Centralized Fiber LANs

When most contractors and end users look at fiber optics versus Category-rated UTP cabling for a LAN, they compare the same old copper LAN with fiber directly replacing the copper links. The installed cost of a fiber optic cable plant comparable to the cost of Cat 5/6/6A, but fiber often requires medial conversion electronics which add cost to the link for fiber.

However, the real difference comes if you use a centralized fiber optic network - shown on the right of the diagram above. Since fiber does not have the 90 meter distance limitation of UTP cable, you can place all electronics in one location in or near the computer room. The telecom room is only used for passive connection of backbone fiber optic cables, so no power, UPS, ground or air conditioning is needed. These auxiliary services, necessary with Cat 5 hubs, cost a tremendous amount of money in each telecom room. If designing a new building, you do not even need the cost of the telecom room itself.

In addition, having all the fiber optic hubs in one location means better utilization of the hardware, with fewer unused ports. Since ports in modular hubs must be added in modules of 8 or 16, it's not uncommon with a hub in a telecom closet to have many of the ports in a module empty . With a centralized fiber system, you can add modules more efficiently as you are supporting many more desktop locations but need never have more than a one module with open ports.

More on fiber in premises networks and fiber versus copper, generally and in LANs

Other Applications For Fiber

Many other networks use fiber. CCTV often uses fiber for it's distance capability and security, especially in large buildings like airports and metropolitan networks. Security systems are more secure on fiber. Practically any network today has a fiber optic option.

December 3, 2011

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