Costs vs. Weight: Benefits and Tradeoff

Costs vs. Weight: Benefits and Tradeoffs

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1. Internal and external cables are required to facilitate communications between enclosures.
To compare the overall costs of providing 12 Ethernet connections from the boards in a hypothetical Box 1 to those in Box 2 (Fig. 1)—including cabling and all connectors—via optical fiber versus Quadrax, a few basic assumptions must first be made.

First, for shorter cables, little cost difference exists between optical fiber and Quadrax; however, fiber becomes more expensive for longer runs. Regarding the connectors, while fiber connectors are more expensive than Quadrax, they also support a higher density. In addition, Quadrax connectors must provide strain relief due to the greater weight of the cables. Consequently, the within-box costs are roughly the same; however, the costs between boxes run up to 35% higher for optical fiber.
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When considering the weight savings in the same configuration, though, the reasons to opt for this increased cost become obvious, particularly in airborne and other weight-sensitive applications. While connector weights are roughly the same, the optical cable itself is significantly lighter than

Quadrax. Such weight economy also has the added benefit of making optical fiber much less prone to the chafing that arises due to vibration, which can significantly impact Quadrax.