200m Network Connection

[Cliotoby]

OK heres an easy one.

You have to re design a campus network. The main building must connect to a secondary building 200 meters away, this is currently done by CAT5 and for some reason the network is slow and problematic lol.

How you gunna do it?

Fiber?
Microwave Relay?

There will be an Aironet placed externally to provide wireless access across the campus, I would rarther not use this, or pair it with another to provide the connection to the second building.

 

[Adam.]

Fiber.

You do know that cat5 shouldn't be more than 100m?

90m length with 5m drop either end....

 

[Cliotoby]

Yeah. have a read of the second sentence

I wanted to gay it up a little. i suppose microwave links are prone to interferance. ill just ass a fibre link across with an SFP

Cheers.

 

[Adam.]

Fiber will not get any interference if you are runnig it along side other gear/services/past kitchens etc. So it has some good advantages.

Sounds similar to the project I done for my HND.

 

[Cliotoby]

Yeah part of my degree. Ive got 3 assignments where i have to design a network this semester.

Really basic stuff but I thought i might try getting clever.

Dont suppose you know a decent Cisco Switch that has 10+ 10GE interfaces do you?

4500 series is too big.

 

[cava83]

Fiber.

I wish in my HND and Degree they had done this stuff, we learnt some rubbish stuff ! The most network related aspect was the OSI Layers.

Would of loved network design

 

[Adam]

Isn't it Fibre

 

[sbridgey]

what degree are you doing and where?

 

[cava83]

Isn't it Fibre

Certainly is

 

[Cliotoby]

Isn't it Fibre

Well, no.

I wasnt asking about protocols.

Why do you want to know what degree im doing lol?

 

[Adam.]

Isn't it Fibre

Fibre - British spelling

Fiber - American spelling

All Cisco books are American hence I'm used to seeing/spelling it as fiber .

 

[Cliotoby]

It doesnt actually matter; Fibre Channel is a protocol, Fiber optic is a f**king medium.

 

[sbridgey]

Why do you want to know what degree im doing lol?

because i am doing a networking degree, just wondering if you were networking or comp sci or whatever else there is that involves networking. just interesting what courses cover networking

 

[Cliotoby]

Started with ccna before my degree, then started my degree and it is a mix, ccna security, ccnp units, few ms ones, server, dst, virtualisation. Few other bits and bobs.

Called computer network management.

 

[sbridgey]

sounds good, i am doing a CCNA then a cisco telephony bit, then CCNP and Certified ethical hacker, i reckon the MS stuff would be very useful with networking but i don't think i do any . really does sound like a good course, which uni is that then??

 

[Cliotoby]

Sorry, its a Leeds met moderated degree but im doing it at my Local college (Hull)

The MS stuff was bullshit. Im going to attempt my first of 3 ccnp exams this summer. Im not looking forward to it.

Really want to get into virtualisation next. I think theres a CCIE in virtualisation, but ill wait until Ive got my CCNP first

 

[sbridgey]

if the CCNP exams are like the CCNA ones the practice exam is much harder that the final exam (thats what i found anyway), Good luck with it!

 

[ChrisR]

All you guys saying fibre/fiber have forgotten to ask the important questions first

What kind of bandwidth is required, how many clients/servers/bits of kit in the secondary building, and what will they be doing?

Now we can all sit and say fibre as it's 'the best', but as this is an assignment you might be expected as in the real world to perform some kind of cost benefit analysis to see which is the most cost effective solution.

There's pros and cons to going either way, IT in business at the end of the day all comes down to £££

 

[ChrisR]

Oh and the other question is, how much £££ is in the budget

 

[Cookie]

Fiberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Failing that, show me a network with too many collisions, and I'll show you some users to cull

 

[sbridgey]

10GBase-LX4 Multimode Fiber, supporting full duplex would be futureproof or 1000Base-SX Multimode Fiber is slower but probably cheaper, you will have to calculate the required bandwidth for the link and use default routes to cross the link (i think) instead of using up bandwidth with routing updates, you obviously know all this already though. not knowing your task i dont know about server location etc. so dont know if the link is going to be heavily used or not.

 

[SamP]

Need more information, budget/requirements. So many possibilities.

 

[Cliotoby]

Well, basically, its one of my "work related" units. We have 1 tutor for the networking units and another 2 for the other 2. This isnt really a networking unit as such, unfortunately the tutor doesnt know what the f**k shes on about. Which is pretty frustrating when she cant answer questions.

She has not specified a budget other than "Must be cost effective". No current throughput has been specified either. Its a college re design.

Went for a collapsed core/dist design. Decided on 2 4900M switches with 10 gig ethernet expansion module for each of the buildings, and obviously sfps at the other end where ive gone for 3750's. Redundant links. Fiber cabling. Went with SX multimode to keep costs down ....

Total is shy of £40K with all modules, VOIP, cctv, hardware etc..... Seeing as ive been given no budget, ive basically done what i want within requirements.

No right or wrong answer here. Just wanted an option to connect a building 200 m away. Fiber was my initial thought but wanted to see if I could gay the assignment up a bit.

 

[Longy]

If you want to do it on the cheap I've just linked two sites (about 1km) using WIFI which give a good throughput of 90Mbps.

 

[SamP]

If you want to do it on the cheap I've just linked two sites (about 1km) using WIFI which give a good throughput of 90Mbps.

Look into Radwin links if you want to go a bit further for not much more.

 

[Cookie]

If you want to do it on the cheap I've just linked two sites (about 1km) using WIFI which give a good throughput of 90Mbps.

Does it not go to pot when you encounter sub optimal atmospheric conditions? i.e. anything beyond a warm sunny day

 

[Longy]

Does it not go to pot when you encounter sub optimal atmospheric conditions? i.e. anything beyond a warm sunny day

It's in warm sunny Cornwall so not a problem ;-)

It's only used for a few EPOS and a few PCs so no heavy load really.

 

[Pettsi]

Get a trench dug and lay some fibre in. Might be worth mentioning leaving a draw wire in there too for any future installs?

 

[Cookie]

I prefer fiber when it's strung up above, less chance of idiots digging it up

 

[PinkoCommie]

I prefer fiber when it's strung up above, less chance of idiots digging it up

Until a delivery driver ignores the maximum height warning and runs a lorry into your suspended fibre run.....

Actually happened to my workplace about 10 years ago, luckily it was run with plenty of slack.

In the real world I highly doubt that you would put 10G in. A fibre run, yes, and that would give you the future proofing to run higher speed interfaces in the future, but I highly doubt that there would be any need for that unless your actual network topology is terrible and your're swamping the network with broadcasts (one place I worked at used a totally flat 10/8). As others have said you would have to look into what was actually occuring across the link, are all your server in one of the buildings, what sort of traffic will be running across the link etc.

 

[laberridge]

Running cat5 will have to much interference over that length and many loss of packets. Cat 6 minimum. But for that length it would have to be fibre. Wouldnt trust wireless for sh*t

 

[SamP]

Running cat5 will have to much interference over that length and many loss of packets. Cat 6 minimum. But for that length it would have to be fibre. Wouldnt trust wireless for sh*t

We've had 100% uptime on our 3 latest Radwin links. But tbh, Fibre is where its at for this application.

 

[Adam.]

If you want to do it on the cheap I've just linked two sites (about 1km) using WIFI which give a good throughput of 90Mbps.

I wouldn't run 90Mbps between my desktop and the switch never mind 90Mbps between buildings!:headno:

 

[ChrisR]

We've had 100% uptime on our 3 latest Radwin links. But tbh, Fibre is where its at for this application.

For this application? We don't know anything about the application bar it's a secondary building 200metres away! No other information has been given so you cannot categorically say that fibre is the solution here.

 

[SamP]

For this application? We don't know anything about the application bar it's a secondary building 200metres away! No other information has been given so you cannot categorically say that fibre is the solution here.

Im too tired to argue my case tomorrow, ill write a real reply tomorrow. Out of interest what would you think is the solution?

 

[Longy]

I wouldn't run 90Mbps between my desktop and the switch never mind 90Mbps between buildings!:headno:

It's a cost effective solution and it does the job, there was no need for higher bandwidth.

Running a cable between your desktop and switch is some what easier to do than digging up roads and laying fibre in the real world.

 

[laberridge]

It's a cost effective solution and it does the job, there was no need for higher bandwidth.

Running a cable between your desktop and switch is some what easier to do than digging up roads and laying fibre in the real world.

agreed. well he's not metioned how many pc's, file transfer needed, internet speeds, pritty much all the variables. so we cant presume anything, as 90mbps may cover it if its one pc.

 

[ChrisR]

Im too tired to argue my case tomorrow, ill write a real reply tomorrow. Out of interest what would you think is the solution?

I'm not arguing that fibre isn't likely the best solution technically, but where's the reasoning for it apart from 'it's best"?

There is nothing that is the solution for this as not enough info given. Yeah from a technical pov fibre is likely to be the best by far. My point to the OP was merely that they might be wanting him to justify the choice, in which case you'll need to do more analysis.

Say this secondary building just hosts a couple of desktops, worth the investment to put in fibre?

What are the main factors, speed, reliability or cost?

We had a situation at work where we occupied a building about 100 metres or so away in the middle of a city for about a 12 month period. Stuck a laser link up which did the job nicely, only supporting 20 or so desktops, not the quickest but did the job at the right price.

Was a bit s**t with certain types of rain though

 

[sbridgey]

that sounds like a good way of doing it in certain applications, i bet the kit is expensive though and digging a fibre trench may end up being cheaper or similarly priced plus more reliable

 

[ChrisR]

Laser Link was pretty cheap although was a while ago