MMF vs SMF - 25G to 400G Speed Modules Only
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
FIGURE 13: MMF vs. SMF 25 to 400 Gb/s modules, 2010-2021. Source: LightCounting.
and data rates increased and the cost structure declined.
Over the past five years, the percentage of MMF modules,
once the dominant optical module type, has declined
relative to the percentage of SMF modules for data rates
of 25 to 400 Gb/s. It is important to note, however, that
the relative decline of MMF modules in comparison
to SMF modules does not mean that MMF module shipments,
themselves, are declining. Indeed, a LightCounting
forecast (Figure 13) shows strong projected growth for
MMF modules along with the growth of SMF modules.21
The future for MMF links continues to be bright!
PART 2: STANDARDS UPDATE
FOR MMF IN THE ENTERPRISE
Enterprise network customers and vendors—in fact, the
entire telecommunications/ICT industry—benefit from
interoperable multivendor industry standards developed
through the interaction and coordination between several
important organizations. These include component
and optical fiber standards from TIA and IEC, structured
cabling standards from ANSI/TIA, ANSI/BICSI and
ISO/IEC, as well as application standards developed
by IEEE and Fibre Channel.
The ability to meet market demand for speed and
transmission capacity standards cannot be overstated.
56 I ICT TODAY
For example, the growth of OM3 fiber, now ubiquitous
in enterprise networks, was highly dependent
on Ethernet standards like 10GBASE-SR and Fibre
Channel standards like 4GFC and 8GFC. Demand
growth for OM4 fiber is based on standards, including
10GBASE-SR, 40GBASE- SR4, 100GBASE-SR4 and
16GFC/32GFC.
The work of these standards organizations, along
with industry MSAs, is vital to meet market demands
for new applications.
Evolving Ethernet Standards for Multimode Fiber
Often, new standards are developed or revised to take
advantage of higher performance capabilities of new
products. Within the last few years, for example, TIA
and IEC developed the OM5 specification for MMF. This
extends the 850 nm performance of OM4 fiber out
to 953 nm in order to take advantage of evolving
SWDM multimode VCSEL technology.
These standards bodies are also characterizing legacy
OM3 and OM4 bandwidth to further support SWDM
applications in brownfield installations; for example,
IEC Subcommittee 86A, Fibres and Cables, published IEC
60793-2-10:2019 in May 2019. This document contains
specifications for all category A1 multimode fibers.