Fiber Strand Question

[anthonymeluso]

We have a six strand run coming from our IDF closet to our MDF. In our IDF we have two switches each connected via a paired stranded of fiber to our MDF which has one pair going to one switch and the other to the second switch. Then the two switches in the MDF are connected via a fiber patch cable. I did all this for fail over reasons.

First up is this even possible? Can you use the same fiber run's other strands on separate switches? Like the first pair on one switch the and the second pair on the other? Or do these things need to be trunked or something else.

Right now it appears to be creating a loop of some sort and causing me headaches. If I disconnect one of the IDF's connections in the MDF everything works great.

Any idea's? Thanks!

 

[mforrence]

Quite possible if you configure as a trunk. The switches must be smart enough to understand.
Mike

 

[kwing112000]

It sounds like in your IDF you have the switches connected together with a patch cord and also trunked back with the fiber. it sounds like your making a loop. depending on what you have for switches you may be able to set this up so it will work with trunks or backup links.

Kevin Wing
ACSS Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Communications
ACS- Implement IP Office
ACA- Implement IP Office
Carousel Industries

 

[robertjo24]

You can use two separate fiber pairs for the two switches in the IDF. For redundancy though, most would install two separate runs of fiber, and in most instances would try to run the two fibers in different trays/chaseways/ducts.

 

[jimbopalmer]

If you build loops into your network, you better have the spanning tree protocol enabled, and ideally, configured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanning_tree_protocol

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

 

[SYQUEST]

What kind of switches are you using, and do they support STP or RSTP or aggregation of uplinks?

....JIM....