Will fiber cable replace copper cable totally?
Both the fiber and cooper can providing internet connection service for enterprise and home, but the fiber seems more popular in the data center since it provides higher bandwidth, longer distance and higher transmission speed. But with the development of Power over Ethernet (POE) technology, copper cables are still critical in applications such as IP cameras or indoor networks because they provide both data and power. So which is the future choice? Will the copper cable be replaced by fiber cable?
The Fiber will be used widely.
The fiber made of glass or plastic transiting the data and voice as light is taken to be the best transmission medium. Compared with cooper, it is immune to EMI and have longer transmission distance without losing data. The reliability and safety enable it to replace cooper in data center.in the past few years, as the FTTX deployment, from 2013 to 2018, the fiber CAGA is 11.45% globally. And there will be higher demand and the fiber cables plays vital role as the development of 5G and IoT due to it features higher speed, low attenuation, fire resistance .
Copper will coexist and evolve
Different from fiber, copper cables transmit data through electrical pulses, which is ideal for speech signals. Although fiber deployments have gained a larger market share due to the ever-increasing demand for data rates, but the copper is still working for cost reason and supporting 1000Mpbs to 40Gbps, while the electrical cable also support 10/100Mpbs, which means that copper can support electronic devices that automatically negotiate network speeds between older, slower devices and newer, faster devices.. the latest TIA-568.2-D standard released in 2018 adds 28AWG jumpers to the normative appendix. This change will facilitate the development of 28AWG Ethernet cables in high-density applications. Industry vendors have introduced 28AWGCat5e and Cat6 Ethernet cables. Its smaller size and size help ease congestion and improve airflow in the rack.In addition, copper cables support Power over Ethernet (POE) over the RJ45 interface, which means that a single cable can provide data connectivity and power. The newly released TIA-568.2-D standard has approved MPTL (Modular Plug Termination Link) as an option to connect devices. In a sense, this update will stimulate the growth of RJ45 cable applications because the MPTL (Modular Plug Termination Link) configuration provides flexible access to users, especially in closed-circuit television systems that use IP cameras for long periods of time. In addition, copper cabling is still widely used for voice transmission and indoor networks in the case of horizontal cabling. With the booming Internet of Things and the adoption of the RJ45 as the standard interface in the industrial Ethernet market, it will provide a lucrative opportunity for the copper market.
Will fiber cable replace copper cable totally?
As mentioned above, fiber optics has dominated the market due to high bandwidth requirements in most data centers. In addition, the fiber cable is easier to install since the fiber optic cables are not subject to electromagnetic interference, and their installation environment requirements are not as complex as copper cables. However, it should be noted that although the price gap between fiber and copper has narrowed, the overall price of fiber cable is higher than copper cable. Therefore, fiber is widely used in environments that require higher bandwidth, such as data centers
On the other hand, the cost of copper cables is lower. Fiber is a special type of fiberglass that is more fragile than copper. Therefore, the daily maintenance cost of copper cables is much lower than that of fiber cables. Copper cable also provides backwards compatibility with older 10/100Mbps legacy Ethernet devices. Therefore, copper cables are still used in voice transmission and indoor network applications. In addition, horizontal cabling, power over Ethernet (POE) or IoT applications are driving the use of copper. Therefore, the fiber cable will not completely replace the copper cable. In fact, fiber and copper solutions will coexist for the foreseeable future, and each solution will be used in its most meaningful places
Fiber Zip Technology provides various type fiber cable for indoor and outdoor application, also producing the fiber copper composite cable to meet your specific network cabling requirement