In cabling, the battle between fiber and copper has lasted for more than a decade. Nowadays, with the emergence of new services such as cloud computing and 5G, the scale of data centers is expanding, and their architecture and cabling are becoming more and more complex, while the light weight and gradually decreasing cost of optical fiber make the demand for optical fiber in backbone network equipment more and more robust, and the ratio of optical fiber in large data centers is as high as 70%, far higher than that of copper cable. Does this mean that copper will be completely replaced by fiber? Actually not.
Why copper cable is still an indispensable part of data center
1. Application Comparison
In the data center demand for higher bandwidth to promote the role of fiber optics with higher transmission rates, greater bandwidth and other advantages of its deployment in the data center to occupy a larger share, especially the backbone application network; but in fact, copper cable will still be an integral part of the data center, and in the voice transmission, power supply and other special environment applications, copper cable is not replaceable fiber.
2. Unique advantages of copper cable
In the integrated horizontal cabling within one hundred meters, optical fiber is not as good as copper cable in terms of maintenance, cost and cabling. Fiber optic core is a special type of glass fiber, compared to copper in the copper cable is more fragile, in wiring and post-maintenance, fiber if not more attention will be easily broken, making its cost increase; and the current market situation, although the price of optical fiber has been reduced, but overall is higher than the price of copper; therefore, compared to fiber, copper cabling and maintenance more convenient and The cost is lower.
In the transmission of voice signals and wireless access, POE power supply systems and other power supply applications, optical fiber can not replace copper cable.
First, because copper cable is different from optical fiber is the transmission of data through electrical impulses, can support voice signals, therefore, copper cable can be used for voice transmission, but not optical fiber.
Second, because the glass fiber used in optical fiber cannot conduct electricity, while copper in copper cable can conduct electricity, therefore, copper cable can supply electricity while making data connection, thus it is widely used in wireless access, POE power supply system, LED-based power system, etc.
In addition, the TIA-568.2-D standard has approved the modular plug termination link (MPTL) as an option for connecting devices, a move that will promote the growth of RJ45 copper applications, especially in the use of IP cameras in surveillance systems. At the same time, the appendix of this specification also increased the 28AWG specification network patch cable, while smaller specifications of copper cable will help air circulation and space utilization, allowing it to develop in high-density applications.
