Single Mode Fiber Patch Cable vs Multimode Fiber Patch Cable

When talking about the fiber patch cables, two types are used to transmit information. The first one is single mode fiber patch cable. The second one is multimode fiber patch cable. Both the two use light energy to travel to one or more glass fibers. This article will separately illustrate the single mode fiber patch cable and multimode fiber patch cable and then tell the tips to choose them.

Single Mode Fiber Patch Cable

Single mode fiber patch cable is generally yellow with a blue connector and has a longer transmission distance. It has a small diametral core of 9/125um micron (see Figure 1). In single mode cables, light travels toward the center of the core in a single wavelength, which allows the signal to travel faster and over long distance without a loss of signal quality. It is usually used for connections over large areas, such as college campuses and cable television networks. Moreover, single mode fiber optic patch cable provides higher speeds minimized because of its capacity and more bandwidth interference from outside. It can support a single strand of optical fiber to transmit up to 10Gbps per second. For example, single mode LC to ST fiber patch cable and single mode fiber ST to SC patch cord have all the features and can transmit 10km or even farther to ensure high performance.

single mode fiber
Figure 1
Multimode Fiber Patch Cable

Multimode fiber patch cable is generally orange or grey with a cream or black connector and has a shorter transmission distance. It has a large diametral core of 50/125um or 62.5/125um microns (see Figure 2) which allows multiple modes of light to propagate at the same time in the same line. In this way, mode dispersion will be produced during transmitting. However, this mode dispersion limits the frequency of the transmission of digital signals and will be more severe with the increase of the distance. In the long cable runs, the light of the multiple paths may lead to distortion of the signal at the receiving end, resulting in unclear, incomplete data transmission. So multimode fiber transmission distance is relatively close. Take multimode SC patch cable fiber for example, it can only transmit 300-400 meters. Multimode patch cables are typically used for data and audio/visual applications in local-area networks and connections within buildings.

multimode fiber
Figure 2

Choosing a high quality fiber optic patch cable to your work is important. Single mode fiber patch cable and multimode fiber patch cable have their own features. When you pick out a fiber optic patch cable, there are a few things to consider. First, confirm the type of connector matches your input connection. Second, check to see if your device prefers a single mode or multimode transfer. And then consider the distance requirement. Fiberstore offers large kinds of single mode and multimode fiber patch cables at low prices, such as single mode LC to ST fiber patch cable, single mode fiber ST to SC patch cord, multimode SC patch cable fiber and multimode 50 125 duplex fiber patch cable LC LC and so on. It is a desirable solution for fiber patch cables.