This article will explain the difference between optical port and electrical port from two aspects! Let’s first understand the concepts and meanings of optical ports and electrical ports.
What is an optical port?
Optical port is the abbreviation of optical fiber interface.
Fiber optic connectors connect optical fibers and can be connected and disconnected faster than splicing. Connectors mechanically couple and align the core of an optical fiber so that light can pass through. Better connectors lose very little light due to reflections or misalignment of the fiber. In total, approximately 100 different types of fiber optic connectors have been put on the market.
Fiber optic connectors are unique. Fiber optic cables carry light pulses rather than electrical signals, so terminations must be more precise. Fiber optic connectors not only allow the pins to make metal-to-metal contact, they must also perfectly align the microscopic glass fibers in order to communicate. Although there are many different types of fiber optic connectors, they all share similar design features. Simplex vs. Duplex: Simplex means 1 connector on each end, while duplex means 2 connectors on each end. Optical fiber connectors mainly consist of three parts: ferrule, connector body and coupling mechanism.
Ferrule: This is a thin structure (usually cylindrical) that actually holds the fiberglass in place. It has a hollow center that tightly grips the fiber. The ferrule is usually made of ceramic, metal, or high-quality plastic and usually holds one fiber.
Connector Body: This is a plastic or metal structure that holds the ferrule in place and connects to the jacket and strengthens the fiber optic cable itself.
Coupling Mechanism: This is the part of the connector body that holds the connector in place when it is connected to another device (switch, NIC, bulkhead coupler, etc.). It can be a locking clip, bayonet nut, or similar device.
What is an electrical port？
The electrical port is relative to the optical port. It refers to the physical characteristics of the fire arrester. It mainly refers to the copper cable and is the electrical signal processed. Currently commonly used network interfaces include 100M electrical port and Gigabit electrical port.
To put it simply, the electrical port is an ordinary network cable interface. The general rate is 10M or 100M, and some support 1000M. The maximum distance of the electrical port is 100 meters.
The eight-pin RJ45 connector is a standardized interface that typically connects computers to a local area network (LAN). This type of connector was originally developed for telephone communications but is now used in a range of applications. The abbreviation RJ45 stands for Registered Jack-45. Registered jack specifications relate to the wiring pattern of the jacks, not to their physical characteristics. The term RJ45 also refers to a series of connectors for Ethernet jacks. The 8-position/8-contact connector, known as 8P8C, is a modular connector for telecommunications cables. It is also informally known as RJ45.
Ethernet cables have RJ45 connectors on both ends. Therefore, Ethernet cables are sometimes designated as RJ45 cables. These cables are commonly used to connect computers to Ethernet networks. The RJ45 connector is similar to the six-pin RJ11 connector, but is slightly wider. Since each connector has eight pins, an RJ45 Ethernet cable will have eight different colored wires. RJ45 cables can be routed in two different schemes, T-568 A or B, depending on the devices to be connected in the network. Crossover patch cords have a different routing scheme on each end to support computer-to-computer connections.
Der Unterschied zwischen optischem Anschluss und elektrischem Anschluss
In modern communication systems, fiber optic interfaces (optical ports) and electrical ports, as the two basic transmission media, each have distinctive technical characteristics and applicable scenarios.
In terms of transmission principle, the optical port conducts signals through optical pulses in glass fibers and is completely free from electromagnetic interference. Typical optical modules use 850nm, 1310nm and 1550nm wavelengths. Among them, single-mode fiber with 1550nm wavelength can transmit up to 80km. And the electrical port relies on the transmission of electrical signals in copper cables. Although Cat6A cable can support 10Gbps rate, the effective distance of 100 meters and the problem of electromagnetic sensitivity are always hard. In high-frequency interference environments such as data centers, the advantages of optical ports are particularly obvious.
Physically realized, optical ports require precision optical components, including nanometer-precision ceramic inserts and laser diodes, with manufacturing tolerances controlled to within 0.1 microns. This precision construction brings higher costs, with a single SFP+ optical module typically costing 3-5 times more than an electrical port. The electrical port, on the other hand, adopts the mature RJ45 interface and PHY chip program, which has a significant cost advantage and is particularly suitable for cost-sensitive scenarios such as office networks.
In terms of protocol support, the optical port has exclusive access to high-speed protocols such as OTN and CPRI, making it the only choice for 5G pre-transmission and backbone networks. The electric port, on the other hand, is irreplaceable in the field of security monitoring and desktop access by virtue of features such as PoE power supply and Auto-MDIX. Notably, next-generation single-pair Ethernet (SPE) technology is breaking through the distance limitations of traditional electrical ports, while silicon photonics technology continues to reduce the cost of optical ports.
In modern communication systems, fiber optic interfaces and electrical ports, as two basic transmission media, each have distinctive technical characteristics and applicable scenarios. Understanding the core difference between optical port and electrical port is crucial to network design and equipment selection.