50 micron or 62.5? 2

[58sniper]

Greetings...

Premise fiber was installed before I came on board. To each of 4 IDF locations (from our MDF rack), I have 3 pairs of 50 micron and 3 pairs of 62.5 micron. To our newest IDF location, I have 6 pair of 62.5.

We're replacing all of our IDF switches, and I'll be able to tie multiple lines to each IDF switch. I will have all new fiber patch cables to go from the fiber patch panel to the switch at each end.

I'm having a hard time figuring out the advantage/disadvantage between 50/62.5. My new patch cables are 62.5. Can I use 62.5 patch cables to go to a fiber patch panel that then goes to 50 micron for the long haul back to the MDF? Can I mix them together if they are going from a single IDF switch? All of my new IDF switches have 4 fiber ports that I'd like to use for speed and redundancy. But since I only have 3 pairs of each type available, I'm not sure what my options are.

Infrastructure is (and will be) all Cisco, and will include computer, VoIP, as well as a ton of non computer traffic going across VLANs.

Any guidance, links, etc are greatly appreciated.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[wires]

While not ideal 62.5 and 50 micron can be mixed. Expect slightly higher losses and try to minimize mixing within the same optical path.

In your case it depends on the lasers in your equipment. If you have the newer 850nm VCSEL I would utilize the 50 micron fiber first. Here is a decent article: store.a2zcable.com/50micronfiber.html

 

[58sniper]

Thanks for the info. I double checked, and our new IDF run was actually 50 micron (not 62.5). The new patch cables haven't been opened, so I'll return them for 50 micron cables.

Thanks again, and have a star.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Servamatic]

Mixing the 2 in the same path is NOT a good idea and should be avoided if at all possible.
50 is a better choice for bandwidth and future consideratioons, but it sounds like you have more 62.5, I would give serious consideration to updating to all one type of fiber.
Do all of your current switches employ 62.5? Do you have a need for more than 1 gig?
Using two different types would most likely lead to issues down the road for maintenance.
The best advice, choose one and stick with it throughout the cable plant.

Richard S. Anderson, RCDD

http://www.servamatic.net

 

[58sniper]

I'm gonna try and stick with 50 micron. If I switch my patch cables, I should be good. All of the legacy IDF switches have the same amount of 50 and 62.5 available (3 pairs each). The one new IDF, which will have HD video going through it, is all 50 micron. I have 6 pairs for that switch, and my plan is to use 4 pairs to the switch. All other IDF switches will have to use 3 pairs.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Servamatic]

When you say "If I switch my patch cables" do you mean switching the cables on the 62.5 to 50??

Richard S. Anderson, RCDD

http://www.servamatic.net

 

[58sniper]

Yes. We ordered all new patch cables so that when we replace our IDF switches next week, we'd have new cables and not the mix we currently have. They are 62.5. I'll swap them for 50 micron and just use the 50 micron lines everywhere.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Servamatic]

So each link will be 50 all the way through? Are you going to abandon all the 62.5?
Guess what I am getting at is this, you are going to use 50 micron jumpers on 50 micron links correct? Not mixing 50 micron juimpers on 62.5 links.

Richard S. Anderson, RCDD

http://www.servamatic.net

 

[58sniper]

I'll use 50 jumpers on the 50 links. If I need to use 62.5 links, I'll use a 62.5 jumper. I was just curious as to ramifications of using a jumper different than the link.

I may end up using 3x50 micron links, and 1 62.5 link (with correct jumpers) in order to maximize throughput to the switches, which all support 4 links.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

http://www.ucblogs.net/blogs/exchange/

 

[Servamatic]

If one connects a 50 micron fiber to a 62.5 micron fiber, the smaller core of the 50/125 fiber may easily couple to the 62.5 micron fiber and be somewhat insensitive to offset and angular misalignment. However, the larger core 62.5 micron fiber will overfill the core of the 50 micron fiber, creating excess loss and reflections.
Losses would generally be higher with an LED source than for a VCSEL source.

Richard S. Anderson, RCDD

http://www.servamatic.net