Guide to Multimode Fiber Types
What is Multimode Fiber?
Multimode fiber is an optical fiber that is used over shorter distances such as buildings, datacenters, and campuses.
Multimode fiber optic cable typically has a larger core at 50 or 62.5 micron to propagate different modes.
OM1 vs. OM2 vs. OM3 vs. OM4 vs. OM5
OM1 Fiber
OM1 fiber is manufactured with an orange jacket and has a core size of 62.5 µm. It can support 10 Gigabit Ethernet. It is most commonly used for 100 Megabit Ethernet applications and commonly uses a LED light source.
OM2 Fiber
OM2 fiber is typically manufactured with an orange jacket and uses an LED light source with a smaller core size of 50 µm. It supports up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet and is more commonly used for 1 Gigabit Ethernet applications.
OM3 Fiber
OM3 fiber is manufactured with an aqua colored jacket and is optimized for laser based equipment. OM3 supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet but is able to support 40 Gigabit and 100 Gigabit Ethernet at shorter distances.
OM4 Fiber
OM4 fiber is backwards compatible with OM3 fiber and is manufactured with an aqua colored jacket. OM4 was developed for VSCEL laser transmission and allows 10G link distances of up to 550m. OM4 fiber is able to support 40/100GB up to 150 meters using an MPO connector.
OM5 Fiber
OM5 fiber is the newest type of multimode fiber, and it is backwards compatible with OM4. It has the same core size as OM2, OM3, and OM4. OM5 fiber is manufactured with a lime green jacket. It is designed to support at least four WDM channels at speeds of 28Gbps per channel through the 850-953 nm window.