What is OM5 Fiber Patch Cord?

Optical fiber patch cords are generally divided into OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, OM5 optical fiber patch cords according to color, and OM5 optical fiber patch cords are developed based on OM3/OM4 optical fiber patch cords and optimize their performance to support multiple wavelengths. In this article, Bonelinks will introduce the OM5 fiber patch cords.

1. What is OM5 Cable?
OM5 fiber cable is called Wide Band Multimode Fiber (WBMMF), which is a new standard for fiber cable defined by TIA and IEC. The fiber diameter is 50/125um, the working wavelength is 850/1300nm, and it can support 4 wavelengths. In terms of structure, there is no obvious difference between it and OM3 and OM4 fiber patch cords, so it is fully backward compatible with traditional OM3 and OM4 multimode fiber patch cords. With the continuous improvement of transmission rate requirements, OM5 fiber optic patch cords are widely used.

2. Key Features Of OM5 Fiber Cable

• Clearly specified effective modal bandwidth (EMB) and fiber cable attenuation from 840 nm to 953 nm
• Support of 100GBASE-SR4 Ethernet and 32G Fibre Channel applications across the whole wavelength range
• Backward compatible with OM4 at 850 nm, with reduced chromatic dispersion

3. What are the Advantages of OM5 Fiber Patch Cord?

• Higher bandwidth applications
  OM5 fiber patch cord can combine short-wave wavelength division multiplexing and parallel transmission technology, and only needs 8-core broadband multimode fiber to support 200/400G Ethernet applications.
• Reduce wiring costs
  OM5 fiber patch cord draws on the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology of single-mode fiber, which extends the available wavelength range for network transmission, and can support 4 wavelengths on 1-core multimode fiber. The number of optical fiber cores is reduced to 1/4 of the previous one, which greatly reduces the wiring cost of the network.
• Loss reduction
  OM5 fiber patch cord reduces fiber loss and increases bandwidth requirements at 953nm wavelength.
• Increased transmission distance
  OM5 supports 150-meter transmission under 100G-SWDM4 MSA, which has more advantages in transmission distance than OM3/OM4 under various transmission standards.

4. OM5 VS OM4 VS OM3 Fiber Patch Cord: What is the Difference?

• Jacket color
  In order to distinguish different fiber patch cords, different colors of outer sheaths are used. OM3 and OM4 fiber patch cords are aqua or violet, and OM5 fiber patch cords are lime.
  
• Bandwidth 

Maximum transmission

• Application
  OM3 and OM4 optical cables are usually used in the wiring environment of data centers, supporting 10G or even 40/100G high-speed Ethernet road transmission. OM5 fiber patch cord is designed for 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s transmission, which can reduce the optical fibers counts for high-speed transmission.

5. Summary
OM5 fiber optic fiber patch cord gives more possibility to super-large data centers. It can not only support higher speed with fewer multimode fiber cores network transmission, and because it uses low-cost short-wavelength wavelengths, the cost and power consumption of optical modules will be much lower than single-mode optical fibers using long-wavelength laser light sources. Therefore, it will have broad application prospects in future 100G/400G/1T ultra-large data centers.

Bonelinks’s OM5 fiber optic patch cords comply with standards including Telcordia GR-326-CORE, TIA/EIA, and IEC, you can also customize the connector and length of the fiber optic patch cords according to your needs. In addition, all fiber optic patch cords of Bonelinks have undergone end-face testing, 3D interference testing, and insertion loss & return loss testing. In the testing center, whether it is professional testers or advanced testing equipment, we strictly check every detail and strive to provide customers with high-quality fiber optic cables. Contact us if necessary.