Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) would you use it in new home construction?
- Thread starter gpg
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brandonkick
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Good ole Cat 5 is capable of 1000 Mbps, usually well in advance of what even the best cable companies can provide. Cat6 cable is good for up to 10 Gbps potentially. I hardly see the need for Cat6 even vs Cat5 if your looking at network bandwidth. I really don't see fiber as being necessary even in most business applications. If price differences are reasonable, I'd go with Cat6. 10Gbps is plenty fine for a LONG time.
Markverhyden
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Two advantages I see with POF, the diameter is a fraction of copper and it is immune to EMF. The real issue is interfacing to the rest of your network. You'll either need all new equipment or media converters.
I have only seen POF once. POF is much easier to terminate than copper and will eventually replace it. It is more expensive than Cat 5 and comparable in costs per foot to Cat 5e. POF is about 30% cheaper to install than Cat6 and about 60% cheaper than Cat 6a. Just like plastic PEX pipe is replacing copper in our homes it will eventually change networking.
The automotive manufacturers love POF and have been using it for 20 years but it is gaining commercial and residential popularity. They also use a safe red or green light as opposed to a retina burning laser.
Cat 5E cable is rated up to 350 MHz while POF is rated in the real world up to 1,250 MHz and double that in laboratory tests. Higher frequencies equal higher bit rate throughput.
I still use Cat 5e copper because I am familiar with it and like Mark said you will have to update parts of your cabling structure to convert to POF. I would consider POF on a brand new install.
Cat 5 - 100 Mbps - 100 meters (328 feet)
Cat 5e- 1 Gbps - 100 meters
Cat 6 - 1 Gbps - 100 meters, 10 Gbps over 50 meters
Cat 6a - 10 GBPS - 100 meters
The automotive manufacturers love POF and have been using it for 20 years but it is gaining commercial and residential popularity. They also use a safe red or green light as opposed to a retina burning laser.
Cat 5E cable is rated up to 350 MHz while POF is rated in the real world up to 1,250 MHz and double that in laboratory tests. Higher frequencies equal higher bit rate throughput.
I still use Cat 5e copper because I am familiar with it and like Mark said you will have to update parts of your cabling structure to convert to POF. I would consider POF on a brand new install.
Cat 5 - 100 Mbps - 100 meters (328 feet)
Cat 5e- 1 Gbps - 100 meters
Cat 6 - 1 Gbps - 100 meters, 10 Gbps over 50 meters
Cat 6a - 10 GBPS - 100 meters
Do you know of a reliable seller of POF in the states?
Markverhyden
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And remember those are just the specs. Properly terminated, with good quality cable and components, and you can regularly exceed those values.
I have seen a 660 foot plus run of Cat5 in a warehouse acting as a backbone for about 50 PC's and DOS based bar code readers.. Collisions were off the map but it stumbled along until I installed fiber and switches.
It is all about timing. That is why there is a 328 foot length spec for twisted pair. It can work but add many users and lots of data and that timing of the data frames gets more critical.
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