Compare the difference between fiber optic and copper cables

Compare the difference between fiber optic and copper cables

Today, as life grows, people's needs are rising, along with the rapid development of technology. Using the Internet is the way most people choose, but users are less interested in using their fiber optic or copper networks, but instead only care about how fast or slow the network speeds and prices are. . Today, we will show you how to differentiate between fiber and copper cables so that you can better understand these two cables.

What is optical fiber? What is copper cable?

Nowadays, there are many who believe that fiber optic is faster than copper, but to understand the difference between fiber optic and copper, users should understand what fiber is? What is copper cable?

Optical cable is a relatively specialized telecommunication cable, which has an optical fiber made of transparent glass or plastic material and transmits light signals. Fiber optic cable is very small in diameter, its size is just the diameter of a hair.

Copper cables are electrical cables with a conductive core encapsulated by a non-conductive dielectric, surrounded by a metal braid, and the outer shell is insulated. There are many different types of copper cables, such as cat5e network cable, cat6 network cable, coaxial cable, telephone cable.
Distinguish fiber optic cable from copper

Fiber optic cables and copper cables are different in structure when viewed with the naked eye. You can easily distinguish them. Optical cables are made of fiberglass or silica fibers. An optical fiber cable consists of five main components: core, core, coating, reinforcement and outer sheath. Optical cables are of two main types: single mode and multimode. They are manufactured to meet the needs of use in a variety of different environments: optical cable hanging "indoor and outdoor use" fiber optic cable drain, optical fiber buried directly.

A copper cable consists of four main components: Copper core, insulator, metal braid and plastic cover. Copper cables have two types: thin cables and thick cables.

Compare the difference between fiber optic and copper cables

Signal transmission medium: the difference between fiber optic and copper cabling based on signal transmission environment. The transmission medium of the copper cable is the electrical signal, and the optical cable uses light to transmit the signal.

Transmission speed: (The upload and download features of the copper cable are not balanced, maximum is only 20Mbps. As for fiber optic cables, they allow the balance of these two features so that the transmission speed can be up to 10Gbps. With the outstanding features of speed, fiber optic cable quality is always there. It is compliant with international standards that meet technical requirements (256Kbps) over copper.

Security Mode: The security mode of the copper cable is usually low, as electrical signals are more likely to be stolen on the line, which can transmit lightning, which can affect server and data systems. With higher-security fiber optic cable, the signal transmission is light so less on the line, and no lightning conduction so it does not affect the data system.

Cable length: For maximum copper cable 500m to achieve the required stability, with fiber cable length can be up to 10km.

Stability: Low stable copper cable, greatly affected by electromagnetic environment, signal attenuation during transmission should reach only 80% of commitment quality. Optical cable stability is higher, due to not affected by weather factors, not attenuated during signal transmission should be able to reach maximum speed.

The ability to use the services required to download and upload are as high as: Private server hosting, VPN, Video Conferrence: Copper cables do not match this capability because of low speed, upload time does not exceed 1Mbps, Modem does not support Wireless. Fiber optics are well suited for this capability because of its high speed, customizable download and upload speeds, and Wireless Modems.

Compare the difference between fiber optic and copper cables so that fiber optic cable is the first choice if you move your home and need to install the internet. However, if you already use the internet, you only read newspapers, on Facebook and on Youtube, you should use the old network because the new installation time will take longer than you take more costs such as: New network, more installation time, more cost so this is not really necessary.

Hope that our article above will help you make better choice when choosing your network type.