Interdepartment connectivity via fiber optics, which wquipment to use

m_aurangzeb · ‎08-28-2007

I have given a task to interconnect department with one another via fiber optics.

This means there will be a core switch in a server room which will interconnect these departments. The each departments are away from server room approx 900 meters and 1500 meters. Kindly tell me which fiber optics cable to use ( single mode or multi mode) and which cisco switch to use in the in the core ( server room) and in the departments (one deptt is 900 m and other is 1500 meters away from server room) . kindly also tell me which fiber optics module to use in the switch and which connector.

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎08-28-2007

You need to supply a bit more information.

Do you want to run 100 Mbps, gig or 10 gig across the fiber?

How many host ports on the edge switches, both user side and server side?

Will the host ports be 10/100 or 10/100/1000?

Do you expect any areas of very heavy traffic between hosts? If so, which ones?

Do you see the need to prioritize traffic on you network for something like voice?

Do you expect to using multiple subnets and will need any of these devices to route?

Any WAN considerations?

m_aurangzeb · ‎08-29-2007

Dear josephdoherty ,

Thanks for your reply.

1) Yes 1 giga across the each fiber

2) Server side 24 ports and user side 48 ports.

3) Will the host ports be 10/100

4) Between hosts may be VoIP Phones in near future

5) Traffic priotize will be voice, for internatioal calls in near future and video conferencing very soon

6) yes each department will have separate subnet

7) Router 2811 will be used for WAN already purchased

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎08-29-2007

To run gig across fiber from 500m to 5Km (or possibly up to 10Km), you will need single mode fiber and Cisco 1000BASE-LX/LH interfaces (look within the product data sheets for those switches, below, for the SFP module part with 1000 and LX or LH, e.g. GLC-LH-SM - 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP transceiver module for MMF and SMF, 1300-nm wavelength).

For the user side, you will need to decide whether PoE will be required for VoIP phones.

Options for two(?) L2 user/dept. switches include:

WS-CE500-24LC - 20 10/100 ports, 4 10/100 PoE ports, and 2 10/100/1000Base-T or SFP uplinks

WS-CE500-24PC - 24 10/100 PoE ports, and 2 10/100/1000Base-T or SFP uplinks

WS-C2960-24TC-L - 24 10/100 + 2 Dual Purpose Gigabit Ethernet Uplinks, LAN Base Image

Options for two(?) L2/L3 user/dept. switches include:

3560-24TS - 24 Ethernet 10/100 ports and 2 SFP ports

3560-24PS - 24 Ethernet 10/100 ports with PoE and 2 SFP ports

For server side, it's less likely you will need PoE, and you might want to consider a model with copper gig ports:

3560-24TS - 24 Ethernet 10/100 ports and 2 SFP ports