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Connecting The Dots: Multimode Fiber Connectors

Written by Chris Bihary | 2/7/14 3:13 PM

As previously discussed, when your network grows to 40G or 100G, you may find yourself adrift in a sea of cables and connectors that don't work. At Garland, whether you are a client or not, we want to help you understand that Multimode (MM) Fiber connectors are actually quite simple.

In the chart below, I want to show you just how straightforward the setup for each network size really is in 1/10G, 40G, or 100G networks.

Thanks to our Senior Systems Engineer, George Bouchard, for the illustrations below.

 

Multimode Fiber Connectors Go-To Chart

As you can see, each MM Fiber cable has 2, 12, or 24 10G fibers inside. In a LC-2 connector (1 or 10G networks), there is one single multimode fiber in each direction. Following the same logic, there are four multimode fibers – in each direction – in a 40G connector and ten in a 100G. In a 10G-SR link, you transmit (Tx) 10G of traffic and receive (Rx) 10G of traffic in a full duplex link over the 2 fibers. In a 40G-SR4 link, you transmit (Tx) 40G of traffic over 4 fibers and receive (Rx) 40 G of traffic over 4 fibers in a full duplex link, totaling 80 gigabits of traffic; the same applies to 100G. It really is pretty simple, right?

So, that is our first Fiber February blog, and we can't wait to show you what we have in store for next week. Remember to check out our other posts, and tweet any questions about Fiber to @GarlandTech with the hashtag #FiberFebruary.

Learn about fiber connectors and better network management by reading more of the Garland Blog.