Recent Research
Anticipated data rates and cabling media for building backbones and horizontal runs
Everyone accepts that data rates in the backbones and horizontal runs of Local Area Networks continue to rise. We asked participants of our April 22, 2010 webinar, Multimode Fiber Trends, to tell us about their future plans. Multimode Fiber Trends was presented by Ryan Chappell of Draka Communications. While Draka is one of three of the fiber manufacturers that is an FOLS member, the presentation included input from both Corning Incorporated and OFS to ensure that viewers received a vendor neutral perspective.
FOLS attracts highly qualified people to its webinars, making the data we collect a useful snapshot of industry trends. The 214 viewers that viewed Multimode Fiber Trends represented a wide range of industries and came from different types of jobs - engineers, yes, but also company owners, purchasing managers, network designers and teachers. While attendees are primarily from the U.S., we also have viewers from Australia, Canada, Mexico, China, Malaysia, the U.K., Saudi Arabia and Russia.
We asked participants to tell us what data rates they anticipated running in their network backbones in five years. The majority of the respondents (41%) said 40 Gbps. The second largest constituency (28%) said 10 Gbps. 17% of respondents anticipate running 100 Gbps in their backbones in five years. This is an increase over what we've seen when we've surveyed audiences at BICSI conferences in past years. It is not surprising that companies running 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps in their backbones continues to decrease.
Anticipated Backbone Data Rates in 5 Years
Our participants' responses show that OM4 multimode fiber will dominate the backbone space. OM4 fiber is laser-optimized 50-micron fiber multimode fiber with extended bandwidth capabilities. This is consistent with viewers' statement that their network backbones will run at 40 Gb/s in five years.
OM4 fiber has an Effective Modal Bandwidth (EMB) >/=4700 MH-km, OFL Bandwidth at 850 nm >/=3500 MHz-km and OFL Bandwidth at 1300 nm >/= 500 MHz-km. This bandwidth capability allows the use of 850nm VCELS to support network at 1 and 10 Gb/s applications using 850 nm VCELS with the potential to support future 40 and 100 Gb/s systems. It supports link lengths up to 550 meters at 10 Gb/s.
OM3 multimode fiber, which is 50-micron laser optimized fiber, was the viewers' second choice. OM3 fiber has an EMB of 2000 MHz-km and is designed for 10 Gb/s transmission.
The use of OM2 multimode fiber, which is standard 50-micron fiber continues to decrease as bandwidth requirements increase.
Zero percent of our audience saw copper having a role in network backbones.
The use of single mode fiber will see some growth but the cost of the electronics often makes it prohibitively expensive at this time.
What Cabling Media will you use to Support rates in the Backbone?
In the horizontal, the majority of our respondents (44%) anticipated they would need to run 10 Gb/s. The second largest group said they would need to support data rates of 1 Gb/s. A surprisingly high number (17%) though their networks might need to run at 40 Gb/s or even 100 Gb/s.
Anticipated Horizontal Data Rates in Next 5 Years
To support the horizontal runs in their networks, the majority of our respondents (40%) said they would use OM3 multimode fiber (50 micron laser optimized fiber). 31% said they would use Category 6a UTP. Anticipated use of OM4 multimode fiber was 14%, Category 6 UTP copper was at 10% and OM2 multimode fiber is at only 5% and likely represents legacy networks.
What Cabling Media will you use to support rates in the horizontal?
Cost Model
Hierarchical Star, Centralized Cabling or Fiber-to-the-Telecom Enclosure -- which architecture is best for your installation?
Find out with the FOLS Cost Model.
This interactive cost model is a tool that helps you compare the installed first costs of several standards-compliant architectures using fiber and copper cabling. The Cost Model lets you input your own data to most accurately allow you to compare different media choices.