.
  • Laser optimized fiber is completely compatible with LEDs and other fiber optic applications. They can be installed at slower data rates or higher data rate. The cabling infrastructures based on laser optimized fibers are fully compatible with emerging, current, and older applications, and provides the longest reach possible over multimode fiber.
Summary

Laser optimized fiber optic cable enables data transmission over longer distances previously only feasible with single-mode fiber. It has more advantages when compared with common fiber optic cables. FS.COM supplies various kinds of OM3 and OM4 laser optimized cables as well as other types of optical cables such as OM1, OM2 to meet different cabling requirements. Welcome to visit FS.COM for more detailed information.