Tag Archives: Ethernet cable

Cat6 Cables for Data Center Applications

The trend in network has always been leaning towards the higher bandwidth. Upgrading to a Cat6 cables (including Cat6a) system can ensure transmission speed and sustained performance for processing needs. Especially for data centers, investing into a higher-grade system will increase the network’s capacity and performance.

Cat6 Cables Overview

Conformed with EIA/TIA/IEEE standards, Cat6 cabling system includes patch cables, pre-terminated trunk cables, and bulk cables. For most first-class suppliers, their Cat6 Ethernet cables, involving Cat6a ethernet cables have 100% passed the Fluke Test, and deliver a specified testing report. Generally, Cat6 network cables adopt oxygen-free copper conductor with high electrical conductivity and low signal transmission attenuation. Being backward compatible with all the previous categories, cable UTP Cat6 and cable SFTP Cat6 both can be used to support up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet speed, and operate at up to 250MHz (Cat6a at 500MHz).

Cat6 Patch Cables

 

Cat6 Ethernet patch cables consist of Cat6, Cat6a, and slim Cat6 patch cables. According to length like 100ft Cat6 Ethernet cable, color, cable jacket, and shielding type, different Cat6 can be found in the market. Usually, the conductor of Cat6a and Cat6 shielded cable is 26AWG. The Cat6 unshielded cable is 24AWG, and the slim Cat6 is 28AWG. With a transmission distance up to 100m, Cat6 patch cables are widely used in data centers, network cabinets, offices to connect any data transmission equipment, such as PoE switches.

Cat6 Patch Cables

Figure 1: Cat6 Patch Cables

Cat6 Pre-terminated Trunk Cables

 

For Pre-terminated trunk cable, UTP Cat6 and SFTP Cat6a are available. Altogether, there are plug to plug type and jack to jack type can be found in the market. Generally, the conductor of jack to jack type is 23 AWG, while the plug to plug type is 26AWG. When it comes to the Cat6 cable price per meter, the plug to plug Cat6 cable price and Cat6a cable price are much higher than jack to jack types like jack to jack Cat6 UTP price. As for applications, Cat6 pre-terminated trunk cable assemblies are used to improve efficiency and reduce labor cost and waste in large infrastructures with high-density cross-connection and patching systems.

Cat6 Pre-terminated Trunk Cables

Figure 2: Cat6 Pre-terminated Trunk Cables

Cat6 Bulk Cables

 

Complied with IEEE 802.3af and IEEE 802.3at for PoE applications, most Cat6 bulk cables (including Cat6a) are about 1000ft (305m) lengths with spools. Their conductors are about 23 AWG. This Cat6 cable type is premium cabling designed for Cat6 or Cat6a applications, such as connecting an Ethernet wall jack to a router, patch panel or switch. With fast transmission and excellent signal quality, it ensures peak performance through your LAN.

Cat6 Bulk Cable

Figure 3: Cat6 Bulk Cable

Cat6 Cabling Application in Data Center

As we mentioned in the previous part, Cat6 cables consist of patch cables, pre-terminated trunk cables, and bulk cables. Each Cat6 cable type has its own features, which can be deployed into different scenarios. Here, we will take the integrated cabling of Cat6 pre-terminated trunk cable and Cat6 Ethernet patch cable types as a case to demonstrate its application in data center.

Cat6 Cabling Solution Case:

 

Cat6 Cables Data Center Application

Figure 4: Cat6 Cables Data Center Application

As the Cat6 wiring diagram shown above, we can find in this scenario, there are two racks in this data center needed to do cabling. And in each side, there is one FS S3900-24T4S switch. In that case, the first thing you need to do is to consider how to do Cat6 wiring and what’s the Cat6 wire order. Firstly, for the switch connection, the regular Cat6 patch cables will be used undoubtedly. As for connecting the two racks, the jack to jack trunk cable is suggested to use to do cross-connection. After that, cable managers and cable ties are recommended to deploy to keep the cables organized effectively. For suggested products list, you can refer to the following chart.

Suggested Products:

 

Products List

Figure 5: Products List

Conclusion

As a cost-effective solution, Cat6 cables have been widely applied in all kinds of 1G/10G networks, especially in data centers. How to have a flexible and economically cabling system matters a lot to data center users. Hope this article can give you some inspirations.

What Cable Should I Use for 10G Transceiver Module?

To deploy the optical network, the transceiver module and patch cable are the two basic components. According to the feedbacks of customers from FS.COM, one of the common problems faced by them is what cables they should use for their transceiver modules. To solve this problem, we make this post of patch cable selection guidance. Since the order for 10G transceivers ranks top, we are going to take 10G modules as a reference.

An Overview of 10G Transceiver Module

Transceiver module, also called fiber optic transceiver, is a hot-pluggable device that can both transmit and receive data. By combining a transmitter and receiver into a single module, the device converts electrical signals into optical signals to allow these signals to be efficiently transferred on fiber optic cables. As for the 10G transceiver, it refers to the optical modules with 10G data rate. In FS.COM, there are mainly four types of 10G transceivers: XENPAK, X2, XFP, and SFP+. Even though these optical transceivers are all accessible to the 10G networks, they have different matching patch cables and applications.

10G Transceiver Module

Figure 1: 10G Transceiver Modules

Patch Cable Basics

Apart from optical module, the patch cable is the other vital role in networking. Patch cable, also called patch cord, refers to the copper or optical cable. It’s designed to connect one electronic or optical device to another for signal routing. Conventionally, the patch cable will be terminated with connectors at both ends. For example, the LC fiber cable refers to the optical cable fixed with LC connector. Typically, there are LC, SC, ST, FC and MTP/MPO fiber patch cables. According to different features, we can get various classifications of patch cables, such as fiber types, polishing types, etc.

Patch Cables

Figure 2: Patch Cables

Factors to Consider When Choosing Patch Cable for 10G Transceiver Module

Recently, most of the 10G transceiver modules are compatible with different brands and support higher data rates. It will be much easier to choose optical modules for your networking than selecting mating patch cables. Based on most applications, there are three major factors that can be taken into consideration: transmission media, transmission distance, and transceiver module interface.

Transmission Media

Classified by transmission media, two types of patch cables can be found in the market: optic fiber cable and copper cable. Correspondingly, there are two kinds of optical transceivers available: copper-based transceivers and fiber optic based transceivers. Copper transceiver modules like 10GBASE-T SFP+, they have an RJ45 interface, connecting with copper cables. Typically, Ethernet cables that support 10G copper-based transceivers are Cat7 and Cat6a cables.

As for the 10G optical modules, they can support higher data rates over optic fiber cables. It will be more complicated to choose fiber cables. Generally, there are multimode fibers and single mode fibers. Based on the specified needs for transmission distance, the answer will be varied.

Transmission Distance

To select cables, the transmission distance is also an important factor that you need to take care. In the following table, we list the basic information of common 10G transceivers, including their supporting fiber cable types and transmitting distance.

Transceiver Type
Wavelength
Cable Type
Transmission Distance
SR
850 nm
MMF
300 m
LR
1310 nm
SMF
10 km
ER
1550 nm
SMF
40 km
ZR
1550 nm
SMF
80 km

As for fiber cables, single mode fiber is used for long-distance transmission and multimode fiber is for short distance. In a 10G network, the transmission distance of single mode fiber (OS2) can reach from 2 km to 100 km. When it comes to multimode fibers, the transmission distances for OM1, OM2, OM3 are 36 m, 86 m and 300 m. OM4 and OM5 can reach up to 550 m.

Transceiver Module Interface

Another factor you need to consider is the transceiver interface. Usually, transceivers use one port for transmitting and the other port for receiving. They tend to employ duplex SC or LC interface. However, for 10G BiDi transceivers, it only has one port for both transmitting and receiving. Simplex patch cord is applied to connect the 10G BiDi transceiver.

Summary

For your 10G network cabling, transceiver module and patch cable are necessary components. With a wide range of patch cables, selecting the right patch cables will be more complex than 10G transceivers. Generally, three major factors can be considered: transmission media, transmission distance, and transceiver module interface. To apply what you have learned in this post in cabling, you can visit FS.COM for all the transceivers and patch cables at one shop.

DSL vs Ethernet Cable vs Fiber Optic Cable Speed

Wifi is excellent, we all love it. But under the wireless work, there are serious cabling, and data travels through DSL, Ethernet cables and fiber optic cables. The question is, which one performs better? And what’s the difference between DSL, Ethernet cable and fiber optic cable speed? Don’t worry, we are here to help you understand the key differences among the different cables.

DSL vs Ethernet Cable vs Fiber Optic Cable Speed

What Is DSL?

DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line. It’s a communication medium used to deliver digital signals via the copper telephone lines. DSL service functions much like dial-up Internet service. However, unlike dial-up service, the “two-wire” technology of DSL makes it possible for users to connect to the broadband internet and make or receive phone calls at the same time. Because DSL utilizes the existing telephone lines which means there is no requirement for extra cabling for DSL service. Thus, it allows users to download files, watch online videos and support cloud backups.

What Is Ethernet Cable?

Ethernet cable is the most common network cable type in our daily life, which is specifically designed to facilitate the communication between different electronic equipment such as computers, fax machines or scanners. Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat7 are the different Ethernet cable types. Each new promotion of category supports increasingly faster bandwidth speeds and improves upon the signal-to-noise ratio.

What Is Fiber Optic Cable?

The fiber optic cable contains strands of glass fibers inside an insulated casing. Compared with the wired cables, fiber optic cable speed is faster which is designed for long distance and high performance data networking. Single mode fiber and multimode fiber are the primary types of fiber optic cable. Both of them can support the world’s Internet, cable television and telephone system.

DSL vs Ethernet Cable vs Fiber Optic Cable Speed

When we buy the cables, the speed is always an important consideration. Now we’ll compare DSL, Ethernet cable and fiber optic cable speed.

  • DSL speed

Download speed of DSL is generally in the 1-35Mbps range, while the upload speed ranges from 1Mbps to 10Mbps. When the DSL packages speed is around 1 megabit per second, it’s suitable for basic web browsing and sending or receiving emails. If the cable speed is up to 6Mbps or 7Mbps, you can enjoy online music and standard video streaming but may be a little slow for HD video.

  • Ethernet Speed

Ethernet cable download speed usually starts from 10Mbps to 500Mbps, and the upload speed is 5-50Mbps. Note that these ranges are the criteria you can achieve for home use. And for the specific areas, internet providers offer much higher speed which can be 1000Mbps. With a faster data speed, you can enjoy HD audio streaming and VoIP services.

  • Fiber Optic Cable Speed

Fiber optic cable speed is the fastest. Download speed of a fiber patch cord could be anywhere from 250Mbps to 1000Mbps. And fiber providers commonly provide “symmetrical” service, which means the upload speed is as high as the download speed. Though fiber optic cable price is usually a bit higher than DSL or Ethernet cable, it’s always worth buying it. You are free to enjoy heavy web browsing, file sharing and online backup, superior download and upload. And it’s a great option for hosting servers and complex cloud-based services.

Conclusion

As described above, fiber optic cable speed definitely wins. If you want a connection that can move at lightning speeds, fiber is the best choice. If you care more about the budget, both DSL and Ethernet cable can offer plans that allow you to get a decent network speed at a reasonable price. DSL is the cheapest for lower speed plans, while Ethernet cable is the cheapest for higher speeds. So choose the best Internet cable service based on your needs.