Panduit FS2EPKELENEM010 Opti-Core OM4+ E-Key Fiber Patch Cord
The Panduit FS2EPKELENEM010 is a 10-meter duplex fiber patch cord engineered for high-bandwidth 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet backbones in enterprise data centers and government facilities requiring physical-layer security. Built on OM4+ Signature Core laser-optimized multimode fiber, this cord delivers ultra-low insertion loss and supports transmission distances up to 550 meters at 10 Gb/s. One end features Panduit's E-Key coded LC connector, which mates only with matching E-Key adapters—preventing unauthorized patch changes and accidental cross-connections in secure telecom rooms where change control matters.
Key Features
- OM4+ Signature Core fiber—tighter modal bandwidth tolerance than standard OM4 for consistent 40/100GbE performance across the entire 850nm window
- E-Key physical security on one end—orange-coded duplex LC connector that mechanically rejects non-matching adapters, adding a layer of accountability in high-security or multi-tenant environments
- Ultra-low insertion loss—factory-terminated and tested to ensure <0.15 dB typical loss per mating, preserving link budget for long campus runs or high-split-count architectures
- OFNP plenum rating—meets NEC Article 770 for air-handling spaces without conduit, simplifying ceiling and raised-floor installations in retrofit projects
- 1.6mm zipcord jacket—flexible yet durable construction for tight bend radii in high-density patch panels, reducing cable-management bulk compared to breakout-style cords
- 10-meter length—ideal for cross-rack connections in row-based data center layouts or for linking distribution switches to core aggregation without mid-span splice points
Panduit's OM4+ Signature Core technology tightens the effective modal bandwidth specification beyond the 4700 MHz·km floor defined in TIA-492AAAD, targeting a center value near 5500 MHz·km. This margin ensures that even at the high end of the 840–860nm VCSEL range, where cheaper OM4 fiber sometimes shows rolloff, your 100GBASE-SR4 links maintain sub-1E-12 bit-error rates across the full 100-meter reach. For integrators deploying Cisco Nexus or Arista spine-leaf fabrics, that translates to zero pre-deployment insertion-loss testing—every cord ships with a serialized test report documenting both ends at 850nm and 1300nm, so you can log the numbers in your as-built documentation and move on.
The E-Key system addresses a problem that rack-access logs and camera footage can't: ensuring that only authorized patch cords populate your critical links. In a colocation facility where multiple tenants share a meet-me room, or in a federal data center where TEMPEST-rated circuits must remain physically isolated, color-coding alone is too easy to defeat. Panduit's keyed connectors use a precision-molded tab-and-slot geometry—each of the eight key positions is a unique mechanical profile. An E-Key plug will bottom-seat in an E-Key adapter but will physically stop 0.5mm short in an A-Key or C-Key port, leaving the fiber cores unmated and the link down. Pair this with keyed adapters in your secure patch panel, and you've built a passive interlock that survives shift changes, contractor access, and late-night emergency adds without relying on procedural compliance. The FS2EPKELENEM010 is E-Key orange on one end and standard (non-keyed) orange LC on the other, so you can lock down the distribution-switch side while leaving the server or storage side open for day-2 moves.
The OFNP plenum jacket meets NFPA 262 flame and smoke requirements, which matters when your cable path crosses return-air plenums or when local AHJs interpret "accessible ceiling" strictly. Because the 1.6mm zipcord profile is half the diameter of a breakout-style 2-fiber cord, you can load 60–70 cords into a 2U horizontal cable manager without creating a spring-loaded bundle that pops out during adds. The smaller bend radius also reduces the risk of kink-induced macrobend loss when dressing cables through the back of a zero-U vertical manager in a 42U rack—Panduit's internal strain-relief boot allows a 10mm bend radius under no-load conditions, well inside the 15mm minimum that triggers attenuation spikes in OM4.
This cord is factory-terminated using Panduit's automated polishing process, which produces a sub-50nm surface finish on each ferrule endface. That level of precision keeps return loss below -35dB and insertion loss under 0.12dB typical, even after 500 mating cycles. Every production lot undergoes statistical process control sampling at 850nm and 1300nm, and the per-cord test data is serialized to the pull-tab—scan the QR code on the label and you get a PDF showing the actual IL and RL for both connectors, traceable to NIST-calibrated reference jumpers. When you're building a 40 Gb/s four-lane parallel link or a 100 Gb/s breakout, where four fiber pairs share a single forward-error-correction block, that 0.12dB worst-case IL per cord gives you 1.0dB of margin to spend on adapters, bulkhead losses, and bend-radius derating—enough to handle three patch points and a 90-degree bend without triggering receiver sensitivity warnings.
Panduit OM4+ fiber is backwards-compatible with 10GBASE-SR, 40GBASE-SR4, and 100GBASE-SR10 optics, so you can use the same cord inventory for both legacy 10 Gb/s access switches and new 100 Gb/s spine uplinks. The orange jacket is the universal data-center standard for OM3/OM4/OM4+ multimode, ensuring that your team won't mistake it for aqua OM3 or yellow singlemode during a late-night fiber hunt. RoHS-compliant construction meets environmental procurement requirements for federal and state projects. For deployments requiring keyed infrastructure throughout, Panduit offers matching E-Key LC adapters, panels, and cassettes—this cord integrates into that ecosystem without modification.
