Color-coding is an integral part of our industry, as it helps to identify individual fibers, cable, and connectors. A fiber cable’s jacket color is typically defined by the fiber type, and can differ based on mode and performance level. For example, laser-optimized multimode OM3/OM4 is aqua, making it easy to differentiate from singlemode (yellow) or OM1/OM2 (Orange). Both multimode and single-mode cables designed for outdoor use will typically have a black jacket to protect the cable from damage due to solar exposure and UV light.

New Violet OM4+
With the increasing demand for 40GbE and 100GbE, more data centers are choosing OM4+ performance for better bandwidth and link distances. Leviton’s new OM4+ Premium Violet System offers the best chance to future-proof data center cabling infrastructure, with the ability to transmit 40/100GbE signals out to an unprecedented 300 meters when using standard 40GBASE-SR4 or 100GBASE-SR10 transceivers. We have color-coded our OM4+ system components violet, in order to distinguish OM4+ from OM4 and OM3, or other legacy installations. 

The violet color helps to avoid confusion and channel loss that can occur when OM3 and/or OM4 fiber cabling is used in the same data center as OM4+ fiber cabling. The OM4+ system components — including violet trunk cables, harnesses, patch cords, MTP® cassettes and adapter plates — create the first violet end-to-end solution in the industry.

You can learn more about the new system at Leviton.com/OM4plus.