The copper conductors for power within a hybrid cables also range in number and type depending on how many devices are being connected and the power requirements. For example, some hybrid cables may contain as many as 12 copper conductors to connect to remote power supply units or just two conductors to connect to a single device.
The copper conductors also typically range from 12 to 20 AWG, which directly impacts how much power they can deliver over certain lengths, with larger conductors capable of carrying more power over greater distances. For example, Corning’s composite fiber-copper cables with 12 AWG conductors can deliver up to 75W of power up to 457m (1.500 ft.), while 20 AWG conductors can only carry 75W of power up to about 71m (235 ft.). The size of the conductors is therefore a critical factor when selecting a hybrid copper-fiber cable.
It’s important to note that PoE is only supported by balanced twisted-pair copper cabling (e.g., Category 6, Category 6A, etc.) as it is an Ethernet-based protocol per IEEE 802,3 standards that delivers DC power using common mode voltage on two or four pairs. From an industry standards perspective, it is also only supported to 100m distances, but as mentioned in our Breaking the 100-Meter Barrier blog, some vendors have claimed it can be supported to greater lengths using extended-reach cable and other means.
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