Fibre Backbone Help Needed

[r.bristow]

I am installing a new network between 3 sites the first building being the main site the second building is just over the road and the 3rd site is 1.8Km away. I have a fibre connection throughout availble to me allthough looking for advice over the best switches to use that have the ST-SC connection at the rear.

[mbjohnson]

It's difficult to advise you on what kind of switch to get, not knowing your infrastructure, what kind of traffic goes over the network, number of users, uptime requirement, etc...

If you don't need any kind of chassis redundancy, and you just need to connect the buildings together, you can probably use the 3500 switches, otherwise I would go with Cat 6000/6500. All these switches use GBICs and you have the choice between the SX (short-haul), LX/LH (Long Haul...that's the one you need to reach 1.8km) and ZX (extended distances).

Good luck!

[millerv]

1. How many clients at each site ?

2. How many servers at each site ?

3. Flat or routed network ?

Except for a couple of workgroup level switches, fiber connections are fairly easy to figure out

[s.l]

Cat5500 or even Cat6000 will do well.

assumming number of users /building will be around 250-300.