Proterial » OS, OM Fiber
When determining what Proterial Cable America (PCA) fiber optic cable is right for your project, labels including OS1, OS2, OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4 and OM5 come up. But what do they mean?
The labels are actually fiber optic cable designations that originated in the international ISO/IEC 11801 standard. Read on to learn more about the designations and how to determine which you need for your project.
The ISO/IEC 11801 standard refers to the international requirements for designing, installing, and managing structured cabling systems in customer premises. This ensures that data communication systems, such as Ethernet and telephone networks, are efficiently supported worldwide.
The standard outlines specifications for cable types, distances, connectors, and performance across various environments, including offices, data centers, and residential buildings.
OS levels refer to Singlemode Optical Fiber cables, while OM Levels refer to Multimode Optical Fiber cables.
Each of the designations is further broken down into subcategories to further identify different types of fiber optic cable.
What are OS Fiber Cables?
OS or Optical Singlemode Fiber, is labeled as either OS1 or OS2 depending on the makeup of the cable.
What are OM Fiber Cables?
OM or Optical Multimode Fiber, details the difference in the versions of multimode cables.
Data is transmitted as light pulses which travel through the glass core of the fiber. The cladding layer reflects the light so that we achieve total internal reflection (TIR) to avoid signal loss. In other words, the two glass layers of the fiber work together to cause the light to travel through the cable delivering information from one location to another.
OS levels are used whenever the project requires singlemode fiber optic cables. Singlemode cables have a narrower core and the light within follows only one path. This makes it ideal for traveling long distances while still delivering information successfully. It also has higher bandwidth but tends to be more expensive for the total system cost.
OM levels are used for multimode Fiber Optic Cable use-cases. Multimode has a larger core with room for light to take multiple paths simultaneously, which can lead to issues like interference and signal loss. Multimode can’t travel as far but uses less heat and is cheaper for the total system cost. For this reason, multimode applications tend to be shorter than singlemode fibers.
If planning to use multimode fiber optic cables on high speed premise networks, the industry standard has become OM3 or OM4 with LC Connectors, which are fiber optic connectors used commonly in data centers and in telecommunications because they are smaller, but still reliable and work with both singlemode and multimode fiber.
PCA’s cable solutions team is ready to help you select the perfect fiber optic cable for your project. Whether planning a data center installation or upgrading a premise network, we have the experience and expertise to ensure that your project will be handled with reliable products manufactured with high-performance materials.
Click here to check out our Fiber Optic Cable Catalog and contact us today so we can help you with your next project.