Fiber Loop Sugestions

[carlosmcse]

Hi I'm in need of advice with a setup for our campus Network. We have a school campus that is about 4 miles long. We need to install video cameras plus other devices like lighting traffic lights etc (all network based) it will be a total of 80 cameras plus about 10-15 traffic lights. One sugestion so far was to run fiber cable to every single device from our main location, what I want to recommend is create a fiber ring around the campus using Cisco Switches and fiber trunking between them with STP and then from these switches to the device we could use either fiber or ethernet. My question is what do you guys recommend I believe that installing a metal case where these switches will be installed around the campus and then loop them it will be alot cheaper than running new fiber cable to every single device. As for our main rack do I need 2 switches and start the loop from one switch around the campus and then return to the second switch on the rack and then connect these two switches together forming a complete loop is a better option? What are you recomendations and also what equipment should we use? Cost is not a limited factor we just want something that is easy to add new devices as necessary around the campus without running fiber cables from the main rack (we can connect to the closest switch around the campus) and for redundancy the fiber loop makes more sense and it seems it will be alot cheaper and easier to maintain. Again looling forward to any sugestions.

 

[brianinms]

The ring isnt a good idea as it a a single point of failure. I would recommend that you section off the campus and designate a switch in a building for those devices. You then fiber connect the devices in that section to the corresponding switch.

 

[sluggo140]

I have to agree with brianinms. Fiber loop is probably not a good idea since you'll probably have to either a)bury it or b) string it above. I know that street repair on campus is a pretty common thing during the summer, and the chance for a backhoe to fiber interaction is pretty good. Use a different switch totally for the traffic/camera network, setup vlans, put a pretty heavy acl on it and run it from the switches in the building, Cat5 is much easier to replace than fiber, and cheaper too.

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[carlosmcse]

Thanks for all suggestions, unfortunately this setup if for the Campus park we have no buildings in the park the park is about 4-5 miles long. Management wants to install a total of 80 cameras plus 15 traffic lights around the park this is why i mentioned the fiber loop and the switches will be running STP. Let's say the link between Switch 1 and Switch 3 goes down, the traffic should route around from switch 1-2-6-5-4 then 3 and vice versa.

fiber trunk
Main Rack Switch1<------------->Main Rack Switch2
|f |f
|i CAMPUS PARK |i
|b |b
|e |e
|r |r
Park switch 3 Park Switch 6
|f |f
|i CAMPUS PARK |i
|b |b
|e |e
|r fiber trunk |r
Park Switch 4<-------------->Park Switch 5

 

[brianinms]

What if you lose the switch that contains the ring back to the core? I think you would be better served creating a wireless mesh network with Cisco 1500's and interfacing the devices to the wireless network. In addition you would provide wireless to all the students in the area. Cisco switches werent meant to be installed outdoors and wouldnt far well in such conditions.

 

[BuckWeet]

I don't see any issue with what you're trying to do accomplish..

I wouldn't bother with a wireless mesh.. You need to access yourself how much redundancy is needed.. Your current proposed setup will surpass a single failure, but not a double failure..


BuckWeet