What is OM5 Multi Mode Fiber? Any different from OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4?
The optical communication in the ”OM” means ”Optical the Multi - MODE”, light mode, multimode fiber represents standard fiber level. Currently, TIA and IEC defined fiber patch cord standards are OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4 and OM5.
First of all, what is multimode and single mode?
Single-mode fiber (Single Mode Fiber) allow only one mode transmission fiber, the core diameter of about 8 ~ 9 μm, outer diameter of about 125 μm. Multimode fiber (Multimode Optical Fiber) allowing transmission of light in different modes of a single optical fiber, a core diameter of 50 μm to 62.5μm. Compared to single-mode fiber multimode fiber can support longer transmission distance, in 100Mbps of Ethernet as well as 1G Gigabit Ethernet single-mode fiber can support more than 5km transmission distance. Multimode fiber is only suitable for medium and short distance and small capacity fiber optic communication systems.
What is the difference between OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4, and OM5?
In general, OM1 is conventional 62.5 / 125μm ; OM2 conventional 50 / 125um; OM3 is 850nm laser optimized 50um core multimode optical fiber, employing 850nm the VCSEL of 10Gb / S Ethernet, fiber transmission distances up to 300m; OM4 is OM3 upgraded version, OM4 multimode fiber optimizes the differential mode delay (DMD) generated by OM3 multimode fiber during high-speed transmission, so the transmission distance is greatly improved, and the fiber transmission distance can reach 550m. OM5 fiber jumper is defined by TIA and IEC. A new standard for fiber patch cords with a fiber diameter of 50 / 125μm, compared to OM3 and OM4 fiber patch cords, OM5 fiber patch cords can be used for higher bandwidth applications. The bandwidth and maximum distance are different when transmitting at different levels.
What is an OM5 fiber patch cord?
OM5 fibers are referred to as wideband multimode fiber jumper (WBMMF), is a laser-optimized multimode fiber (via the MMF), specifically wavelength division multiplexing (of the WDM) specifies the bandwidth characteristics. The goal of this new fiber classification method is to support multiple ”short” wavelengths between 850 nm and 950 nm, which are suitable for high bandwidth applications after polymerization. The OM3 and OM4 is designed mainly to support 850nm single wavelength.
What is the difference between OM3 and OM4?
1. Different jacket color
In order to distinguish between different fiber jumpers, different colors of the outer sheath are used. For non-military applications, single mode fiber is typically a yellow outer jacket. In multimode fiber, OM1 and OM2 are orange, OM3 and OM4 are water blue, and OM5 is water green.
2. Different application scope
OM1 and OM2 have been widely deployed in buildings for many years and support Ethernet transmissions up to 1GB. OM3 and OM4 cables are commonly used in data center cabling environments, supporting 10G or even 40 / 100G Fast Ethernet. The transmission of the road. Designed for 40GB / s and 100 GB / s transmission, the OM5 reduces the number of fibers that can be transmitted at high speeds.

OM5 multimode fiber features
1. Fewer fibers support higher bandwidth applications
The OM5 fiber patch cord has an operating wavelength of 850 / 1300 nm and supports at least 4 wavelengths. The typical operating wavelengths of OM3 and OM4 are 850 nm and 1300 nm. That is to say, the traditional OM1 , OM2 , OM3 , and OM4 multimode fibers have only one channel, while the OM5 has four channels, and the transmission capacity is increased by four times. Combining short-wavelength division multiplexing (SWDM) and parallel transmission technology, OM5 requires only 8- core wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF) to support 200 / 400G Ethernet applications, greatly reducing the number of fiber cores. To a lesser extent, the wiring costs of the network are reduced.
2. Farther transmission distance
The transmission distance of OM5 fiber is longer than that of OM3 and OM4. The OM4 fiber is designed to support a length of at least 100 meters with a 100G - SWDM4 transceiver. But OM5 fiber can support up to 150 meters in length with the same transceiver.

3. Lower fiber loss
OM5 attenuation broadband multimode fiber from previous OM3, OM4 optical cable 3.5 dB / km reduced to 3.0 dB / km, additionally increasing the bandwidth requirement at wavelength 953 nm.
The OM5 has the same fiber size as OM3 and OM4, which means it is fully compatible with OM3 and OM4. It does not need to be changed in the existing wiring application OM5. OM5 fiber is more scalable and flexible, capable of supporting higher speed network transmission with fewer multimode fiber cores, and cost and power consumption are much lower than single mode fiber, so it will be widely used in 100G / in the future. 400G / 1T ultra large data center.