With all the innovations being discussed to enhance the intellectual infrastructure, bandwidth, and speed capability, one product is constantly brought up in conversation—fiber optic patch cable. Actually, the use of 50 µm and 62.5 µm multimode patch cable is gaining popularity. Multimode fiber designation OM1, 0M2, 0M3 are determined by he ISO 11801 standard, while OM4 (defined in TIA-492-AAAD) was finalized in August 2009. The following overview identifies some of the key features and benefits of OM1, 0M2, 0M3 and OM4.

Comparison Between OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4

OM1, for fiber with 200/500 MHz·km, has a core size of 62.5µm with an orange jacket which is at the wavelength of 850 nm /1300 nm. It can support 10 Gigabit Ethernet at lengths up 33 meters but is most commonly used for 100 Megabit Ethernet applications.

OM2, for fiber with 500/500 MHz·km OFL bandwidth at 850/1300nm, typically has a core size of 50µm instead of 62.5µm. It commonly comes with an orange jacket and can operate at 850nm/1300nm. It supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet at lengths up to 82 meters but is more commonly used for 1G Ethernet applications.

OM3, for laser-optimized 50um fiber having 2000 MHz·km effective modal bandwidth, is designed for 10 Gb/s transmission. OM3 fiber, optimized for lased based equipment which needs fewer mode of light, is 50µm core diameter with aqua jacket. As a result of this optimization, it is capable of running 10 Gigabit Ethernet at lengths up to 300 meters. OM3 fiber is considered to be the best choice for 10 Gigabit Ethernet unless you need the extra distance provided by OM4.

OM4, for laser-optimized 50um fiber having 4700 MHz·km EMB bandwidth designed for 10 Gb/s, 40Gb/s, and 100 Gb/s transmission. It also has a suggested jacket color of aqua. It is a further improvement to OM3. It uses a 50µm core but it supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet at lengths up 550 meters and supports 100 Gigabit Ethernet at lengths up to 150 meters. OM4 fiber is widely applied in data centers. It provides the most cost effective solutions for data centers by avoiding the higher costs associated with single-mode laser source.

Further more, OM3&OM4 are superior to OM1&OM2. Both OM1 and OM2 work well with LED (light-emitting diodes) based equipment that can send hundreds of modes of light down the cable, while while OM3 and OM4 are optimized for laser (VCSELs) based equipment that uses fewer modes of light. As LED can not turn on and off fast enough to support higher bandwidth application, VCSELs are capable of modulation over 10 Gbit/s and are used in many high speed networks. Thus OM1 and OM2 can only used in 1G which are not suitable for highly speed network today. OM3 and OM4 are used for 10G mostly at present. But they can support 40G and 100G network, which will make them popular in the near future.

Multimode fiber is typically cost effective for inside buildings or corporate campuses. Fiberstore, as a leading fiber optics supplier, offers a large variety of multimode fibers, such as SC to FC multimode OM3 patch lead, FC/UPC to FC/UPC OM1, LC LC 50 125 OM3,etc. There are many types of multimode fiber that you can choose, but the key is determining which of these highly efficient multimode fibers is appropriate for the system installations you are designing or implementing.

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