Temporary Network Links

[Jollity]

The schools has rudely decided to build a new building over one of my cable runs, that goes from the core switch to an IT suite of 25 and classrooms with about 60 ipads. Once the building is built there will be a new fibre cable run underneath, but for about a year I need to be able to keep that part of the network connected with a temporary link - about 70m. There is no easy route to bury a temporary cable, but one could be strung along the side of some buildings and along a wire without getting in the way or crossing anywhere people are likely to hit it.

 

Options I can think of:

• Wireless backhaul - Ubiquiti airfibre perhaps
  
• aerial copper cable with lightning surge protectors at both ends
  
• aerial fibre cable
  

 

I am leaning towards just stringing up a copper cable, but I know that copper between buildings is frowned at for electrical reasons.

 

Anyone had a similar problem?

[nathan3388]

We have two copper Ariel cables and they are fine. Don’t get hit by traffic or people . If they are frowned upon why are bt cables from the post to house [emoji13] no different. I would just go copper as it is cheaper and temporary anyway [emoji13]

[XiJ]

My first thought was air fibre type of thing. Point to point wireless

[Jollity]

My first thought was air fibre type of thing. Point to point wireless

Have you had experience with these? If so, any issues compared to cables?

[forkies]

Have you had experience with these? If so, any issues compared to cables?

 

I use Ubiquiti links for a small network at the back of our field. 300m line of sight and I installed myself. Get 95% signal strength and that gives me good speeds. The air fibre model I haven’t used but I would expect the same sort of experience, which is very very good!

[XiJ]

Have you had experience with these? If so, any issues compared to cables?

 

The company I work for introduced me to them. We put one in at a school where the fibre run was out of their budget. It’s worked flawlessly to link 2 buildings at a reasonable speed. Been over 2 years through wind and rain.

 

I just put one in at a Community centre place yesterday. Installation was very straight forward. Line of sight - these were nanobeams and although they operate up to 300mbps the nics in them are only 10/100 links! You’d need the AC2 version for faster link.

 

Our sister company set up an entire wireless isp where the MD lives - because only ADSL was available. So I can say they work great to numerous users. (we do have some different models from the ‘trunks’ now).

 

In summary, perfectly adequate replacement for a cable when in a smaller budget or as a temporary measure.

[PotNoodleTech]

You'd be REALLY, REALLY surprised at how cheap you can have a custom distance pre-terminated fibre link made up for. My advice would be to measure up the distance and give Kim Astley from Bownet a shout (https://bownetcms.co.uk/) as they can literally send you exactly what you need, I need a 63.6metre length of 10GB fibre pre terminated with XXX connectors. "Sir Yes Sir" is Kim's answer and also very helpful about cable types and termination options.

[Meldrew]

We have two copper Ariel cables and they are fine. Don’t get hit by traffic or people . If they are frowned upon why are bt cables from the post to house [emoji13] no different. I would just go copper as it is cheaper and temporary anyway [emoji13]

 

BT master sockets have an anti-surge protector built in, but even then, in the days of dial-up, it was a fairly common event for a lightning strike to blow up your modem. With copper outside you'd be risking the same. I would advise fibre if you can, but if you decide copper, make sure you have a low value switch either end just in case it gets fried.

 

Meldrew

[3s-gtech]

Copper between buildings was always frowned upon due to differences in earth potential between them, meaning the possibility of a shock when touching the cable as current flows from the area of higher potential to lower. It's a limited chance, but generally I'd go fibre anyway as it's not that expensive now.

[Katy]

+1 for the pre-term fibre. I got 150m 4 core armoured fibre for about £350, only "problem" is you need to do an inch diameter hole wherever you pass through something as the tails are in a protective tube. Took us a day and a half to install ours but it was a fiddly route and permanent install rather than temporary (through a building then through ducts and into another building). I get mine from Comms Express.

[Jollity]

All very useful input. Pre-terminated fibre is not something I had given much thought to, so thank you for that suggestion. I will put some consideration into how the costs of pre-terminated fibre and wifi link compare in the case.

[nathan3388]

Thing is with fibre you have to by the fibre preterminated then you have the issues of getting sfp which can be pricey to with your switches, unless they are built in. 70m cable bet you talking 200 quid for the cable alone then 100 quid for two sfp maybe? Or two new switches

[Jollity]

then you have the issues of getting sfp which can be pricey to with your switches

It is a good point, but we would I think be okay on that because we have the SFP from the cable's current location that is being displaced by the building work. I think they will be compatible - need to check that though.

[AJWhite1970]

As others have said, pre-terminated custom length fibre is plan A

 

Plan B would be a pair of Unifi PowerBeam AC Gen2 dishes which should give you about a 500/600mb connection between the two buildings, can be purchased for about £100 each, the management software is free.

 

https://www.ubnt.com/airmax/powerbeam-ac-gen2/

Edited February 2, 2018 by AJWhite1970

[dapaulio]

We had an exact same scenario.

Would the new build follow roughly the same route as the temp location. Is it feasible to lay a temp/permanent fibre. Meaning laying for example 2 x 8 core fibre, 1 to your computer suite and the other rolled up in a secure place where the uplink would split off to your new build. It can be then fed in when the building is ready and terminated at a later date? Works out far cheaper in our case

[Jollity]

Would the new build follow roughly the same route as the temp location. Is it feasible to lay a temp/permanent fibre.

This is a good idea but would not work in our case. The temporary route is completely different from the final one - it involves branching off a separate building, which is fed by its own fibre. We have discussed just setting up a permanent route that way, but it would involve an excessive amount of digging.