Hi All
Hoping to find someone knowledgeable on the forum on networking.
In short; I’m renovating a house at the moment which includes a re-wire, sparkies are putting CAT6 in a number of rooms and at TV points. All good so far.
Where I’m scratching my head is I’ve got a plan to build a large workshop/office in the future. The site is a good 150m from the house, the plan is to lay services to the locations whilst other groundwork’s are being completed. Water, power and data. First two, relatively simple. Last one is where I’m trying to decide what to do. My thought is to lay a couple of fibre connections (one for redundancy, backup as I don’t want to dig another trench if there is an issue!). I’ve been Googling and YouTubing and I think I’m getting a little lost. There are so many connection and fibre types!
Can anyone give me some general advice? Or am I barking up the wrong lamppost?
TIA,
A few years ago I put in a school network of Cisco SG300 series switches that proved to be incredibly reliable and easy to manage. They had two slots on the front for additional optical modules. I only used copper but you could pick your switches first and see what optical modules you can plug into them. I used to use comms express for the equipment. Other vendors are available but I never had a single problem with them.
Multimode (MM) fibre is suitable for your application. OM3 will provide the bandwidth and range you need.
Almost all fibre networking kit these days uses SFPs (Small Form-factor Pluggable transceiver), which are essentially dongles that let you chose from various connector types.
Quick example setup for you:
One of these switches at each end: https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/produ...0-10sfp-k9-uk/
One of these SFPs in each switch: https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/produ...3p-glc-sx-mm=/
150m pre-terminated armoured OM3 4 core multimode fibre cable, with LC connectors at both ends: https://www.cablemonkey.co.uk/custom...bre-cable.html
All that is going to come in north of £900.
Rather than direct burial, I'd run plastic duct in the ground (with a draw rope in), so that additional / replacement cable can be run in in the future.
Important note: don't bend the fibre!
Last edited by hogthrob; 9th April 2021 at 08:48.
I haven’t worked with fibre closely for about 10 years but I don’t think much has changed, the most important thing is never ever look down fibre or into a sfp it’s a great way to damage your vision.
You haven’t given much to go on.
New or existing property
Do you have existing network hardware to reuse
What kind of use will the remote point get
First thing I’d say is install some kind of tubeing/pipe with a couple of draw lines just in case something else needs to be added in the future the cost is much cheaper than having to dig again.
Second thing is do you have line of sight between buildings, if so have you considered a point to point wireless link it might be easier and more cost effective if you are not already digging a trench for other services and it matches you bandwidth/speed needs.
This gives a overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzoHDCUlwTs
Speed 1g or 10g?
Length remember to account for the run to where the networking kit is located, not just to the end of the trench.
Fiber comes in two types single or multi mode, at your distance it makes no difference but price may come into it, multi mode was cheaper and generally used for the kind of distance you are on about.
Each cable is a pair (transmit - tx and receive - rx) you want to buy pre terminated cables so you have decide on what termination you need, I think most home type kit will use lc, sc is not used much anymore. You’ll need to see what lengths are available off the shelf.
Switches and whatnot,
So you need to plug your fibre into something, if it’s existing kit then look for media converters which take the fibre and convert it into copper Ethernet, they will either have built in optical module to plug into or a sfp port you buy one that matches your fibre type, termination type, speed. If it’s one that has an sfp port then you match the sfp to the your fibre type, termination type, speed.
If you are buying a pair of switches then you need to make sure they have sfp or sfp+ ports depending on the speed you need.
Sfp or sfp+?
Speed sfp’s go to 1g if you need 10g you need sfp+, if you want 10g you need to ensure the switch’s or media converter have sfp+ ports, visually they look the same so you need to check the specs.
In short,
1 or 10g, multi mode fibre with lc termination in the length of your choice installed in a duct.
if it’s just 1g connectivity you need and your reusing some existing network hardware then media converters are fine.
If you are starting from scratch and want 10g and wireless throughout the property and grounds etc then a Ubiquiti system is more the kind of install you use.
Solwisesteve from this parish has a business that sells comms equipment, I know he could help if you go point to point radio but not if he is active in the fibre space but it might be worth checking
hth.
Edit:
An example of a point to point line of sight wifi link that will give ~400mb/s for around £150
https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/produ...-full-kit-pnp/
Last edited by Captain Morgan; 9th April 2021 at 15:14. Reason: Spellink
I cant help with the fibre question, but could you not just run the cables in a duct with a decent draw-rope to allow replacement when the tech moves on?
No need to dig another trench then.
(Sorry if I have misunderstood).
This is the sort of duct you need:
https://www.mjabbottdirect.co.uk/Pro...deOrder&b=true
As an alternative to the full switch at each end solution you could consider a pair of Ethernet fibre media converters. These are small devices that you connect a network cable to & it converts the signal & outputs it on a fibre connector. You then use a long fibre cable to connect the two boxes together.
Amazon have a few:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=media+c..._ts-doa-p_3_15
These are reasonably priced & come with the plug in multimode SFPs:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiber-com-E.../dp/B07CTNHHRM
https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-co.../dp/B011KH1TTC
You still need a suitable cable - multimode OM1 would probably do but OM3 would be better with LC connectors (usually) on each end. In general the smallest you can get is 4 core (you need 2 core at least). You don't really need armoured unless you're going to just bury directly in the ground but it's still fairly pricey for a 150m run of pre-terminated cable. You should really use a small junction box at each end so you're not plugging the long cable straight into the media converters as it's much better to risk damaging a cheap patchcord than the expensive long cable.
Any way you look at it it's going to be a £500-750 job by the time you have all the elements.
Thanks for all the info guys.
The trench is being dug for water and power. I’ll definitely add a twin wall duct, that makes sense.
As for usage; it will be general office type functions so nothing out of the ordinary. It would though be good to have CCTV at some point which I was thinking could be network cameras.
I don’t have any existing network kit so will be doing this from scratch.
Just picking up on this point. Does that mean fibre is not very flexible/fragile?Originally Posted by hogthrob
It’s not massively fragile but it does have a certain bend radius above which it can cause damage, I’m sure there are some youtube vid that show you the kind of issues, hence the suggestion to terminate the fibre to a patch panel and use drop leads to make the final device connections.
Going by memory the bend radius is around a coke can or bean can radius.
Ruckus do an excellent point to point. Expensive but it works.
Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote