Difference Between Single Mode And Multimode Fiber Cable

Multimode cables are made with thicker cores than single mode cables typically around 50 60 μm.

Difference between single mode and multimode fiber cable.

These larger cores have more space for bouncing lasers down the length of the cable which increases signal speed. While multimode means the fiber can propagate multiple modes. In single mode cables light travels toward the center of the core in a single wavelength. Comparison with single mode fiber the main difference between multi mode and single mode optical fiber is that the former has much larger core diameter typically 50 100 micrometers.

Transmission distance is affected by chromatic dispersion because the core of single mode fibers is much smaller than that of multimode fibers. Single mode means the fiber enables one type of light mode to be propagated at a time. The main difference between single mode and multimode optical fiber is the size of the core. Some studies report a difference of 100 000 ghz.

Multimode fiber cable is prefixed with om and single mode fiber cable is prefixed with os. While multimode is faster than single mode it also has a shorter maximum distance. The light propagation between single mode fiber and multimode fiber is totally different. Single mode fiber optic cable has a small diametral core that allows only one mode of light to propagate.

Because multimode fiber is thicker it can accommodate more signals for greater bandwidth. Much larger than the wavelength of the light carried in it. And it is also the reason why single mode fiber can have longer transmission distance than multimode fiber. Fiber optic cables used in telecommunication are broadly categorized in two types multimode fiber and single mode fiber cables.

Single mode fiber optic cable. Single mode fiber has a core that measures around 5um while the multimode fiber core measures 50um or more. The differences between single mode and multimode fiber mainly lies in fiber core diameter wavelength light source bandwidth color sheath distance and cost. Because of this the number of light reflections created as the light passes through the core decreases lowering attenuation and creating the ability for the signal to travel further.

Single mode fiber also accommodates much higher bandwidths than multimode. And the light propagation reduces less in the single mode fibers transmission than that of multimode fibers. Singlemode cables have a core of 8 to 10 microns.