[AusNOG] Copper versus fibre in the DC

[Alastair Waddell]

Hi AusNOG,

I expect there's strong opinions about this.

As I'm relocating DCs, its an opportunity to re-assess carrier interconnect terminations. 

I've been reading how copper (CAT7) is still valid with 10Gb/s ethernet and at the same time how the transceiver is a point of latency where the optics must be converted to electrical signal.

I figure the transceiver is also a point of failure that's absent in copper although such an argument must surely factor the qualify of the cable/RJ and it's subsequent handling (but how hard can it be!)

So: 

* Is copper a valid or even a 'better' choice to terminate carriers in the DC for 1Gb/s and beyond to 10Gb/s? *

PS KISS and risk mitigation rule in my little world. My fallback position is that fibre is still preferred as the 'safe' option especially wrt 10Gb/s. I just want to canvass all options. I don't want to repeat the exercise with the carriers at some future date if I can avoid it. It probably means, sub 1Gb/s top-of-rack kit today (looking at 4948/4900M or Juniper equivalents) and new kit at somewhere near 1Gb/s throughput with a preference to avoid carrier re-cabling. 


"With the release of the IEEE 802.3an standard, 10 Gb/s over balanced twisted-pair cabling (10GBASE-T) is the fastest growing and is expected to be the most widely adopted 10GbE option. "

"At 1 Gb/s speeds, balanced twisted-pair compatible electronics offer better latency performance than fibre; however, considering latency at 10 Gb/s, currently fibre components perform better than balanced twisted-pair compatible 10GBASE-T electronics"

"Since optical fibre electronics cannot autonegotiate, a move from 1000BASE-xx to 10GBASE-xx requires a hardware change. In contrast, both 1GbE and 10GbE can be supported by 10GBASE-T balanced twisted-pair compatible equipment."

http://www.siemon.com/uk/white_papers/08-07-10-copper-fiber-options-data-center.asp




Regards,
-- 
Alastair Waddell
Legion Internet
Australia

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