Fiber Optic Cabling

Copper cabling transmits data as electrical signals and is limited to 328 feet per channel segment. Fiber optic cabling transmits data as light and supports distances of hundreds to thousands of meters. Fiber is immune to EMI, lighter in weight, and supports far higher bandwidth. Copper is less expensive for short runs and powers PoE devices — making copper standard for horizontal cabling to desktops, while fiber is standard for backbone and long-distance applications.

At 10 Gbps, OM3 multimode fiber supports up to 984 feet (300 meters), OM4 supports up to 1,312 feet (400 meters), and single-mode fiber (OS2) supports up to 25 miles (40 km) or more.

Fiber can replace copper in backbone pathways and long-distance runs — and this is already the standard in modern structured cabling design. However, replacing horizontal desktop cabling with fiber is not practical for most commercial applications because fiber does not support Power over Ethernet (PoE). A hybrid approach (fiber backbone, copper horizontal) is the standard architecture for commercial facilities.