Many Fiber Questions.....

[grundy]

We need a few runs of fiber and have a few questions.

1. We need to connect an IDF to our MDF. All our cabling is in a cable tray. Should fiber be in innerduct in the cable tray? Or can we just use outdoor fiber?

2. We move a lot of data betwene our IDF and MDF. What type of connection to you guys usuaully use, 2GB, 4GB, 10GB for connecting IDF's to MDF's?

3 We have two rooms that need fiber drops. Is it possible to get preterminated fiber cable and run to adapter at faceplate?

Thanks!

 

[SYQUEST]

You can use indoor/outdoor fiber on cable trays, but I would make sure it is fiber friendly. That way you won't waste tray space with innerduct if the proper practices are followed.

For bandwidth I would get the highest that is available, since it is backward compatible, or whatever your budget will allow.

There are several companies that will make the cables to your specifications for length, mode, and connectors, etc. They will even put on a pulling boot if needed. One example is Fiber Instrument Sales (

http://www.fiberinstrumentsales.com)

Hope this helps!

....JIM....

 

[youcandoit]

if you use outdoor (ouside plant, icky pick) it must be terminated within 50' of building entrance.

 

[HungryHouse]

The bandwidth for connecting an IDF to an MDF is not a set formula...its based mostly on how much aggregate traffic you will have. Assuming you are on an Ethernet network of some sort, Gigabit Ethernet is relatively inexpensive today, although there are several closets whose applications and # of users/nodes do not even necesitate Gigabit speeds. 100BFX, or port aggregation of several 100BFX link is more than sufficient in many instances.
We do have several customer with mult-line gig between IDF and MDF but most often its for future growth and failover links, often not close to current demand. I believe my latest campus customer had seen a "spike" of 6% of a 2GIG trunk. Often it ws 2% or less utilization.
Translation= over-engineered?
Do you have any idea of how much traffic you expect between these locations? Predicting the data demand is critical for determing the link speed for the MDF to IDF link. # of concurrent users, and application flow including WAN and internet traffic should be taken into account.
Remember every situation is different. General guideline though is if you can afford Gig ethernet, which has become comoditized, its not going to hurt ya.
I hope this is helpful.

 

[grundy]

The network is currently all gigabit with 3x1GB (full duplex) LAGS/TRUNKS between the core switch and the others. It's not uncommon for us to move anywhere between 200-500GB a day.

I'm just trying to decide what to do for switches at the MDF and IDF. Should i do a 4GB fiber link, 10GB, or just do another 3x1GB (full duplex).....

 

[HungryHouse]

If your switches support it, and you have enough fiber strands to support it, I dont see what you can bundle a 4 gig link.
I do have a question for you however...when you say a "4GB" fiber link, vs a "3x1GB" link, how are/why you are expressing this differently?
a 4gbps link (assuming thats what you mean) would just be 4x1gbps. I assume you have port aggregated the 3 gig link? If so, you could just add one more link to a new port aggregate group.

 

[ddools]

50 micron 10 gig with 1" 1/4 inner duct pretermed (duplex) then just plug it in