would optical backbone make sense for a lan?

[el bob]

in my house i've got a 8 port 10/100 swich in the back of the house where the router and cable modem are and now in the basement at the other end of the house i have my workshop

i was wondering if an optical backbone would be well suited to connect to switches and uplink to the router

i don't have a switch in the basement yet so i could use the money for that and get an optical switch to put in the back of the house

i could sell the 8 port 10/100 switch i have in the back and then buy two switches with optical uplinks to connect to the optical switch

how does this sound/has anybody worked with optical networking before/and what would prices look like?

thanks a ton

-el bob

[Stef]

You must be crazy!! You would never see the performance difference between fibre optic and copper on a simple 10/100 LAN with a few computers.

I've wired entire sky scrapers and fibre optics is only used to inter-connect entire floors to the rack servers. Besides that, CAT 5 is used for every home run from the workstations to the patch pannels, and from the patch pannels to the routers or switches.

These are networks with 1 - 2 hundred workstations a floor. I think that it would be overkill and a complete waste of money to run fibre in your house for a simple home LAN. Not to mention the extra cost of fibre ready networking hardware and the fibre optic cable (approx. 6 bucks a foot).

Save your money and buy yourself some full-duplex networking hardware, then wire your house with CAT 5. It's cost effective and simple to install and service.

Stef

[tomsykes]

Yes, fibre is overkill for homes. I only use it inter-floor and inter-building or where there are optical interfaces.

PS: $6/foot? Costs us about AU$1.10/metre for multimode.

[Stef]

Well, that how much my boss says it cost. Maybe it is cheaper, probly is, my boss just tells us it's more expensive so we waste less :D


Stef

[el bob]

K, thanks a lot guys I really appreciate the help.

btw, does EZ Switch make good networking hardware?

I've got a chance to buy a 8 Port 10/100 Switch for $30 or a 16 port 10/100 switch for $100 made by EZ Switch

I currently have a CNet PowerSwitch and I love it.

[el bob]

one last question

in terms of "buying things that will remain cutting edge/up to date for a while" how long will it be until high end user homes will be using optical wiring?

not just to connect computers to switches but to connect switches to switches

i can understand that i wouldn't be using the capactiy of the optical backbone by a long shot but what about the length of time it could remain up to date?

i could probably get at least 5 years out of it while cat5 may not last another year?

i'm not a networking tech except for the home lan i setup so i'm not familiar with upcoming network hardware and soon to be networking standards...soooo thats why i'm asking all this

[Stef]

Currently, in research labs accross North America, engineers are working on a means to network computers and home network devices through the power recepticles found in every home.

Things are leanning this way mainly because the ease of implementation, a splitter in the utility room is all you would need to set this up!!! Of course, the transceivers of the common network card would have to be modified as well. But, it would intergrate so easilly with upcomming home network and automation devices.

P.S. CAT 5 will be around for a long time......

I still replace network installations wired with IBM type 1 cable, that stuff is older then I am, and I'm 22 :D

Stef

[el bob]

gotcha Stef

thanks for the help guys

[Pains2]

Hi i just want to add my 2c worth, i was at a trade show last year, and they where had cat 6e available, and said by feb cat 7 should be available...what's the diffrence in cat6 that makes it better then 5? or 4? or now..soon 7????, great thread by the way, i'd love to claim i had an optic network at home.:D

[YeOldeStonecat]

I agree, as much as I'd love to say I have an optic backbone in my home, and as much as I can get supplies for free, I don't.

Current reason for optic backbone in most networks is distance....example, connecting two areas of some production plant like two wings, or connecting the very back plant to the server room up front, ...a distance that is longer than the CAT5 standard. Taller buildings, you often wire a floor with CAT5, then connect all the floors to the server room with fiber runs.

Expensive...I mostly work with 3COM Super Stack III switches which are quite a bit of money (in the low thousands), plus the FX module options for fiber uplink are about 600 bucks alone.

For home LANs, NetGear makes great switches which are inexpensive. Don't go for the cheapest switch you find....you'll be disappointed in it's performance if things ever get busy. I don't know what your needs are, but if you ever see your LAN getting some heavy traffic (like a LAN party), believe me, BIG difference in how a hundred dollar switch (not to mention a thousand dollar switch) will hold up and perform, against a 30 dollar switch. If you use it for normal web sharing and the occasional file transfer or online gaming, than no big deal.

[Stef]

Originally posted by Pains2
Hi i just want to add my 2c worth, i was at a trade show last year, and they where had cat 6e available, and said by feb cat 7 should be available...what's the diffrence in cat6 that makes it better then 5? or 4? or now..soon 7????, great thread by the way, i'd love to claim i had an optic network at home.:D

The cable itself is plain old 24 AWG copper for CAT 3, 4, 5, 5e , 6, and 7. The real difference is in the return loss characteristics.

Return loss happens when the originating signal is reflected back to the originating source. This reflection occurs when the signal encounters a change in impedance (usually at a transition point, ie. outlets and patch pannels)

This compromisses the strength of the signal and creates additional noise throughout the network infrastructure.

TIA/EIA 568A Category 5 cable has a return loss characteristic of +/- 15 Ohms. Given that the cable has a impedance rating of 100 Ohms that means that the line impedance can fluctuate between 85 - 115 Ohms without counting the impedance values of the actual connecting devices!!!

What this really means is that CAT 5 's ability to carry live data is poor due to negative return loss characteristics.

CAT 6 or 7 improves uppon this by reducing the actual amount that the line impedance will fluctuate. This is also known as impedance matching. Impedance matching is achieved by reducing the difference of impedance between connecting devices and transition points.

In the end this increases bandwidth by reducing return loss characteristics (CAT 7 is +/- 3 Ohms)

So, 24 AWG is 24 AWG, but return loss performance is what makes or brakes your network :D

Stef

[Pains2]

thankx stef,
although i don't understand if they knew all that, y did they make the 3,4,5, so poorly?? shouldn't the standard be cat 7 cables already??

[YeOldeStonecat]

It's not that they designed them poorly. They designed them to do the job that was expected. Back when 10 Mb/s networks were the norm.....then CAT5 and 100 Mb/s networks....which lasted for a long time. But now demands on networks are for more bandwidth, which wasn't seen or worried about back then. They probably assumed fiber and wireless would be replacing all this, who knows. Now we have demands for giganet....and you need more than CAT5 for that, enter the newer twisted pair categories.

It's like saying "Why didn't they come out with gigahertz CPUs for home computers 5 years ago".