Will Different Ethernet Cable Speed Affect My Network?

Ethernet cables are the default physical connection for today’s home or business networks. People always want to buy a high speed Ethernet cable to enjoy a high speed network transmission. However, will different Ethernet cable speed actually affect your networks? Here, we’ll discuss the speeds of the most popular Ethernet cables categories (Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7 and the newest Cat8), to help you make a wise choice.

Ethernet Cable Speed of Different Categories
The following is the overview of Ethernet cable speed of Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8.

Cat5 Ethernet Cable Speed: 10/100Mbps for 100m
Cat5 Ethernet cable is the oldest type of these cables. It can support either 10Mbps or 100Mbps speed with a bandwidth of up to 100MHz, which was the first Fast Ethernet-capable to be introduced. However, with technology develops, this old-fashioned cable is no longer a recognized standard, that it’s hard to find it in today’s stores.

Cat5e Ethernet Cable Speed: 1000Mbps for 100m
Cat5e is an enhanced version of Cat5 cable. This Ethernet cable speed is up to 1000Mbps or “Gigabit” speed. In theory, it could be ten times faster than Cat5. Besides, it decreases crosstalk that happens between two wires inside a cable. Cat5e Ethernet cable is the most widely used category on the market.

Cat6 Ethernet Cable Speed: 1000Mbps for 100m and 10Gbps for 55m
Cat6 is certified to handle Gigabit speed with a bandwidth of up 250MHz. And it can be capable of 10Gbps speed under ideal circumstances. Cat6 Ethernet cable has some improvements like the better insulation and thinner wires, providing a higher signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, it’s quite suited for environments with higher electromagnetic interference. Note that, Cat6 Ethernet cable is provided with two forms, shielded twisted pair (STP) and unshielded twisted pair (UTP).

Cat6a Ethernet Cable Speed: 10Gbps for 100m
Cat6a Ethernet cable allows 10Gbps data transmission rate with the bandwidth of up to 500MHz. Its transmission can achieve to 100 metres, which is longer than the 37-55 metres of Cat6 cable. Cat6a is usually available in STP form. This cable is ideal for industrial situation, but lack flexibility that is often needed for a residential deployment.

Cat7 Ethernet Cable Speed: 10Gbps for 100m
Ethernet cable speed of Cat7 can reach to 10Gbps with a bandwidth of up to 600MHz. It consists of a screened, shield twisted pair of wires, which completely eliminates alien crosstalk. It’s more suited to data centres than home use.

Cat8 Ethernet Cable Speed: 40Gbps for 20m
Cat8 is capable of supporting bandwidth of up to 2000MHz. This Ethernet cable speed can be up to 25/40Gbps. It’s the fastest Ethernet cable, which is not intended for office environments, but suitable for connecting equipment in data centres such as connecting server to switch.
For better reference, the following table lists the Ethernet cable speed and bandwidth of these cables.


Technical and Physical Differences
The typical technical differences are clear to see. As the category number increases, so does the Ethernet cable speed and bandwidth. This is not a coincidence, because each category brings more rigorous testing to eliminate crosstalk and add isolation between the wires. Thus, Cat8 supports the highest transmission speed.
As for the physical differences, Ethernet cables use different construction and isolation to eliminate interference and allow for faster speeds. Take the cables from FS.COM as an example. Its Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8 use screen shield and aluminum foil shielding for reducing crosstalk, while Cat5e and Cat6 don’t. So Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8 have better performance.



Is It Worth to Upgrade?
Actually, for home connections, a Cat5e or Cat6 cable with 1Gbps Ethernet cable speed is fast enough. People should note that upgrade cables will not make a difference in how fast you load websites, because the Internet speed depends on many factors but not just the Ethernet cable speed. But for places like data centres, of course, the faster the better. Because these places have high requirements for transmission speed. If you decide to buy Ethernet cables, welcome to order at FS.COM that provides comprehensive products of Ethernet cables.

Is Cumulus Linux and White Box Switch Combination A Good Idea?

Today, enterprise organizations are facing the challenges of highly dynamic computing, storage and networking needs than ever before. They want to build data centers with efficiency, scalability and flexibility for these increasing demands. In this quest for the perfect solution, an approach has been proposed, that is to deploy white box switch with Cumulus Linux operating system (OS). Is it a good idea? Here we will discuss it.

What Is White Box Switch?
White box switch is a data switch that is pre-loaded with minimal software or simply sold as a bare device. By using white box switches, IT staff can separate hardware-purchase decisions from software decisions. They can choose Linux or other OSes to manage the switch and network applications based on their own network demands and scales. This freedom of choice brings an open network installation environment and dramatically drives costs down.

Why Use White Box Switch with Cumulus Linux?
Most traditional switches’ OSes are highly locked and limited by traditional switch vendors like Cisco. Data centers have to pay a lot for new proprietary hardware or software. Besides, it takes a long time for vendors to develop new hardware which can satisfy the increasing network demands. Plus, with the development of white box switch, IT staffs hope to use an open network OS that can run on the white box switches. Under these reasons, Cumulus Linux is developed, which could be applied in white box switches and a variety of commodity hardware like Dell, Delta, HPE and so on. It helps users to unlock the network stack that they can choose the best hardware, applications, instead of using the expensive proprietary hardware. There is no vendor lock-in anymore, so the users can set up network architectures according to their specific requirements or scales. This helps to reduce CapEx and OpEX. Besides, Cumulus Linux provides standardized toolsets that are compatible with their hardware, so customers can use the tools such as automation and others to improve efficiency.



Is Cumulus Linux and White Box Switch Combination A Good Idea?
Both Cumulus Linux and white box switch promises flexibility and lower costs, so should we all need to make the leap? It depends. For those small or medium size networks, they already have a comprehensive support from the traditional vendors, and they don’t need to change or upgrade their networks frequently. Therefore, these enterprises don’t need to change the existing network devices for staying up-to-date with the trend. However, for those big data centers, they will quickly find the flexibility and cost saving of Cumulus switches. In these places, Cumulus switches provide customers with affordable and flexible networking options.

Cost Saving
Compared with the traditional network operating system (NOS) which is closed to users, Cumulus Linux provides an open network installation environment. Thus, users are no longer limited to one vendor’s hardware. Today, many network manufacturers like Delta, Accton are producing hardware like bare-metal hardware or white box switch. And the hardware can be built in all types, ranging from a Gigabit Ethernet switch or 10Gb Ethernet switch to 40G/100G switch. The switches that support Cumulus Linux allow users to choose the optical and electrical pluggable device they want to use, without using the software supported by the brand switch vendors. This conserves the precious budgets.

More Flexible Automation
Plus, Cumulus Linux helps users manage the switch with automation. Thus, all the configurations are stored in one place. Users don’t need to log into the switches when they need to make a change to different switches. They just make changes in one centralized repository, which makes upgrades much easier. Of course, network automation isn’t new. Big switch producers have their own automation tools. If users use their network OSes, they have to use the producers’ networking devices, too. This makes network operation fragile, complicated and expensive. However, white box switches with Cumulus Linux change it. Ansible, Chef and Puppet are popular automation tools that run on Linux. This provides users the flexibility to choose the applicable tool that works for their networks. Once you get Cumulus switches, you are free to choose your software and tools, instead of using expensive proprietary products. This will greatly reduce one’s network budget.

Conclusion
The combination of Cumulus Linux and white box switches helps users to set up networks with efficiency, scalability and flexibility at a low cost. For big data centers, it’s an economical solution for reducing the cost and eliminating vendor lock-in. But for small or medium size networks without frequent upgrade demands, it’s not the best one. Therefore, customers should decide whether to use Cumulus switch or not according to their actual situations.

Fiber SFP Module Compatibility with APC, UPC, PC

APC, UPC, PC are different polishing types of fiber patch cable connectors. And we always hear the description like LC UPC/APC duplex single mode patch cables. What exactly are they, and which fiber connector can work with your fiber SFP module? Here introduces the definitions of the connectors, and explains the SFP module compatibility with APC, UPC, PC connectors.

What Does APC, UPC, PC Mean?
APC, UPC and PC connectors are different polish styles of fiber optic ferrules, which determine the quality of the fiber optic lightwave transmission, mostly performed in optical return loss and insertion loss.


Figure 1: Picture of APC, UPC, PC connectors.

PC
PC stands for physical contact, which is the most common connector used in fiber connection. The end faces of this design are polished with a slight curvature. And the raised shape places the fibers at the highest point of the surface, which reduces air gap between them and forces the fibers into contact. Its typical return loss is about -40 dB, which means 0.01% of the light is reflected back. PC connector is used in most applications.

UPC
UPC, or ultra physical contact, is an improvement to the PC connector. UPC connector uses an extended polishing method to achieve a better surface finish. And the curvature makes it look dome-shaped. Its return loss is about -55 dB or higher. UPC connectors are often used in Ethernet network equipment like serial devices or network switches. Also, they are applied in digital and telephony systems.

APC
APC is short for angled physical contact, which is the latest technology in fiber connectors. Its ferrule is polished with an 8-degree angle, which can reduce the light reflected between the cables. The return loss is about -60 dB, providing a better performance connector. Thus, APC connectors are used in radio frequency applications that require higher optical wavelength ranges. In addition, since GPON and passive optical LAN also use radio frequency to deliver video, APC connectors are employed in these applications.

Fiber SFP Module Compatibility Is Important
Most optical transceiver modules have two ports for bidirectional communication. One port is used for sending signals and the other one is for receiving signals. Normally, this transmission process is achieved through a fiber patch cable. And note that the fiber patch cables are designed with different connectors, like SC APC, LC UPC and so on. So it’s important to check whether the fiber connectors are compatible with the SFP optical transceivers before making the connection. Otherwise, it will cause serious consequences such as invalid connection or network failure. For example, we can not use APC connector in SFP modules. Because APC connector has an angle, but the connector of the SFP module is flat. Therefore, misalignment will be created when mating APC and SFP module, which will result in more loss and even the interface within the transceiver may be damaged.

APC vs UPC vs PC, Choose the Correct One For Fiber SFP Module
In principle, different connectors can not be mated. However, the fiber ends of PC and UPC are flat, and the difference between them is the quality of polishing. Therefore, UPC and PC are compatible and interchangeable without causing any damages to the connectors. This means UPC or PC fiber can be equally used with fiber SFP module.

However, the physical and mechanical properties of APC connector are quite different. This means APC should not be mated with UPC or PC. If someone does that, it will destroy the connectors. Plus, it’s not recommended to use APC connectors in fiber SFP modules. Unless the transceiver module has stated clearly that the APC connectors are allowed, users may use UPC connectors. If the network requires a connection between a fiber SFP module and an APC connector, users must use a conversion patch cable (UPC to APC) to connect from a transceiver with flat UPC/PC interface to an angled APC interface.



Figure 2: Example of SC UPC vs SC APC.

Conclusion
Now, it’s clear that UPC and PC connectors are generally used in Ethernet network equipment like fiber switch, and are compatible with most standard fiber SFP modules. Instead, APC connectors are mostly employed in PON network architecture or passive optical LANs, and they are not recommended to be used with fiber SFP modules. Therefore, choose the right connector depends on your particular networking needs. FS.COM provides a full line of fiber connectors with APC/UPC/PC polishing types and fiber SFP module. For more details, please feel free to contact us via sales@fs.com.