* Model claims fiber- and copper-based LANs have similar costs
I thought I was done with cabling issues after we got through the recent series that ended up focusing a lot on fiber optics vs. copper wiring for LANs… oh, who am I kidding – of course I knew I wasn’t done. I hadn’t yet heard directly from the Fiber Optics LAN Section of the Telecommunications Industry Association, the industry’s foremost cheerleaders for fiber.
After seeing the series, the group called me. I have to admit I was skeptical going into the interview that I would hear anything new. But I did, and that’s why I’m back on the topic.
FOLS has a new cost model to help users evaluate and compare the cost of running fiber with the cost of running copper wiring in several configurations. It’s in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. You make a copy, plug in numbers that apply to your building situation, and it tells you how much different configurations would cost.
This is the third generation of the cost model, introduced this year. FOLS rebuilt it from the ground up.
There are four different configurations that are compared in the model. The first two you would expect: a hierarchical star topology, where you have fiber in the risers and copper wires leading from wiring closets out to your desktops, and an all-fiber network, where all your network equipment is centralized in one place in your building and you take advantage of fiber’s ability to cover great distances to bring fiber optics right to your desktop.
In a sample configuration, the all-fiber network is just 5% more expensive than the hierarchical star.
What really drives the cost in each scenario? As FOLS Vice Chair Dan Harman explains, in the hierarchical star, you have a telecom room on every floor with the desktop switches in it, and that space has costs associated with it. In the all-fiber network, you need a fiber NIC in every PC, and that can run you a pretty penny.
So if you don’t agree with the group’s assumptions about the size of the telecom rooms needed or their associated costs, that could tip the balance toward copper. And the group readily acknowledges that.
In fact, the group encourages users to plug in real numbers for their particular setups and see for themselves how the costs change.
The cost model is available for free (but requires registration) from the FOLS Web site.
I mentioned that there were four configurations covered by the model, and I’ve only highlighted two of them. The second two are even more interesting, and I’ll get to those next time.
