[AusNOG] Copper versus fibre in the DC

[Mitch Kelly]

Would you expect Copper to come to your door in the NBN and still be a
relevant technology in a few years to come?

Answers the question really...




On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 6:12 PM, Alastair Waddell <awaddell at legion.com.au>wrote:

> 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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>
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