synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Hi, Does anyone around the Northants area perchance have a couple of 10GBe switches or something we could borrow for a week or so? We'd like to do a quick fibre test between our sites to see what it's capable of for futureproofing reasons. Unlikely of course but would do us a huge favour!
Gaz Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Failing that you could maybe ask a company if you could trial some. 1
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 You need OM3 or better for 10Gbps over fibre - typically blue/green in colour. You might be able to over OM2, but at comparatively short distances.
synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 Distance is probably circa 800m. We have no real way of finding out what it is that's down there, only one manhole is easily accessible and don't particularly want to go nosing in the junction box with the fear of disrupting things. What comes up to the patch panel is unmarked, annoyingly! It's only 6 years old so hoping it's the better stuff
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Maybe the original invoice will detail what type of fibre it is? I agree, being 6 years old it could be either.
synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 Unfortunately the paperwork tells us nothing. It's all from that H20 Networks company that ended up in a serious fraud thing. All it says is the provision of a single pair of cores over the Dark Fibre network (although that is slightly misleading as that, from a little research means it would use other cables, this was specifically laid for us and only us). Nothing vaguely useful whatsoever!
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Well being 800m you'd definitely need OM3 fibre. OM2 works up to 80m max. A better way would be to contact a local cabling company who can properly test it for you, or alternatively, if you definitely need 10Gbps then buy the required equipment on the provision that you may/may not need new OM3 or even OM4 laying. Obtaining a quote beforehand then letting management know maybe the way to go.
synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 Found it! After some more digging (this time not literally) found the cable spec to be "33-09CLT12" - in this case 12 cores of OS1/OS2 - (single mode) - cable length is funnily enough about 1.5km assuming they started a new reel at the other end. Either is capable of supporting 10GBe apparently but would still like to test. Here's hoping
localzuk Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 OS1/OS2 are designed for long distances, so yeah, that should be fine. The thing that'll hit you is cost of doing so. Singlemode SFP+ modules are considerably more expensive than the usual multimode ones most of us use. Example the HP J9151A, which costs about £800. 1
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Ahh there's me 'presuming' you were using multi-mode, to which limits apply, but if it is single mode, then logically it should work up to 10km, but I lose track what kind of 10GbE modules you'd need as there are so many now. According to HP it's a 10GbE LR module, which have a huge price! 1
synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 Aye cheers, didn't actually think about the modules themselves! We have LR modules obviously already for the gig link, no doubt they'd need replacing too. Joys! Ah well, we'll leave the testing and just throw it all for SLT's consideration should they decide to push things ahead. Thanks for all the input folks
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Just a thought - if you have 12 cores, can't you team multiple Gigabit connections? A bit more complicated than a single 10GbE link, but a lot cheaper! Gigabit modules are a fraction of the price too.
localzuk Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 I'd not say its cheaper to be honest. A 10Gb LR SFP+ module is about £800. 10x1GB SFP modules would be about £800 too. But you'd need a switch with 10xSFP ports at each end for teaming, or just 1 SFP+ port for 10GbE.
synaesthesia Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 That was my original hope and plan. Unfortunately the fibre is leased and we dread to think of the cost of connecting the other cores. We had a friend check the other cores at each end to find only one pair was connected (which was in the paperwork), so it's likely that the other cores are not joined at each of the 4 junction boxes between the sites. Certainly would be a favourable option as it also gives us a little failover (but not much). We have a backup radio link which we could replace with Ubiquiti's AirFiber but won't help too much in the long run.
Michael Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 I'd not say its cheaper to be honest. A 10Gb LR SFP+ module is about £800. 10x1GB SFP modules would be about £800 too. But you'd need a switch with 10xSFP ports at each end for teaming, or just 1 SFP+ port for 10GbE. I agree, but it doesn't necessarily mean 10 x 1Gb links are needed - only 2, 3 or 4 maybe. I'll be honest, I couldn't be bothered to configure/test/setup 10 x 1Gb teamed links either, 1 x 10Gb is much more simple, but then again some redundancy is good. It's hard to weigh up.
xenonive Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 Also to point out 12 cores is only 6 connections as you need a core to send on and a core to receive back.
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