How to distinguish between MTP and MPO fiber patch cords?

MTP and MPO optical fiber jumpers are insensitive to bending, carefully polished and low loss which is very suitable for high-density cabling system and cable management cabling that need to save space. Both can be directly interconnected with the cabling system based on MPO optical fiber jumper, but MTP and MPO optical fiber jumper differ in connector type, pin clamp, floating ferrule, guide pin, removable housing and performance.

Connector type

MPO (multi fiber push in) connector is a connector with at least 8 optical fibers. It aims to provide multiple optical fibers in one connector. It complies with IEC 61754-7 standard and American TIA-604-5 standard. It is very suitable for the connection of high bandwidth and high-density cabling system.

MTP (multi fiber pull-out) connector is manufactured by USCONEC company and is an improved version of MPO connector. Therefore, MTP connector can be fully compatible with general MPO connector and can be directly interconnected with the wiring system based on MPO fiber jumper. However, compared with the general MPO optical fiber jumper connector, the connector of MTP optical fiber jumper can improve the optical and mechanical properties.

Pin Clamp

The connector of MTP optical fiber jumper is usually equipped with metal pin clamp, which can better fasten the pin to minimize accidental breakage during use, while MPO optical fiber jumper connector is equipped with plastic pin clamp, which may cause pin breakage during use.

Pic 1：MTP/MPO connectors pin clamp comparison

Floating ferrule

The MTP connector has floating ferrule, which can improve mechanical properties. In other words, the floating ferrule of MTP connector can float internally to maintain a stable connection under load. However, MPO connectors do not have floating ferrules.

Guide pin

Unlike single core fiber connectors, the adapter of multi-core fiber connectors is only used for coarse alignment. Therefore, when two MT ferrules are used together, the guide pin is very important for accurate alignment. The guide pins used in MTP and MPO connectors are also different. MTP connectors are tightly fixed stainless steel circular guide pins to reduce debris on the end faces of guide holes and ferrules. MPO connector adopts cylindrical guide pin, which may produce debris when in use.

Pic. 2：MTP/MPO Connectors guide pin comparison

MTP have movable housing

The MTP connector is equipped with a removable shell, so that the user can re process and polish the MT sealing gasket, easily conduct performance test, and easily change its polarity even on site after assembly. MTP Pro optical fiber jumper can quickly and effectively configure cables and change polarity on site, and also ensure the performance of products.

Pic. 3：MTP patch cord removable shell

Technical performance

MPO fiber patch cord connector has been recognized as an international standard for optical fiber wiring, which is suitable for 40G / 100G data center wiring structure. However, using MPO fiber jumper connector may cause some problems, such as return loss, packet loss, etc. MTP fiber optic connector is a high-performance MPO connector, which aims to ensure the polarity of optical fiber jumper and help reduce the insertion loss and return loss when transmitting data in high-density cabling system.

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