* FOLS cost model shows benefit of fiber-to-the-telecommunications-enclosure
Last time, I started discussing the cabling cost model developed by the Fiber Optics LAN Section of the Telecommunications Industry Association – but I didn’t get to the most interesting part.
While the model can give you cost estimates of an all-fiber network and a hierarchical-star network, it also introduces the concept of fiber-to-the-telecommunications-enclosure, or FTTE. It turns out that this network cabling design brings the most cost benefits of all.
In an FTTE network, you run fiber all the way from a central location to an “enclosure” – a “$300 box with a fan,” as FOLS Vice Chair Dan Harman says. This enclosure can be placed close to users, under the floor or in a ceiling space, and copper cabling can run from the enclosure to desktops.
The network uses the best attributes of fiber and copper. You’re using fiber for the long runs (from the central location to the enclosures on every floor), and fiber is better than copper for long distances. “It’s not just good at it, it’s cheaper,” Harman says.
You’re using copper to connect to desktops, and copper is better than fiber when it comes to NIC costs.
Plus, you’re not taking up valuable floor space with a wiring closet on every floor. And moves, adds and changes are easier than with a centralized cabling scenario.
FOLS says that its cost model shows FTTE setups coming in at 30% to 40% less than the hierarchical star architecture.
The FTTE architecture was recently standardized by the TIA, although the idea has been around in the form of Corning’s “zone cabling,” for example, says FOLS Chair Gary Cawley.
The cost model is available for free (but requires registration) from the FOLS Web site.
