Cab to Cab Fibre connection

[password1234]

Hi

 

Quick question not sure if someone can be able to advise

trying to figure out how best to design this

 

So we have a small school they have 2 cabs at the moment

 

1) Room 1 - one Cab just have routers and main line goes through here and thats all nothing else

 

2) Room 2 - across the other side of the corridor, has one cab in there and currently a bunch of switches

 

Room 1 and room 2 is currently connected via copper (Cat5 link back)

 

School wants to get Fibre install between the 2 cabinets and get rid of the cat 5 link

 

For room 2 we are going to get an Aruba 2930m with SFP+ capability, already have the switch and the SFP+ Module and also planning to get a fibre panel installed in room 2 so the fibre connection as this end would be the end of the fibre cable pluged into the SFP+ port on the Switch

 

however in room one where would the other end be plugged into, will i need some sort of converter or something? There is no plans to put any switches in room 1 and the plan is to install a fibre panel too so how would the connection start in room one?

 

probably something basic im missing!

 

see attached image

 

 

[FN-GM]

I assume the router doesn't have an SFP port or wouldn't be asking? If not you can use a media converter.

 

What fibre are you using by the way? I would recommend Single Modle fiber these days.

[password1234]

I assume the router doesn't have an SFP port or wouldn't be asking? If not you can use a media converter.

 

What fibre are you using by the way? I would recommend Single Modle fiber these days.

 

Yeh correct Router does not have an SFP+ Port, i could probably check with RM/SWGFL the schools ISP if they are willing to provide a router with SFP+ Capabilities, not too sure about that though whether they would!

 

 

Yup going to probably opt for Single Mode

[FN-GM]

I would go for a router with an SFP port if you can. We did this at our place for this reason. It makes life much easier. Media converters seem to be a thing of the past so what is left seems to be the cheap and nasty brands.

[Norphy]

I would recommend Single Modle fiber these days.

 

Out of curiosity, why? Unless you’ve got a run more than 300m, OM4 multi mode fibre is good enough for most internal applications

[EssentialRug]

Would also advise against media converters. Inherited a couple at a few of our sites and had no end of trouble with them.

[FN-GM]

Out of curiosity, why? Unless you’ve got a run more than 300m, OM4 multi mode fibre is good enough for most internal applications

 

Multi mode fibre has speed and distance restrictions. Generally the longer the distance the less the speed can be. It might not be important now but if you upgrade later it might be an issue. That OM4 cable isn’t rated for 25Gb at 300m. The max is 100m. Single mode fibre doesn’t have this issue.

 

Also with multi mode fibre you must use 2 strands of fibre. With single mode you can use both 2 strands (uni directional) and using BiDi (bi directional) you can use a single strand. Effectively doubling your capacity of the physical cable.

 

Single mode cable is considerably cheaper than multi mode as well. This was wasn’t always the case though. The rise in fibre in the carrier world has reduced the manufacturing cost (you can look at FS.com for pricing. It was around half the price last time I checked). SFP prices are about the same up-to 10Gb. However, above that at the moment Single Mode is a bit more expensive at the moment. Maybe Is will balance out later.

 

Single Mode can be used to patch through carrier connections if desired.

 

Single Mode works out cheaper, more future proof and more capable. So to me it’s a no brainer.

 

The reason people used multi mode for internal use is because it was cheaper. But those days are now gone.

Edited January 14, 2022 by FN-GM

[howartp]

Room 1 and room 2 is currently connected via copper (Cat5 link back).

 

School wants to get Fibre install between the 2 cabinets and get rid of the cat 5 link

Out of interest, why?

 

Unless you're going higher than a 1Gb link, why bother?

[Oaktech]

I'd be going for an upgraded router with SFP ports Something in the Mikrotik CCR range would be my choice.

 

You could look at the black box media convertors, they're the only one's I've never had problems with, but for the price and number you're going to need, I'd just go for the router upgrade

[Davit2005]

Single mode SFPs are quite expensive, I've seen Aruba SM SFP+s 3 times the cost of multimode and if you want Aruba and not compatibles you are going to pay for them, mind you if you have Aruba 2930M you've spent quite a bit on the switch to start with anyway. We mostly run MM for internal cab to cab only using SM for building to building in nearly all cases. Edited January 14, 2022 by Davit2005

[Diello]

My first question would be why do the school want to switch to the fibre for two cabs across a corridor, when all that link is doing is facilitating the Internet connection by the looks of it. You say it's a small school, so the copper link should be more than sufficient I'd have thought.

 

If they must go that way, certainly avoid converters as has been said, a new router is your best option. An alternative (albeit still adding another hop), is to buy a cheap 8-port switch with SFP capability, and effectively use that as a glorified converter - it would also give you a bit of flexibility if you did want to run anything else into Room 1 - e.g. a Aruba 1930 Switch (JL680A)

[kevin_lane]

I agree with the comment above

 

If your distance is only a few meters putting in fibre is a waste of time and expense

[FN-GM]

I think it is feasible to have internet / WAN connections quicker than 1GB in 2022.

[3s-gtech]

We had two cabs joined with cat5e across a corridor connected at 5Gb/s with switches that supported it, so there is some room to upgrade there. In the end I just had fibre put in as it allowed me to patch that room straight back to the server room instead.

[password1234]

My first question would be why do the school want to switch to the fibre for two cabs across a corridor, when all that link is doing is facilitating the Internet connection by the looks of it. You say it's a small school, so the copper link should be more than sufficient I'd have thought.

 

If they must go that way, certainly avoid converters as has been said, a new router is your best option. An alternative (albeit still adding another hop), is to buy a cheap 8-port switch with SFP capability, and effectively use that as a glorified converter - it would also give you a bit of flexibility if you did want to run anything else into Room 1 - e.g. a Aruba 1930 Switch (JL680A)

 

I agree with the comment above

 

If your distance is only a few meters putting in fibre is a waste of time and expense

 

Thanks guys for the comments and feedback

 

Yup distance is probably around 5/10 meters away not farm and yes its on facilitating an internet connection

 

School is primary a cloud based school for more or less everything, no server on site just a small box feeding DHCP and everything else filesharing etc is all done through office365 and managed by intune and a couple of admin machines (which is completely separate from the main curriculum)

 

The school is part of the DFE Connect to Classroom project so they got funding and wanted to go all our basically, they are with RM and i have a feeling their router is only a 100mb (Just double checking this) they were one of the schools many years ago that qualified for the FTTN fibre to school project

[snagrat]

If it’s a DfE CtC school then get the supplier to put the fibre in and they can just build it into their costs.

[chazzy2501]

if the distance is so short you could use a CAT6 / 6a or 7 cable they'll all handle 10Gig at that distance. you could even just buy a long fibre patch cable.

 

a cat6 patch panel is quite a normal purchase these days. spf+ 10g-t cost around £50 instead of £15 for a MM 10G.

 

fiber is way more expensive for such a short run (when considering the patch panel)