• 
  Home
• 
  Products
• 
  Info
• 
  About
• 
  Career
• 
  Contacts

• Products Informations
  • Certifications
  • Warranty
  • Payment methods
  • Shipping
  • Order, RMA and Credit Policy
• News
  • Subscribe OP Newsletter
  • Current News
  • Schedule / Expos
• Articles
  • What is Dark Fiber
  • FTTX - FTTB - FTTH
  • FTTX PON
  • Industry Associations
  • Logo
  • Sheathing Materials
• Product Information
  • Corning / OFS Fiber
  • Copper Products
• Request a Quote
• Free Sample

OPF Quality Copper Products

OPF Offer a wide array of copper products. Copper Lan Wire, Ethernet Cable, Patchcords.
• Available in different lengths, thicknesses and mechanical properties
• Durable
• Excellent tensile strength
• High temperature resistance
• Corrosion resistant

Copper Prodct Cables

Copper Product Series
Category 5e and Category 6
Lan Copper Cables

Characterstics:
Often considered the SMF standard, this is perhaps the world's the best for those wavelengths.

Copper Product Series
Category 5e and Category 6
Copper Patchcables Cables

Characterstics:
Often considered the SMF standard, this is perhaps the world's the best for those wavelengths.

Questions

What official standard organizations cover copper cabling products?

IEEE; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Committee 802.
TIA; Telecommunication Industry Association.
EIA; Electronic Industries Alliance.
IEC; International Electrotechnical Committee.
ISO; International Organization for Standardization. (ISO is taken from the Greek word 'ISOS' meaning 'equal' maintaining international equilibrium.)
ANSI; American National Standards Institute.
ANSI do not itself develop American National standards, rather it facilitates development, establishing consensus amongst qualified groups. ANSI promotes the use of the standards internationally and encourages the adoption of the standards internationally. ANSI was a founder member of ISO and a member of the IEC Governing Committee of Action.
OPF copper products are ETL Verified.
What is the difference between the types UTP, FTP AND SFTP?
UTP, FTP AND SFTP are terms used when discussing the typical specification style of Ethernet cables. All these references offer is whether the Ethernet cable in discussion is shielded or not, and if shielding exists, what type of shielding is applied in the basic structure of the cable.
UTP; Unshielded.
FTP; Aluminum-Mylar Foil Shield.
SFTP; inner Aluminum-Mylar Foil Shield, covered by an outer tinned copper braid shield.
100% Aluminum-Mylar foil shield with an outer 80% tinned copper braid shield-SFTP.

What is Patch cable?
Patchcord cable systems use two types of conductor wire types. The main 'trunk' cable uses a solid piece of wire as the conductor (solid conductor), this conductor is not flexible and will break after repeated flexing. It is suitable for installation purposes only in long cable run lengths. This 'trunk' cable is often referred to as the 'Backbone cable'. A 'Patch' cable uses stranded conductors (numerous thinner gauges of wire helixed to form the electrical conductor), the insulated wire is flexible and is used to interconnect (or Patch) the Backbone cable to the 'Desktop' equipment in short cable run lengths.
What is the difference between 10Base 5, 10Base T, 100BaseT and 1000BaseT?
Ethernet cable terminology refers to the rate of signaling in bits and its baseband (vs. broadband) electrical format. The post-fixed character varies in meaning.
10Base5 is the original IEEE 802.3 'ThickNet" RG-8/U coaxial Ethernet Cable. Ethernet had a 10Mbit/s rate, used baseband signaling and could propagate a maximum of 500m as a segment (if not repeated) and required termination at the farthest end of a daisy-chain of client connections.
10BaseT differs from 10Base5 in employing differential baseband signaling across two twisted pairs in a 4 pair Category 3 (CAT3) cable. The signaling retains the 10Mbit/s rate of its 10Base5 precursor. Significantly, 10BaseT networks deploys as a star configuration from a central hub or switch, reducing the strategic planning and 'stub' lengths typical of 10Base5 lineal daisy chain implementation.
100BaseT employs a 100MB/s signal rate retaining the baseband electrical and the star configurational formats of its 10BaseT precursor. A version of this format defines Category 5 (CAT5) cable for interconnection, employs 3 voltage levels to encode a symbol, and is referred to as 100BaseTX.
1000BaseT increases the signaling rate to 1000Mb/s (1 gigabit/second) while retaining the baseband electrical format and star configuration. Commonly referred to as Gigabit Ethernet, the twisted pair cable implementation requires Category 5e (CAT5e) cabling and employs all 4 pairs within its connecting cable in a bi-directional half-duplex fashion where all pairs transmit simultaneously and then reverse their sense to receive simultaneously. What does the abbreviation 'Base' mean?
`Baseband'. A Baseband network is one that provides a single channel for communications across the physical medium e.g. cable, so only one device can transmit at a time. Devices on a Baseband network are permitted to use all available bandwidth for transmission.
The opposite of `Baseband' is `Broadband'. Broadband implements multiple channels typically using Frequency or Time Division Multiplexing techniques. A typical example of a `Broadband' network is Cable or Satellite TV.
OPF offers both Baseband cables. What is the maximum length of Ethernet cable runs?
This is a little understood characteristic.

Ethernet cables are evaluated either as "channel" or "link" entities. All XBaseT networks assume (by IEEE specification) 100m as the maximum physical length of a full `channel'. This channel is expected to be configured with 90m of the horizontal premise (backbone "home run") cabling and 10m distributed in two 5m lengths at each end of the of the "home run" to connect to the client and switch/hub interconnection.
When testing a XBaseT connection from a Patch Bay to a client end, a Link Test is performed using test connections which are calibrated to conform parametrically as the 5m "patch" ends of a 100m channel.
When testing a XBaseT Channel connection, test equipment assumes the full 100m is to be tested to conform parametrically with the appropriate IEEE specification.
What is the difference between a 'Straight through' cable and a 'Cross-over' Cable?
Twisted pair Ethernet cables are constructed using 4-color coded twisted pairs (8-conductors), and terminated with RJ45 plug connectors. The standards state that Ethernet cables should be terminated with specific colors on specific pins of the RJ45 plug. There are 2 standard pin layouts. If a cable has the same layout on both ends it is a `straight through' cable; if the cable has one layout on one end, and the other layout on the other end it is a `cross-over' cable.
Standard EIA/TIA-568 defines the two pin-layouts for `straight-through' RJ45 terminated assemblies. They are called, 1] EIA/TIA-568A and 2] EIA/TIA-568B, the latter now being globally accepted as the default wiring standard for `straight-through' cables.
A `cross-over' cable comprises of one end terminated in accordance to EIA/TIA568-A and the opposite end being terminated in accordance to EIA/TIA568-B. ProPlex `straight through' assemblies are terminated in accordance to EIA/TIA568-B both ends.
What do the CATegories define?

Categories define a cable by type, application and in the higher numeric cables by electrical performance.
Category 1 (CAT1) cable never really existed by that name but is understood as standard voice only, telephone cable.

Category 2 (CAT2) cable was the preferred cable for IBM token ring and Datapoint's ArcNet both early network implementations super-ceded in popularity by Ethernet.

Category 3 (CAT3) cable is standardized by EIA/TIA-568-B specification. This was the common cabling of 10BaseT.
Category 4 (CAT4) cable is a seldom specified cable type used in `Token Ring' or 10Base-T4 baseband networks.
Category 5 (CAT5) was defined by TIA/EIA-568-A and comprises the majority share of historical network cabling for 100BaseT networks.
Category 5e (CAT5e) is an evolved CAT5 type cabling with enhanced specification as defined by TIA/EIA-568B.2-2001. 1000BaseT is designed for operability with CAT5e cable.
Category 6 (CAT6) is intended to be a parametrically enhanced, backward compatible, cable standard for Gigabit and 10Gigabit Ethernet. What is the difference between CAT5 and CAT5E?
CAT5e is an enhanced (hence the `e') CAT5 cable. Most notably, far end and near end crosstalk (FEXT/NEXT) are more stringently specified.
Both cable types share bandwidth requirement of 100MHz, impedance of 100Ω and maximum channel length of 100m.
CAT5E is the preferred choice for Gigabit Ethernet. While CAT5 is the historical cable for 100BaseT.
The enhanced electrical performance of CAT5E ensures that the cable will support applications that require additional bandwidth such as gigabit Ethernet or analogue video.
What is the typical construction and number of wires used in Ethernet cables?
Whether the conductor is solid or stranded, twisted pair Ethernet cables are constructed with 8-wires, assembled into 4-twisted pairs.
Minimum Conductor sizes differ across Category cables with CAT5 having a minimum of 26 AWG; CAT5E 24 AWG; CAT6 23 AWG. The pairs are laid-up, in the case of a UTP cable directly under the outer jacket. In the case of FTP and SFTP the pairs are laid-up, the applicable shields are applied over the assembled pairs and an overall jacket applied. ProPlex PCCAT5P is a 4-twisted pair, 26 awg stranded, foil and braid shield cable. ProPlex PCCAT5EP is a 4-twisted pair, 24 awg stranded, foil and braid shield cable.