Fibre patch leads offer a highly reliable way to transmit signals, which is widely used in telecom industry. When selecting the correct fiber patchcord for a data center or network, it may be a challenging task since there are various types on the market. Understanding fiber patch cables types would be greatly helpful.

 

Fibre patch cord is a fibre optic cable with connectors like LC, SC on both ends. Sometimes it’s referred to as a fibre jumper. Fibre patch cables play important roles for indoor uses like server rooms. Usually, they are used to connect fibre optical transmitter, receiver such as fibre transceiver.

 

fiber patch leads can be terminated with the same connector type or hybrid connector types.

 

Fibre patchleads are divided into different types according to fibre cable modes, transmission modes and connector types.

Fibre Cable Modes: Single Mode vs Multimode

The mode of fibre cables indicates that how light beams travel within the fibre cables. Single mode fiber patch cable only allows one mode of light to pass along its length with a very thin diametre of 8-10 microns. Thus, it can carry signals at much higher speeds with lower attenuation, which is suitable for long distance transmission. Single mode fiber patch cord (OS1, OS2) is coloured yellow.

 

Multimode fibre patch lead is more complicated. It’s usually coloured orange (OM1, OM2), aqua (OM3, OM4) or green (OM5). Multimode fibre has a larger core, typically 50 or 62.5 microns, which enables multiple light modes to be transmitted. Multimode fibre patch cord is mostly used in short distance like the transmission within a building or campus. Note that, the two modes are not compatible with each other, that people can not substitute one for the other.

 

Simplex fibre patch lead has one fibre and one connector on each end. It’s usually used when a data transmission needs to travel in only one direction. In contrast, duplex fiber patch lead has two fibres and two connectors on each end. The signal in duplex fibre needs to go both ways, which is also called bi-directional communication.

 

LC fibre patch cord. Its LC connector is a small, squarish one which is the most popular connector at present.
SC fibre patch cord. Connector of this fibre patchlead type is square, like an LC connector, but is about twice the size.
FC fibre patch cord. This patch lead connector uses round and threaded design.
ST fibre patch cable. Its connector is a round one that uses a bayonet mount design.
LSH fibre patch jumper. This patch lead connector has a dust-proof cover, which can be automatically closed after the fibre is removed.

MU fibre patchlead. The MU connector looks like SC connector but with a ferrule about half the size.

MTRJ fiber patchlead. MTRJ stands for mechanical transfer registered. MTRJ utilizes two fibres and integrates them into a single design that looks similar to an RJ45 connector.

 

Note that, fibre patch leads can be terminated with the same connector type or hybrid connector types. The same connector type means that both ends of fiber patch cords must be one connector type. For the hybrid type, one end can be SC and the other end can be LC, FC, etc. And users also must pay attention to different polishing types. There are three types that can be applied to a fibre connector, PC, UPC and APC. Each polishing type represents a different level of back reflection. Users can choose one based on the actual demand.