100Mbps beyond 100m

[jasonwalsh]

Sorry if this is an often asked question but I am wondering if anyone out there has a suggestion to a problem I am facing.

I have a couple of network cable runs on an offshore drilling platform which exceed (slightly) the 100m limit.

This network performs fine and there has been no significant problems but my office feels, since we are out of spec, we need to remedy this problem.

Their suggestion is to cut the cable midway and introduce something (switch, hub etc) to shorten the cable run. This seems like a good idea to them but it's not entirely practical considering it's not 100% possible it will be shielded from the elements...and the elements in the North Atlantic are not friendly at the best of times.

Is there any device out there (and I confess I have no notion of how to look for it) that can "boost" at the source so that a length beyond 100m is ok? Running a cable other than Shielded/Mechanically Armoured CAT5 is not really an option.

Also, what might be our options regarding speed/length? I feel it's very important to maintain the 100Mbps speed because of the application this network is used for...but really I would be most appreciative of any suggestions offered!

Thanks very much in advance,
Jason Walsh

 

[vipergg]

Well if you have the money you could get a Cisco switch that has LRE ports on it . This is long range ethernet which it uses basically DSL and allows runs of like 1600 ft . You do need a piece gear on the client end to decode it but this would easily reach your devices without having to splice anything in the middle , I believe it is a 2950 LRE switch .

 

[vipergg]

After reading your story again I'm not sure the LRE will not run 100 meg , it is up to 15 meg and will run up to 5000 ft on cat 3 wire . I would think unless the application is extremely bandwidth intensive that this might work becuase it is not a shared port , it is a regular switch port .

 

[franklin97355]

Could you not put a weatherproof box at the point of the device?

 

[jimbopalmer]

I also network in a harsh mining environment (surface goes from -40C to 40C, cable goes 1km underground where it is 60C)

1) for cable runs over 100m and under 500m I would use 50nm multimode fibre, it can be as armoured as you like. It also need less 'protection' from other cables as it is nonmetallic. Single mode is needed over 500m but the electronics tend to run much higher than multimode, and I doubt you HAVE anywhere more than 500m away on a offshore rig.

2) For runs you have already done, do you have managed switches at each end of the long runs? They can report error statistics to give you a feel if you even have a problem. I would avoid adding new points of failure if I could.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.