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If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

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Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#11

Post by zygentoma »

cyptus wrote: post #10
msarrel wrote: post #4

Yup, always run extra everything. At least you can splice fiber now. And be careful of the minimum bend radius. Once, in the 90s, we were having intermittent network failures in our data center. I kept trying to troubleshoot it with the fluke, but the problem kept moving. When I pulled up the raised floor, I discovered that rats were eating the exterior sheath of the network cables. That was some fun troubleshooting!

_minimum_ bend?

minimum bend _radius_

A straight cable has an infinite radius, the more bend the smaller the radius

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#12

Post by Etheryte »

cyptus wrote: post #10
msarrel wrote: post #4

Yup, always run extra everything. At least you can splice fiber now. And be careful of the minimum bend radius. Once, in the 90s, we were having intermittent network failures in our data center. I kept trying to troubleshoot it with the fluke, but the problem kept moving. When I pulled up the raised floor, I discovered that rats were eating the exterior sheath of the network cables. That was some fun troubleshooting!

_minimum_ bend?

Minimum bend radius.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#13

Post by fleventynine »

aftbit wrote: post #7

Regarding single mode vs multi-mode ... other than cost, is there any reason at all to run multi-mode fiber in 2025? I was under the impression that single mode was better in basically every way.

Multi-mode transceivers used to be a lot cheaper than single mode, but now they're around the same price for short distances. From what I can tell, most datacenters appear to be making the switch to single mode even for in-room networking.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#14

Post by bhouston »

Yeah, we got a new house built 4 years ago and one of the biggest regrets is not enough ethernet outlets (running fibre in the house isn't practical yet) and power outlets in various places. It is really hard to think of all the places you would want them ahead of time unfortunately and as each has a cost you don't want to incur it unnecessarily.

But my biggest regrets were:

- Only a single ethernet port in the basement. Then the kid wanted a gaming station and we moved where the TV was. I should have put like 4 down there.

- No ethernet ports in the garage, I should have put in one for an AP.

- 4 ceiling APs instead of just two in the main part of the house. I over-estimated how much coverage I would get from ceiling APs and thus I have some APs hidden under furniture to ensure 100% house coverage.

- Lack of multiple circuits in the garage, even better a separate sub-panel with 6 outlets. I took up wood working and with a single circuit and 2 outlets was insufficient. That cost me $1200 for the sub-panel.

- Multiple outlets on the back and side of the house - I would have done two at the front on each side and two at the back on side each and one on each side of the house. I have a single outlet at the front and back and that is just not sufficient for lights, decorations and patio devices.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#15

Post by jmacd »

I just had this experience. I had a 200ft run between my house and barn. The original builder put a direct bury ethernet between the two and it failed. I dug a trench, put in a conduit, pulled 2 fibre lines and left a pull string in.

I recently had the primary fibre fail and am now on the backup. If I need to pull new ones in the future I can do that pretty easily through the conduit.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#16

Post by jmacd »

bhouston wrote: post #14

Yeah, we got a new house built 4 years ago and one of the biggest regrets is not enough ethernet outlets (running fibre in the house isn't practical yet) and power outlets in various places. It is really hard to think of all the places you would want them ahead of time unfortunately and as each has a cost you don't want to incur it unnecessarily. But my biggest regrets were: - Only a single ethernet port in the basem…

Wow, we recently built a house and this reads just like my regret list!

I think because there are less code specifications for the garage, builders just don't bother.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#17

Post by bananapub »

timzaman wrote: post #8

1. High-level, the post is all wrong. The point should be that you always need to make sure you can pull new cable . The poster illustrates this: single mode, multi mode, non-fiber, etc, etc. And if one "goes bad", you still can't run a new one, unless you have a pullstring. 2. The post cannot apply to fast/large networks - will be prohibitively expensive. 3. If running a few at home, I suggest to run MTP/MPO. It's b…

what a bizarre reply.

the author is a sysadmin, who can definitely change what is plugged in to the switches their employer has chosen to buy, but doesn't have the power to make physical changes between multiple buildings, easily authorise opex spending on cable pullers or retrain as a cable puller.

please actually consider what you're replying to before pushing the REPLY button.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#18

Post by hinkley »

zygentoma wrote: post #11
cyptus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

_minimum_ bend?

minimum bend _radius_ A straight cable has an infinite radius, the more bend the smaller the radius

Though if it is on or under the surface of the earth, “straight” will be a bend radius of around 6,370km. We don’t make a lot of buildings that deal with this but transcontinental or transoceanic cables certainly do. If someone designed a fiber that required absolutely no bend in order to work you’d have to use it in buildings or dig much deeper holes.

There was an encoding mechanism proposed about 10-15 years ago that used spirally polarized light to carry more channels, but it required the surface of the fiber to be polished to a much higher degree than existing cables in order for the light to go around bends properly.

Re: If you get the chance, always run more extra network fiber cabling

#20

Post by FredFS456 »

fleventynine wrote: post #13
aftbit wrote: post #7

Regarding single mode vs multi-mode ... other than cost, is there any reason at all to run multi-mode fiber in 2025? I was under the impression that single mode was better in basically every way.

Multi-mode transceivers used to be a lot cheaper than single mode, but now they're around the same price for short distances. From what I can tell, most datacenters appear to be making the switch to single mode even for in-room networking.

Multimode transceivers are still a slight bit cheaper ($30 for 10GBASE-LR vs $22 for 10GBASE-SR on fs.com) but that's more than offset by the single mode fiber being slightly cheaper, even for short distances.
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