Fibre Optic Standards Explained:
Several IEEE standards have been established for Ethernet over fibre optic media. 10BASE-FL, one of the standards defined by the IEEE, allows Ethernet to operate at 10 Mbps over fibre optic cable. 100BASE-FX and 100BASE-SX both allow Ethernet speeds of 100 Mbps. 100BASE-FX operates at higher wavelengths than 100BASE-SX and can also be used with single-mode fibre cable.100BASE-SX operates at a wavelength of 850 nm and can only be used with multimode cable. The newest standards-1000BASE-SX and 1000BASE-LX -define speeds of 1 Gigabit and distances up to 5 kilometres. Actual distances that can be achieved with Media Converters can be much higher.
| Standards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Multimode | Single-Mode |
| 10BASE-FL | 850 nm/2 km | 1310/1550 nm up to 100 km* |
| 100BASE-FX | 1310 nm/fdx 2 km | 1310/1550 nm up to 100 km* |
| 100BASE-SX | 850 nm/300 m | n/a |
| 1000BASE-SX (62.5 µm) | 850 nm/220 m | n/a |
| 1000BASE-SX (50 µm) | 850 nm/550 m | n/a |
| 1000BASE-LX | 1310 nm/550 m | 1310 nm/5 km 1310 nm up to 30 km* 1550 nm up to 70 km* |
| * Not part of the relevant IEEE standard | ||