Introduction to Ethernet

Hello Giovanni

Go ahead and make the suggestion. In the meantime, let me give you some more information.

Fiber optic cables are typically colour coded to indicate the type of cables used. For patch cords, the cable jacket, as well as the connector, have specific colours to indicate the type of cable. For cables with multiple fibers in them, a colourful bundle of tubes can be seen. Each colour provides an identification of each fiber to correctly connect them on both ends, but also to ensure that techs will perform the splicing as the cable has been designed. More info about the colours used can be found at the Fiber Optic Association’s website below:
https://www.thefoa.org/tech/ColCodes.htm

As for connectors, there are a multitude out there for various purposes. The most common are LC, due to their compact size, but you will also find some FC and ST due to the fact that they lock in place, as well as SC, which can be found on slightly older equipment. Cisco devices using SFPs will use LC, while some older GBIC connectors will use SC. These are the connectors you will see 99% of the time in telecom, however, a detailed list of many types of connectors can be found here:

For Ethernet, speeds up to 10 Gb/s can be achieved with both fiber and UTP cable. The main advantage of fiber was distance. However, for speeds of 40, 100, and 400 Gb/s and beyond, only fiber optics can achieve such speeds. Currently, 100 Gb/s is a common speed that is achievable via fiber optics. The IEEE is currently working on TerabitEthernet technologies that are expected to reach 800 Gb/s and 1.6 Tb/s by 2023, all, of course, supported with fiber optic cables, reaching about 500 meters with multi-mode fiber, and well over 10 km with single-mode fiber.
Some more info about fiber can be found at this post as well:

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz

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