[tech] Re: UCC uplink network upgrade

Grahame Bowland grahame at angrygoats.net
Tue Jun 17 11:30:57 WST 2003


On Mon, 2003-06-16 at 16:23, Nick Bannon wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 01:38:40PM +0800, David Cake wrote:
> > 	4 core fibre will cost us roughly at least $650 extra 
> > overall, 8 core about $2000 more.
> [...]
> 
> That's to use it throughout, not just on the Cameron Hall link? Ouch.
> How many cable runs are we talking? That's a nasty jump given that,
> compared to 2 core, 4 core cable costs less than double and 8 core
> cable costs less than triple.
> 
> Anyway, four core is really the minimum. If we had a single pair and
> one broke, we'd be stuck... Contributing towards that wouldn't be a
> problem.
> 
> The real comparison is to blown fibre. I've got a Page Data materials
> quote for that now, assuming a 200m run from Cameron Hall to the new
> Guild comms room:
> Conventional 4 core loose tube gel filled fibres: $4.66/m =>	$ 932 total
> 2 duct blowable tube $2/m + 4x blown fibre bundle $3.38/m =>	$1076 total

I'm not sure about the jump from 4 to 8 cores, but the 4 core sounds
like a good idea. If you get single core you're not completely stuffed
if one fails; you just have to wait until it gets fixed. They are
fixable though, although it'll cost money.

Dave, is it in budget for you to go to 4 core? It sounds like a good
idea.

> That's for 62.5um MM fibres at trade prices - apparently UWA will get
> slightly better prices than trade, not worse. It leaves one duct free
> for expansion. Termination prices are the same, so the missing item is
> still GR Services exact installation cost. GR Services does have the
> equipment to do the blown fibre installs. Apparently UWA's mostly using
> 7 duct blowable tubes - John Lumsden would know. Grahame/Mark/James -
> someone want to find out more?
> 
> Nobody's piped up on other switch options yet, but the Alloy switches
> look like better bang for buck. Navada should supply them locally.
> 
> DLink 3xDES-3225GF (Managed, 24 x 10/100Base-T , 1 x 100Base-FX)
> DLink 1xDES-362FM (2 x 100Base-FX module)
> Total: ~$4180
> 
> Alloy 3xESS-24T02M (Smart, 24 x 10/100Base-T)	$594 ea
> Alloy 3xEMG-02SC   (2 x 1000Base-SX module)	$493 ea
> http://www.alloy.com.au/products/ESS-24T02M.htm
> Alloy 1xFE-C120SC  (100Base-FX media converter)	$216 ea
> http://www.alloy.com.au/products/fec120.htm
> Total: $3477
> 
> Alloy 3xESM-24T02M (Managed, 24 x 10/100Base-T)	$709 ea
> Alloy 3xEMG-02SC   (2 x 1000Base-SX module)	$493 ea
> http://www.alloy.com.au/products/ESM24T02M.htm
> Alloy 1xFE-C120SC  (100Base-FX media converter)	$216 ea
> http://www.alloy.com.au/products/fec120.htm
> Total: $3822
> 
> Alloy switches give us a 1000Base-SX gigabit backbone, consistency in
> case of switch failure and a couple of spare 1000Base-SX ports. We
> would be using a 100Base-FX UCS uplink until such time as UCS thinks
> gigabit to departments is worthwhile.

We're looking into using Alloy switches on some of our smaller networks
like the utility LAN. We've been using D-Link switches but have found
reliability problems - the one in the office is doing VLANs and crashes
about once every two months. That might not sound too bad, but it gets
annoying.

So, is Alloy within budget? We're chasing up Perth suppliers now, I'll
let you know how we go and who our contact is.





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