Meaning of UTP, S/UTP, FTP, STP, and CAT7

Selecting the right type of shielding you want the cable to have can prove a minefield of confusing acronyms when the question is about copper cabling.

U/FTP: UNSHIELDED WITH FOILED TWISTED PAIRS

Overall shielding is not provided by CAT7 trunk cable but the individual twisted pairs are wrapped in a foil screen. It then provides some protection from EMI and crosstalk from adjacent pairs and other cables.

F/UTP: FOILED WITH UNSHIELDED TWISTED PAIRS

Often referred to as FT. Overall foil shield wrapped around unshielded twisted pairs and a drain wire are listed out by this type of cable list. Unwanted noise is redirected to the ground when the drain wire is correctly connected, offering extra protection against EMI/RFI.

S/UTP: SHIELDED WITH UNSHIELDED TWISTED PAIRS

This cable is often referred to as ST. However, you have to use this term with caution as other shielded cables use this term. Compared to U/UTP, across long distances, SFTP trunk cable is quite capable of supporting higher transmission rates, and because of the braids; it gives better mechanical strength and grounding.

U/UTP: UNSHIELDED TWISTED PAIRS

It is also referred to as UTP. To date, it is the most common and basic method of cable construction, which consists of pairs of wires that are twisted together. There is no shielding provided; instead, a balanced transmission line is created by the symmetrical twist in the wires which then helps in reducing electrical noise and EMI.

S/FTP: SHIELDED WITH FOILED TWISTED PAIRS

Similar to F/FTP, before being wrapped in an overall flexible yet mechanically strong braid screens the individual twisted pairs are wrapped in foil tape. With adjacent pairs and other cables, the additional foil on the twisted pairs helps to reduce crosstalk.

F/FTP: FOILED WITH FOILED TWISTED PAIRS

These are quite similar to F/UTP cables. The designing of cable construction is done in a way that it can produce the assembly with greater protection from other cables.

SF/FTP: SHIELDED AND THEN FOILED WITH THE HELP OF FOILED TWISTED PAIRS

SFTP copper cable consists of both an overall braid shield and foil shield, with individually foil tape screened twisted pairs. From interference and better grounding due to the braid, this type of cable provides the best level of protection.

Things to Know About MPO Fiber Testing

For the ever-increasing data center, bandwidth requirements of MPO trunk cable have become the common cabling solution. The MPO fiber cable links have attributes of parallel transmission. They are pre-terminated, compact, and can handle bandwidth up to 100 Gbps. The testing, certification, and migration of the MPO fiber cables can turn into a nightmare. This article will provide you with a clear overview regarding the testing of MPO cables in the data center.

Challenges of MPO Cables

It is essential to understand MPO cables and how they are tested to get a better understanding of the challenges of MPO cable validation. An MPO connection is similar in size to a fingernail. It contains 12 optical fibers which are less when compared to the diameter of a human hair, and there is a need for them to be tested separately. Once you’re in the process the actual fiber test is quick enough, typically under 10 seconds per fiber.

The main challenge here is that the pre-terminated fiber provides a guarantee when it exists in the manufacturer’s factory. During installation in the data center, it must then be transported, stored, and later bent and pulled. Before MTP trunk cable is deployed there needs to be the introduction of all kinds of performance. After installation, proper testing of pre-terminated cables is the only way that a live application can guarantee performance. Another challenge is testing and determining fiber polarity. Providing a continuous connection from the link’s transmitter to the link’s receiver is the simple purpose of any polarity scheme. Deployment mistakes are quite common as these methods always require a combination of patch cords with different types of polarity.

To evolve at an ever-increasing pace the demand for fast and reliable delivery of critical applications is driving data center technology. The insatiable requirement for bandwidth keeps in mind that the integrity of the data center is linked to the strength of the fiber cabling infrastructure. The growing use of MPO trunk cables says that the time has arrived to stop the verification of individual fibers. After all, it’s a single MPO trunk cable connection.

Simulating Multi-Fiber and MPO Cable Links

Multi-fiber cabling is used both inside data centers and across vast field networks in today’s advanced fiber-optic networks because deploying large counts of fibers using as little physical space as possible provides the most efficient approach. On a basic level, MTP breakout cable consists of a ribbon cable that is then surrounded by a protective outer jacketing. When it comes to fiber counts this ribbon and/or multi-fiber cables are available with several options.

In a data center between racks, one can have 12 or 24 fiber patch-style cables that connect devices. 

Across the network between sites, a larger field cable in the ground will have several of these resulting in larger fibers counts like 72, 144, 288, and so on. At the ends of some links, fibers may be individually terminated but those between the gear inside the data center often make use of MPO style connectors to reduce the number of total connections.

NEED TO SIMULATE MULTI-FIBER MPO LINKS

There are some primary applications where there is a simulation of multi-fiber links in the lab environment:

Device certification – is provided by the manufacturer or those deploying the equipment

Latency/delay validation – replicates expected network

Simulating real-world conditions is a critical part of the quality assurance process particularly for transceiver and device manufacturers who are designing or certifying their technology. In case an engineering team is designing a new 100G transceiver with a 500m distance specification and MPO connectivity then it needs to be tested over a real 500m MPO breakout cable to make sure that before going into production it is optically functioning as expected over that distance. The QA team may run a final test over the simulated link once a finished product is in production just to make sure that before shipping to the customer the product passes its final inspection.

Secondly, while validating or certifying the necessary equipment before purchase, engineers at service providers and data centers tasked with selecting and deploying MPO breakout cable in their network may wish to replicate their unique fiber links. Spending a large sum of money on equipment is the last thing any network engineering team wants to do and later gets to know that it doesn’t meet all of the needs.