The colors that tell you what a fiber cable is: jacket colors by fiber type, connector colors, and the standard 12-fiber color order. Based on TIA-598 and common industry practice.
The outer jacket of a patch cord or cable usually tells you the fiber type at a glance.
| Fiber type | Core / cladding | Jacket color | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| OS1 / OS2 single-mode | 9/125 µm | Yellow | Long runs, between buildings, carrier hand-offs |
| OM1 multimode | 62.5/125 µm | Orange | Older installs, 1 Gbps |
| OM2 multimode | 50/125 µm | Orange | Older installs, 1 Gbps over longer runs |
| OM3 multimode | 50/125 µm, laser-optimized | Aqua | 10 Gbps in the building |
| OM4 multimode | 50/125 µm, laser-optimized | Aqua, or Erika violet (common in Europe) | 10 to 100 Gbps in the data center |
| OM5 wideband multimode | 50/125 µm | Lime green | Short-wave WDM, 40/100 Gbps |
The connector body (and the adapter it plugs into) shows the fiber mode and, for single-mode, the polish.
| Connector | Color | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single-mode UPC | Blue | Flat polish. The most common single-mode connector. |
| Single-mode APC | Green | 8° angled polish, lower back-reflection (PON, video). Never mate APC with UPC. |
| Multimode OM1 / OM2 | Beige (sometimes black for OM2) | |
| Multimode OM3 / OM4 | Aqua (OM4 sometimes heather violet) | |
| Multimode OM5 | Lime green |
Fibers in a tube, and tubes in a cable, follow the same order. Fibers 13 to 24 repeat the same twelve colors with a black stripe or dash, except fiber 20 (black), which gets a yellow one.
Colors are conventions, not guarantees: some vendors and older installs differ, and patch cords get swapped. Check the cable's printed legend and test before you trust a color.
In NetworkSketch, every link has a media type, and the line takes its color: yellow for single-mode, orange for OM1/OM2, aqua for OM3/OM4, lime for OM5. The media type key builds itself from the cables you used.