Fibre Pre-Wire Anyone?

[Dan F]

Argument against is:

- It's overkill as CAT6a supports 10GBASE-T up to 100m.

- If you want to future-proof for more than 10GBASE-T then run multiple CAT6a.

- You need tranceivers/extenders etc. to use fiber.

 

The argument for is:

- Supports faster speeds and no potential interference.

- Uncompressed 8K TV (and whatever else that comes along in next 10-20yrs) will need more than 10GBASE-T for sure.

- You can avoid termination concerns, buy simply patch buying cables in customizable lengths.

- It's potentially cheaper/easier to run fibre than to run conduit for future proofing.  A 15m duplex OM3 patch cable is only £8 [1], 15m of 25mm conduit is probably around £10 (screwfix prices) and need fitting with nice bends etc.

 

(Of course if you want to go crazy with your future prooding, you maybe want to look at using a 4/6/8 strand breakout cable. but even that is only £40 per drop.)

 

Anyone done this?   What rooms did you take it to, what product did you use and how many strands did you use?

 

[1] https://www.fs.com/uk/products/41735.html?attribute=226&id=99217

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by Dan F

[TonyT]

Only you can decide, 14 years ago I ran in 50 plus cat 6 data points around the house while rewiring my Victorian home,  wifi then became the thing and only the past 3 years since buying smart Tvs and X box's has it been worth while.

 

Dropping in flexi conduits with draw wires makes sense to me.

 

However I had no further disruption to decor, daily life so I'm happy it was worth it .

I try to minimise grief in my home life and work life! 

[andy]

I would (and have) run CAT6 (and CAT6a where I am running external PoE, not 6a everywhere) structured cabling back to 2 patch panels.  I did consider fibre but decided just running some ducts was more sensible instead.

 

One thing I underestimated considerably was service void requirements - if I was doing this again I would cater good size separate voids to run plumbing, electrics and network in along with spare ducting too.  In my case it's compounded by my radial distribution for both all plumbing and electics so the amount of crap running about is crazy...

 

Drop unused CAT6 into walls behind where you might need it in future (every corner?) and/or empty ducting will be sufficient I would think in addition what you'll actually have visible.

[Dan F]

On 14/01/2021 at 08:37, andy said:

I would (and have) run CAT6 (and CAT6a where I am running external PoE, not 6a everywhere) structured cabling back to 2 patch panels.  I did consider fibre but decided just running some ducts was more sensible instead.

 

One thing I underestimated considerably was service void requirements - if I was doing this again I would cater good size separate voids to run plumbing, electrics and network in along with spare ducting too.  In my case it's compounded by my radial distribution for both all plumbing and electics so the amount of crap running about is crazy...

 

Drop unused CAT6 into walls behind where you might need it in future (every corner?) and/or empty ducting will be sufficient I would think in addition what you'll actually have visible.

 

I'm flooding with CAT6 currently:

- 2 to each potential TV location

- 4 to home cinema location, 3 to home office.

- 1 to various ceiling speaker locations (potential locations for wireless acess points)

- 1 to potential location for door intercom

- 3- > 4 to various things in the plant room that can be "connected".

- 1 to kitchen island and a couple of other places in kitchen.

- Couple to potential locations for cameras.

 

I had considered putting in some pre-terminated fibre in, but haven't (yet) convinced myself that there is going to be any need for it, even in the future.   We aren't doing video distirbution, so even if there is an 8k apple tv in a few years, this will all be any tv anyway.   I'm, still willing to be convinced though... 

 

Edited April 26, 2021 by Dan F

[Tosh]

I've thought about this as well but like you can't see the need just yet. Only reason would maybe be where you had lots of power cables sharing conduit with copper with potential interference to the end device maybe. I was thinking of running our copper through conduit as it may make life a little easier in the future to swap to fibre i.e. use the cat6 as a draw cord for the fibre. We've buildings across our site and even then I'm not sure if fibre is the way to go as I'll need media converters or switches with sfp at each end.

[Dan F]

8 minutes ago, Tosh said:

I've thought about this as well but like you can't see the need just yet. Only reason would maybe be where you had lots of power cables sharing conduit with copper with potential interference to the end device maybe.

 

I did put some in in the end.  Not everywhere though, just a few runs from the rack location:

- 2 TV locations

- 2 Study locations

- Loft

 

My initial plan was to buy several 15-20m pre-terminated cables, but I left it until the last minute so instead bought a hundred meters unterminated.  If I ever need it then I'll get it terminated. I used OM4 tight-buffered 8-fibre £1.50/m.  OM4 isn't justified though and 4-fibre would probably have been enough, so could have paid £0.60/m which is roughly what a good.

 

Quote

I was thinking of running our copper through conduit as it may make life a little easier in the future to swap to fibre i.e. use the cat6 as a draw cord for the fibre.

 

Conduit is a good idea, but if the conduit costs more than the fibre then I'd question it. 

 

Quote

We've buildings across our site and even then I'm not sure if fibre is the way to go as I'll need media converters or switches with sfp at each end.

 

Multiple buildings can actually be a very good reason to use fibre instead of CAT6, even if you need to use media converter.  At least if the buildings don't have a common ground ..

[Tosh]

All the buildings are no more than 30m away and I'll be running u/g duct. Tbf I haven't costed it all up in detail so we'll see but from a tech point of view I can't see the requirement just yet. As long as I have some way of upgrading easily enough in the future and if I do rip the copper out then hopefully it will still be worth something at the scrappies ?

[jfb]

On 13/01/2021 at 16:56, Dan F said:

Uncompressed 8K TV (and whatever else that comes along in next 10-20yrs) will need more than 10GBASE-T for sure.

Does anyone really notice the quality improvement from 4K to 8k? I mean even up to 4K seems pretty marginal at best. Just so we can all use more power. The joy of progress! 
 

then again, it’s your house so do whatever you want!

[Tosh]

Our site is 5 miles from the nearest exchange and no site of any fibre for the foreseeable so anything is future proof, can't get jack crap at the moment. NB we're in rented atm so using state of the art internet ?