OM3 or OM4?
We have recently seen some demand for OM4 multimode optical fibre (MMF) and as the demand is still relatively in its infancy, here is a quick summary of the key characteristics;
OM4 was ratified August 5th 2009 by EIA/TIA as 492AAAD grade MMF.
OM4 has a bandwidth value of 4700 MHz/km, OM3 value 2000 MHz/km; 850nm High Performance Effective Modal Bandwidth.
OM4 supports 150m links for 40GbE and 100GbE transmission; OM3 up to 100m.
Generally speaking, 70% of backbone links are less than or equal to 100m, therefore even at 40GbE and 100GbE OM3 remains a future proof solution.
Optical Fibre links up to 600m deploy fibre/cable/connectors and transceivers up to 10 times less expensive than Singlemode, therefore multimode systems remain competitive.
OM4 will support Fibre Channel;
| 400m | 4Gbp/s |
| 200m | 8 Gbp/s |
| 130m | 16 Gbp/s |
850-nm Ethernet distance in metres
1Gbp/s |
10Gbp/s |
40Gbp/s |
100Gbp/s |
|
| OM3 | 1000 |
300 |
100 |
100 |
| OM4 | 1100 |
550 |
150 |
150 |
Are we able to supply and install an OM4 product? Yes we can manufacture to meet the requirements of the OM4 standard.
Are OM4 products readily available in the market today? As demand is still relatively low, availability of OM4 products will most likely be subject to factory manufacturing and production times, until applications and demand drive the need for OM4. Expect to pay a higher premium compared to OM3.
OM4 is likely to be deployed in data centres where switching and routing, virtualization, convergence and high-performance computer clusters must provide reliability, manageability and flexibility.
Andy Worthington.
Phoenix Optics (UK) limited