Need help with a homework assignment

[[]V[]essenjah]

So, I am to write a report for my college internship for Information Technology Systems. The report asks me to look around at emerging technologies and to come up with a cost-effective solution for high-speed data bandwidth in a multistory commercial building that is durable and will last through the next 10 years.

Problem is, I'm not sure exactly where to look for info on this. I've been trying to Google some of the basics but I'm not completely certain of what I am looking for exactly. During my internship, I haven't been working on any of the documentation or backbone cableing. I was actually assigned to work with a wireless team so I'm just installing radios through various building and pulling single cat5e cables through and punching them down onto patch cables, checking the connections, finding the length and signal strength and documenting it all with the port information. I've also only been through a single semester where I was taught the basics.

I'm going to try to get more info from my professor on exactly what he is looking for in this report. I'm probably assuming something at least within the 1000 base range if not in the 10GBase range. Probably cat6 since cat7 is not yet approved from what I have read and as I understand it, it runs at about the same price as cat5e.

Anyway, if anyone knows of some articles or a website to help me figure out what I'm looking for exactly, I'd really appreciate it. I'm really tight on time right now between work, the wife, car problems, and school.

[Thenior]

Network+ Guide To Networks Fifth edition will provide some basic insight.

You need 10G speeds through the whole complex? that is pretty serious. Normally, you'd run Fiber on the backbones (double for redundancy, forget the exact term), then run a full or partial mesh between all routers in the server closets. Just make sure to check your cable lengths and what not, make sure you are within the limits.

Hard to be specific without knowing exactly what you need.

[TechPro]

You know, there is a certain amount of silliness to it. Last for 10 years? Yeah, that could be done, however in 6 years they may not want to use it anymore (performance would be far too slow by then, comparatively speaking).

[Canuck]

Spec out conduit so that as technology changes then its easier to pull in fiber or whatever the flavour of the day is. Cat 6 minimum for today's commercial runs and look at a fiber backbone and wireless coverage for today's smartphones.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backhaul_% ... cations%29

Hope this helps.

[[]V[]essenjah]

So, the thing is this:


I know that the system they have us working on, they are running fiber through some kind of tunnels and apparently it is 10Gb. and running through these tunnels all over campus. I really have no idea what these tunnels even look like as it isn't part of my team's responsibilities, so I don't know if they are running them through the complex or not. I do know that they use fiber for verticle cable cabling but I don't know what the bandwidth is of their fiber. However, they claim to be preparing for the next 10 years. I noticed however, that even though they are setting up for 10Gb, they are only using Cat5e which seems rather silly, unless they plan to completely re-wire everything later on with cat 7 when it becomes certified.

The entire assignment seems really silly. I tried asking my professor some questions and he was very vague. Basically his answer was.... that's a very good question... hmmmm, I guess you will just have to write about what you want to investigate. He doesn't specify what the budget is of this building, how their Lan's are set up, if they need a WAN connection, what kind of data requirements the company is in need of.... nothing to really go on, other than we need to plan for 10 years and in a system that has a generation change every 12 to 18 months, 10 years can be quite a bit of change. This is why I'm wondering if 10Gb would be a safe bet in order to last 10 years or if I would be better going with 1Gb?

Yes, wireless is also a consideration but it depends on the business and it's security needs. For instance, if you have very sensitive data going around, you may not want wireless access in your building as it will never be THAT secure.

In total, this assignment seems holier than swiss cheese. It sucks because my team's final report is due in three weeks and we should be working on that, not this as we do not have any time in-class to work on this and spend 100% of our class hours installing wireless access points for their system.

I don't think it needs to go beyond about a page so I'm thinking I may just give a brief generalization about various possibilities and mention why the information I need is really necessary to know what kind of system to install. Overall safest bet? I think it may be a 1Gb connection using Cat 6 cable, using vertical fiber cable. I'm assuming I would want at least 1000 Base SX for vertical cabling and maybe 1000 Base T for horizontal cabling? Then of course, we probably want Cisco certified 1Gb switches, routers, and patch panels that are either wall or rack mounted, fiber tubes and conduit. If their data requirements are higher, we may need to run

Does anyone know of any good resources where I could price out this kind of equipment along with conduit?

For switches, I found this actually:
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/x/options ... index.html

It claims to support 10 and 100Gb from the sounds of it. But how much does it cost? I really need to find some way to compare costs?

Also, how does Cat5e compare in cost to Cat 6?

How much do Routers cost?

These are things I really need to take a look at but I'm not sure where to find pricing data on these items.

[snoopy]

McMaster-Carr has conduit.

I agree with folks that planning for the future probably means the following:

1. Conduit everywhere, so any cable run is easily replaceable
2. As much fiber as possible: the fiber optic cables have so much bandwidth capacity that I'd be surprised if they were considered out dated in 20 years. The converters/equipment on the two ends will certainly change, but I think that FO cabling is going to be able to handle bandwidth requirements for a long time.
3. I'd spec in a couple sets of spare FO cables in the run, and possibly that both single mode and multi mode cable be installed. This allows for (hopefully) future compatibility with whatever transmission equipment changes that might occur, and easy back up capacity for cable that may end up with physical damage.

As for the copper portions, the "10 year" lifetime is probably their way to forcing you to pick the fastest, latest, and greatest equipment out there instead of your standard T-100 stuff that you grew up with.

Also note: I (personally) think that wireless should be kept to local access points, since they are probably the most likely parts to change in the near future. I don't think that wireless will ever be able to match fiber in terms of bandwidth and latency. It may get close, but there's a lot more room for transmission error in wireless, forcing more error correction, and thus reduced throughput.

edit #2: Check out L-com for ethernet (telecom modular) cable costs. At work I generally go for cat 6 shielded.