What is the difference between fiber patch cords and copper patch cords?

In the case of integrated wiring, the difference in delay between the optical fiber and copper cables is different. Today we will introduce them in detail.

When general wiring, the choice of optical fiber has replaced copper wire as the mainstream connection device. Many people think the delay of fiber optic lines is shorter than that of copper lines, so what is the difference between fiber optic patch cords and copper lines in delay? Let's take a look at the detailed tutorial below.

1. What is the delay?

Latency can be seen to be slower, caused by the speed limit in the physical system and the waiting time for the signal to arrive from one place to another, divided into network delay, audio delay, WAN delay, etc. A key factor affecting latency is the signal speed of the transmission medium. Optical fiber and copper wire are two transmission media; their distance and bandwidth determine when to use them.

2. How about the delay of fiber?

Because optical fibers are currently used in many applications, let's first look at the delay of optical fibers.

With little knowledge of physics, the speed of light in a vacuum is 3*10 8 m/s. Under air conditions, the speed of light will be slower. Therefore, when an optical signal propagates in a fiber link, there are five steps to wait:

· The electrical signal is converted into an optical signal to generate two;

·One optical signal is generated through optical fiber; 0 optical signals are converted into an electrical signal to generate two,

As shown below:

3. How about the copper wire delay?

The signal quality of the copper wire is not as good as that of optical fiber, especially in long-distance transmission. The signal is quickly interrupted by the surrounding environment. The longer the distance, the more serious the attenuation. It often causes client loss, page errors, and slow user opening speeds.

4. The delay difference between the optical fiber and copper wire Theoretically, the signal is transmitted faster in the copper wire. However, in the long-distance demand, the signal processing and repetition requirements are less, and the optical fiber delay will be lower. The copper wire is easily affected by external interference and significant loss, and the wait is more extensive. We do not use a delay to describe optical fiber and communication network but to describe it in terms of distance and speed. Different lengths and rates have additional delays. For example, it takes 8ms to serialize a 150-byte data packet on a 1.5Mbps link, but only 1.2us on a 10Gbps link, and the delay will be less at high speed.

5. Summary: The difference in delay between fiber and copper is affected by speed and distance. When the distance is short, copper wire can be selected as the transmission medium, and the cost is much lower than that of optical fiber; in the case of long-distance transmission, optical fiber can be selected as the transmission medium, and the performance is more stable, and fast (FS) supplies different lengths of optical fiber and copper wire, meet the needs of different situations.