What is the difference between multimode and singlemode?
Almost all multimode fiber is 50/125m or 62.5/125m in size and typically has a bandwidth (the fiber’s information carrying capacity) of from 200MHz to 2GHz. Multimode modems usually operate up to about 5km on a multimode fiber. Singlemode fiber is 9-10/125m and has practically unlimited bandwidth and lower loss than multimode. Singlemode modems are usually used for longer distances, sometimes to as much as 150 to 200km. Singlemode fiber is cheaper to buy, but singlemode equipment is more expensive than the multimode equivalent. Singlemode equipment will often operate on multimode fiber as well as singlemode, whereas multimode equipment operates only on multimode fiber.
