Nowadays, video surveillance is an indispensable infrastructure in all walks of life. The construction of network video surveillance systems makes it easier to monitor public places and obtain information. However, with the popularization of high-definition and intelligent applications of video surveillance cameras, the requirements for video transmission signal quality, stream bandwidth and transmission distance have been improved, and the existing copper cabling systems are difficult to match. This article will discuss a new wiring scheme that uses optical fiber wiring and optical transceivers, which can be used in closed-circuit television monitoring systems (CCTV) and IP network video monitoring systems.

Video surveillance system overview

Nowadays, video surveillance networks are becoming more and more popular, and there are many solutions to build video surveillance systems. Among them, CCTV monitoring and IP camera monitoring are the most common solutions.

Closed-circuit television monitoring system (CCTV)
In a typical closed-circuit television surveillance system, a fixed analog camera (CCTV) is connected to a storage device (such as a cassette video recorder VCR or a digital hard disk video recorder DVR) through a coaxial cable. If the camera is a PTZ camera (supports horizontal rotation, tilt and zoom), an additional PTZ controller needs to be added.

IP network video surveillance system
In a typical IP network video surveillance network, IP cameras are connected to the local area network through unshielded twisted-pair cables (ie, Category 5, Category 5, and other network jumpers) and switches.  Different from the above-mentioned analog cameras, IP cameras mainly send and receive IP datagrams through the network without sending them to storage devices. At the same time, the video captured by the IP cameras is recorded on any PC or server in the network.The biggest feature of the IP network video surveillance network is that each IP camera has its own independent IP address, and can quickly find itself based on the IP address in the entire video network. At the same time, since the IP addresses of IP cameras are addressable, they can be accessed from all over the world. 

The necessity of optical fiber transceiver in CCTV/IP network video surveillance system

Both of the above-mentioned video surveillance systems can be used in commercial or residential network environments. Among them, the fixed analog cameras used in CCTV generally use coaxial cables or unshielded twisted pair cables (above category three network cables) for connection, and IP cameras generally use unshielded twisted pair cables (above category five network cables) for connection. Because these two schemes use copper cabling, they are inferior to fiber cabling in terms of transmission distance and network bandwidth. However, it is not easy to replace the current copper cabling with optical fiber cabling, and there are the following challenges:

*Copper cables are generally fixed on the wall. If optical fibers are used, optical cables need to be laid underground. However, this is impossible for general users. Professionals are required to complete the laying, and the wiring cost is not low;
*In addition, traditional camera equipment is not equipped with fiber ports.

In view of this, the optical fiber wiring method that uses fiber optic transceivers and analog cameras/IP cameras has attracted the attention of network administrators. Among them, the optical fiber transceiver converts the original electrical signal into an optical signal to realize the connection of the copper cable and the optical fiber. Has the following advantages:

*There is no need to move or change the previous copper cable wiring, just realize photoelectric conversion through different interfaces on the optical fiber transceiver, and connect the copper cable and optical fiber, which can effectively save time and energy;
*It provides a bridge between copper medium and optical fiber medium, which means that the equipment can be used as a bridge between copper cable and optical fiber infrastructure.

In general, fiber optic transceivers provide a cost-effective way to extend the transmission distance of the existing network, the service life of non-fiber equipment, and the transmission distance between two network devices.