[c-nsp] 100FX Ports or Media Convertors?

[Lamar Owen]

On Saturday 13 September 2008 04:12:32 Will Hargrave wrote:
> In the area of larger sites where we have 6500s, especially given the
> lack of 100FX support in newer edge switches, we are just trying to get
> links up to gigabit. The length constraints can be a major pain, we're
> using a combination of replacement with singlemode or 1000LX + mode
> conditioning cables (550m over 62.5/125). We don't really want to buy
> 100FX stuff for the 6500 due to the limited benefit and lifetime.

The length issues for 1000BaseSX and LX have hit us, too.  We have a number of 
older 62.5/125 multimode runs that are beyond the reach of LX (600-900 
meters) but work great at 100BFX.  Since we're using older gear anyway, I was 
ble to find 24 port 100BFX cards for our Catalyst 550x's and 85x0's that 
works very well for this sort of run.

Until I can get those locations upgraded to singlemode fiber (which is going 
to be a while; no pressing bandwidth need for those sites, since they only 
have a half dozen or less endpoints at each location) we'll be running the 
5505's and 5509 with 100bFX links.  Honestly, I've not found a feature the 
6500 provides other tha QoS that would make a very expensive upgrade like 
that worth it.
-- 
Lamar Owen
Chief Information Officer
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC  28772
http://www.pari.edu