atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums VOIP Phones & IP PBX Networking feed to switch

i am working with a customer needing about 16 cat 5 runs in a production area. approximately 250 ft average length. they have a switch and rather than have so many runs from office to production they asked about one run to a switch in production area and feed from that switch to the work stations and machines. i told them i didnt thing it was a problem. will this cause any problems. thanks, dave

What are the bandwidth requirements of the devices in the production area? Do they connect back to a server or device in the office? or do the devices talk amongst themselves mostly?

not being a computer guy im not sure about that. i will try to get more info. thank you. dave

If that's the way they want to go. I would run Fiber as copper will become a bottleneck.

All you will be doing is installing a standard IDF in the production area and then connecting it back to the main switch. Best practice is to use Fiber and I would use SM and not MM.

Placing a switch in that area makes a lot more sense than running 16 cables back to the Patch panel. Get a good quality gigabit switch and you will have no problems. The feed from the existing network switch could be in cable, but, Patrick is correct, a fiber feed is the preferred method of feeding the switch, however, before you offer that, make sure their existing equipment supports fiber. Many switches do not.

As far as Single Mode vs Multi Mode, today, the cost difference is so small and you can get the cables pre-terminated and verified for loss that it makes no sense to go with anything but single mode.

Rcaman

If the switch's don't support fiber a media converter would work.

I would agree with fiber being the way to go.

At my last job (manufacturing) we had 4-5 IDFs around the shop floor, connected with MM fiber back to the MDF. 24 or 48 port gig switch in each rack, worked out nicely.

Nice thing about Single Mode Fiber is it is future proof.