Category Archives: Trunk Cable

Why You Need Pre-terminated Copper Trunk Cable and How to Choose It?

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How long have you ever spent on cable installation? As we all know, cable deployment in the network is a time-consuming work. However, with the help of pre-terminated systems and components, you can cut installation time effectively, for there is no need to do field terminations or splicing during installation. Now, this article focus on one of the pre-terminated cables—pre-terminared copper trunk cable.

What Is Pre-terminated Copper Trunk Cable?

In simple terms, pre-terminated copper trunk cable is a kind of cable which has gone through the same procedures with other cables, but their connectors have already been terminated, properly polished, and the entire cable assembly tested on either both or one end in factory. Copper trunk cables are typically comprised of bundles of 6, 8, or 12. Since they are bundled together, there is no need to worry about cable mess. Pre-terminated copper trunk cables provide a quick “plug-and-play” solution for links between switches, servers, patch panels, and zone distribution areas in the data center, and they are preferred when the cable distances are less than 100 meters and cable lengths are pre-determined. Here is a picture of pre-terminated copper trunk cable.

pre-terminated-copper-trunk-cable

Besides, the common types of pre-terminated copper trunk cables are Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7, etc. And different types have different advantages and specifications. All of them are necessary elements for data transmission in the enterprise and data center networks.

Why You Need Pre-terminared Copper Trunk Cable?

In today’s workplace, quick and easy cable installations that guarantee reliable performance are more critical than ever. When compared to field-terminated cabling, there are many reasons to consider pre-terminated category-rated cables in copper network.

pre-terminated-copper-trunk-cable-deployment

Quick Deployment

It’s know to us that field termination is time-consuming in cable installation. If not use pre-terminated cables, much time would be spent on cable packages and connections. According to some figures, deploying pre-terminated cabling can reduce installation time by up to 75 percent over field terminations.

Less Time Wastage

During a cabling installation, installation and transmission performance testing cost too much time. However, pre-terminated copper trunk cables are terminated in factory, and many of them are provided in a cassette format. This format allows installers to “plug and play” multiple connections with one cassette, which reduce installation time obviously. Besides, transmission testing has been performed by manufacturers before shipment, which also reduces time when installation.

Cable Management Improvement

Pre-terminated trunk cables contribute to data center modularity and consistency, making cabling more accessible and organized. And they also remove excess loops, thus storing excessive slack is not a concern.

Of course, apart from what have been mentioned above, there are also other benefits for applying pre-terminated copper cables such as space saving, cost saving and labor saving. In a word, pre-terminated copper trunk cable deployment benefits cable installation a lot.

Considerations for Choosing Right Pre-terminared Copper Trunk Cable

We have known the benefits of using pre-terminated copper trunk cable. But do you know how to choose a suitable one? Here are several factors you should consider when choosing a right copper trunk.

copper-preterminated-trunk-cable

Fire Ratings of Material

There are different problems may arise in data center and fire is one of them. So there is a need to consider the fire ratings of material. Generally, a riser environment is very common in data center, for in there airflow is not a consideration. But some areas such as drop ceilings and raised floors often require plenum-rated cable which can facilitate air circulation for heating and air conditioning systems.

Termination Types

The termination type of the cable assembly depends on the layout of the data center or telecommunications room, and the design philosophy employed. Different types have different requirements for installation. Common termination types are jack-to-jack, plug-to-open-end, jack-to-plug and plug -to-plug.

Proper Breakout Length

A proper breakout length, referring to the length from the end of the braided sleeve to connectors at the end of the cables, offers the flexibility to route the cables as needed. So it’s important to have a right breakout length.

In addition, cable length and the alignment also should be taken into consideration. Of course, how to choose a suitable pre-terminated copper trunk cable also should depend on your real applications.

Summary

Pre-terminated copper trunk cable provides a perfect cost-effective solution for enterprise and data center applications. Choosing a right one will help you resolve many unnecessary problems during installation process.

The Anatomy of MPO Trunk Cable Assembly

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New cable designs are being developed to address the specific needs of connectorized cable assemblies. There are various industry-standard tests that evaluate the mechanical and environmental performance of cables and another set of standard tests for connectorized assemblies. In many cases, there are choices made in the cable design parameters, which may affect the cable assembly process, without due consideration of the complications that might be added to the assembly processes. Over the past few years, manufacturers have sought to co-develop new cables and the associated cable assemblies, which improve both the performance and processing of the assemblies. Here we report the development of innovative new trunk cables and associated cable assemblies.

Fiber optic cables are designed to meet rigorous standards for cable performance. These requirements include mechanical and environmental testing such as long length tensile testing and temperature cycling. A successful design is judged by how well it meets these requirements. The cable manufacturer then sells the cable to an assembly manufacturer that will furcate and connectorize the fibers from the cable to make a cable assembly.The furcation removes the outer jacket of the cable and prepares the fibers to receive a connector. Additionally, the furcation terminates the cable strength members and must isolate fiber strain in the cable from the connector. The furcation process may include adding a protective furcation leg over the fibers to provide protection between the end of the cable jacket and the connector. The design of the cable has a significant impact on the design and complexity of the furcation. The objective of this effort was to re-design the cable assembly to improve furcation processing and add customer preferred features to the trunk cable assembly.

Traditional high fiber count trunk cable assemblies have been made with fire retardant ribbon cables. These cables have the advantage that the fiber optic ribbons easily mate to the 12-fiber MPO connectors. The MPO connectors are preferred by customers because they allow quick and easy connection of the trunk cables to the MPO/LC breakout modules in a patch panel. However, the rectangular furcation legs have significant preferential bending which may be bothersome during installation. The ribbon trunk cables have several characteristics that may beaggravating during cable assembly and installation. The cables have a ribbon stack contained within a hard plastic buffer tube that is surrounded by tensile yarn and an outer jacket. This design provides a robust cable but makes a fairly stiff cable with a large bend radius,which may be difficult to route during installation. Furthermore, the cable design drives the requirement for a large furcation plug and pulling grip that requires more space for pulling the cable in during installation.

ribbon cable

Cables utilized in preterminated assemblies come in many varieties, but there are some common features to all cables. Cables consist of optical fibers, strength members and an outer protective jacket. The cable designs considered in this work were ribbon cables and non-ribbon cables. Each design used 250 µm colored optical fibers. The ribbon cables had the fibers grouped in a linear array with 12 fibers per ribbon. The unitized cables consist of individual units that contain 12 fibers and aramid yarn. One benefit of using ribbon cable is that the installation of multi-fiber connector is simplified because it is not necessary to group the fibers in such an array to install them into the MPO connector. One detriment of the ribbon cable design is that it necessitates rectangular legs to protect the ribbon in the transition from the furcation to the connector. An advantage of unitized cables is that they enable the use of round furcation legs or, with properly designed cable and furcation, the use of the subunits as the legs themselves. Now the following is the introduction of 12-fiber and 24-fiber trunk cable Assemblies.

trunk cable

MPO Trunk Assemblies are pre-terminated 12-fiber and 24-fiber cable assemblies. The unique design of the MPO Connector allows for rapid gender and polarity change in the field, in support of standards-compliant cable plant migration from 10G cassette-based systems to 40G MPO connector-based parallel optics cable plant. These trunk cable assemblies optimize cable routing requirements to ensure efficient use of pathway space and significantly reduce installation time and cost. All small diameter trunk cable assemblies are factory terminated and tested to deliver verified optical performance and reliability for improved network integrity. 10Gig versions provide 10 Gb/s network performance up to 300 meters for OM3 and up to 550 meters for OM4 per IEEE 802.3ae 10 GbE standard while maintaining compatibility with legacy systems.

10G fiber backbone or permanent link when mated to MTP Cassettes or fiber adapter panels paired with MPO to LC breakout harnesses. Method A and Method B TIA 568-C compliant for 40G parallel optics multimode applications. Allows system designers to tailor configuration, reach and breakout construction to application requirements; to minimize waste, optimize cable management, speed deployment, improve flexibility and manageability for lower installation costs. Small diameter trunk cable assemblies use 30 – 40% less space which is ideal for high cable density applications.