Moving a core cabinet

[AdamzB]

I currently have a core cabinet with 4 8 core fibres going to it, core switches etc. I have just found out this morning that the room it is currently situated in is changing use and this large cab is in the way and need to be moved!

 

Now running new fibre is just not going to be feasible, so my plan is to change the cab (wall mounted 21u) to something a lot smaller and then run a couple of 16 core fibres to the new location and then just patch the fibres together .

 

Would this work? What would you do?

[Achandler]

This would certainly work and I have done it to extend jsut 1 fibre.

 

Personally I would get a firm in to actually join the fibre together to avoid having an extra join in the middle of the cable, mainly because it is the core fibres and I have seen ends fall off when moved, because they were of the glued variety and were so old the glue had given up. They would also test the cable for you, so you know they are all fine. Probably a days work, so would be probably £250+ if you get a reputable company with a proper fibre splicer.

[xenonive]

I've had to do the same this summer we ended up running set fibres from new location to old location with patch panel then just used patch leads to connect old and new location and moved all the switches to new location. Ended up with 9U cab at old location and took the existing one at new location.

[plexer]

Fusion splice

 

But either way would work fine.

 

Ben

[localzuk]

We did something similar about 7 years ago. We created a dedicated server room, and moved our 42u cab into it. As we still had network demands in the old location, a 9U wall mount cab was installed, populated with the edge switches needed and the fibres were then extended via ST-ST patches and new fibre runs. We could've spliced them but it didn't seem worth it. Since then, we'd slowly been updating the old fibre anyway (via other refurbs, and a new build), from OM1 to OM3 or OM4 (depending on when we did it), so we're gradually retiring the extensions.

[cpjitservices]

Id get a firm in to resplice - and join the cable... I have done fiber splicing using a Fujikura splicer, Its not for the faint-hearted and the price for the kit IS NOT cheap especially for a one off job.

[AdamzB]

Thanks for the confirmation guys. So splicing would be the best option, but if monies are tight an additional patch panel and patch cables will suffice, perfect.

[techniquev3]

Patch panel would be fine, you can hire a splicer but that takes some skill and knowledge. I think it's around £250-300 a day for a fibre engineer to do it.