[Wolves] Optical fibre

[Andy Jewell]

>From: wolves-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk [wolves-bounces at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of chris procter [chris-procter at talk21.com]
>Sent: 21 September 2009 23:26
>To: Wolverhampton Linux User Group
>Subject: Re: [Wolves] Optical fibre

>> >> We need to link switches over some longer distances at school - about

>> >> 200 m - and have recently put some ducts in for the job. It probably
>> >> needs optical fibre. But I wondered about us putting our own fibres
>> >> in, buying the appropriate kit, and terminating them ourselves.

>12" RADIUS??? you'd hate our data centre :)

>The advice we had was "about the curvature of a dinner plate" which is about 12" *diameter* you can get away with tighter turns then that but much tighter then that you start degrading the signal and getting transmission errors, causing slow data >rates and weird faults. If you bend the cable even tighter then that you can break the glass strand and then you get to throw it away and buy a new one.  Make sure you have plenty of slack and don't pull it tight.

>Oh and I wouldn't recommend standing on it or dropping heavy objects on it either, it might be ok but you really don't want to find out.

>Don't let any of this scare you off from laying your own though optical fibres are pretty robust, just not as robust as copper. Treat it like its made of glass and you'll be fine.

You can probably get away with a pair of wireless access points with directional antennas over this distance, depending on your requirements. Might be a cheaper option (and no bend radus to contend with).

Andy D'Arcy Jewell
SysMicro Linux Support

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