My TN Connection

In the world of media conversion,  single mode fiber to multimode fiber conversion has been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, it was back in 1997 that Transition Networks was the first manufacturer to introduce this type of mode converter for Gigabit Ethernet.

Mode converters have been commonly deployed in applications where a user needs the distance of single mode fiber, but realizes their network fiber switch only offers a multimode port. Sure, you could physically connect a single mode (SM) fiber cable to a multimode (MM) fiber port, but this is not going to work. The fiber transmitters and receivers use different sources of light, as well as different optical wavelengths, for communicating over these two different types of fiber. Therefore a SM to MM media converter is needed to make this type of connection work. (more…)

While the need for network transmission speeds continues to grow, so does the importance put on a company’s fiber optic backbone cabling. As cabling standards have evolved from 10Mbps and 100Mbps to Gigabit and 10 Gigabit speeds, optical cabling has had to evolve as well. With the growth of internet traffic, video conferencing, VoIP and other bandwidth intensive applications – Network Managers have been forced to evaluate their cable infrastructure to see not only if it will meet their needs today, but also well into the future. These days, one term that seems to have become synonymous with future proofing is: “laser-optimized fiber”. In the course of my post I’d like to define what laser-optimized fiber is, how it differs from legacy fiber, and why you need to know about this latest development in optical communication. (more…)

The ink was hardly dry on the 10Gbase-T (10 gigabit Ethernet over UTP) standard and the industry discussion swung to the next big thing – 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet. While the latest technology being developed always makes for interesting discussion, it is the deployable technology that exists today that receives the most day-to-day conversation. To that end, we are only just beginning to see 10 gigabit Ethernet actually being deployed in local area network (LAN) environments.

The IEEE standards organization recently ratified the IEEE802.3an-2006 reference standard defining 10GBase-T allowing for 10 gigabits per second data transmission over Category-6a unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling at up to 100 meters distance. Since this standard is relatively new and coupled with the fact that the fiber standards and interfaces continue to be refined, I thought it may be beneficial to review some of the different copper and fiber standards and interfaces associated with the different 10GBase standards. (more…)