Many of our device connectors are made over copper cables. In this video, you’ll learn about RJ11, RJ45, USB, Lightning, and other copper connector types.
If you’re working in a large computing environment or you’re working in a data center, you probably have some connections using fiber optics. In this video, we’ll look at some of the connectors that are used on these fiber links.
One of the challenges with any type of network connection is that there’s only so much real estate on a switch. So if you have a smaller connector, you can fit more interfaces on the same amount of real estate.
One of these smaller types of fiber connectors is an LC connector, or local connector. An LC connector is a single interface that has inside of it two separate fiber connections. Usually, one of these is for transmit and the other one is for receive. These can also be used as separate strands of connections. So it just depends on the type of connection you’re using and how many interfaces might be available on that switch.
Another popular fiber connector is the ST connector. We sometimes refer to this as a straight tip connector. That name, straight tip, comes from the end of the connector, where we have this long ferrule that’s sticking out. And you can see, it plugs in and locks into the connection with a quarter turn using a bayonet connection.
And another popular fiber connector is the SC connector. This commonly refers to subscriber connector, but some people refer to it as a square connector because the ends of this connection type have this square quality about them. This is another connector type that’s often combined together in a single connector, but you can also break those apart and use them as separate runs as well.