Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (2353)	3/20/2001 4:07:14 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Kenneth, yes. A ton of money can be saved. Especially wrt to the bolded part of your post, concerning the closets. And the primary reason for this advantage of fiber has to do with its distance insensitivity, in relative terms, compared to that of copper. Category 5e copper requires that every end point must be within 90 meters (link distance) of the switch (closet). Fiber, on the other hand, allows distances that let you connect to just about anywhere on campus, or beyond in some cases, from a central point, which allows one to consume far less and make better use of space, while also reducing the demands on Power and AC and raised flooring, not to mention the sizing of the actual LAN resources in a far more efficient manner. In a 40 story building with a large floorplate this could mean the difference between 170 equipment rooms, and one that only requires about four (4), with smaller unconditioned cross-connect spaces on every floor to transition the vertical riser fibers to the horizontal drops to the desk. In case you are thinking about "what about the telephones?", the connections for those too can be accommodated in the cross-connect spaces. The PBX and/or carrier terminals to the central office would be colocated (even if caged off or partitioned) in the data centers. There is a peculiar 'twist' here, if I might use that term. For all of their brilliance and foresight, the VoIP vendors have not yet come to terms with a design that uses fiber to the desk without a dependency on copper (they apply battery and ground over the Cat 5 Ethernet cable to the desk phone in order to power it!). Connections on each floor, in turn, would be passive in nature (no active electronics needed for a fiber patch in a closet that would be far smaller), requiring only about 36 sq ft of undonditioned floor space per story as opposed to 200 sq ft (on floors other than those where the two-to-four main rooms would be situated). No one ever takes this into consideration (let me re-phrase that by stating that no one wants to hear this) because it comes off a different expenditure line on the project's construction budget. But if you add up the costs of air conditioning, ups and raised floors in multiple closets per floor in a skyscraper... not to mention the breakage that occurs when individual smaller equipment nests are used on each floor that are less dense (requiring more of them, consuming far more power) than a centralized one would be... even if it had to backed up or load shared. I can go on. But the folks whose livelihoods are dependent on a lot of steel and furnishings going in and a lot of interior construction taking place, are usually the same ones who are responsible for assigning space, too. As my grandpa used to say, "Pleash! Don't get me shtarted!" ... on the copper-centric trades, and the facilities and design & engineering folks who make up EIT/TIA/BICSI, and life-long supply chain relationships, whose collective assembly represents what would almost appear to be a cartel that could give lessons to the likes of OPEC.