Fiber To The Office

A classical network consists of a rack with switches and patch panels and outlets in your cable conduit. Between the outlets and the patch panel you use Cat5, 6 or 7 cables. Here you need a separate cable for every RJ45 port if you want to go for Gigabit or have at least the chance to do so. Furthermore you have only limited control on the outlet itself. Disabling a port may be possible through the management of the switch, but which port of the switch is which outlet? With hundreds of ports this may be really an issue.

The other concept and better idea for certain environments is to go for FTTO (Fiber To The Office). A fiber cable running (if selected the right one) gives you more chances for upgrade ability and best possible investment protection. But installing fiber for every outlet will raise your investment for the new cabling system dramatically. Furthermore, purchasing fiber network cards for your PCs and Notebooks means an extra investment for you. And do not forget your VoIP phones. They need PoE Power. A lot of things to consider.

FTTO means that the Fiber is running to the office. Elsewhere you might see the term Fiber To The Desk which means quite the same. Here the fiber comes from your rack and switch through a fiber patch panel to the outlet. But the outlet is a small switch in your cable conduit providing you with either 10/100 or 10/100/1000 ports with or without PoE. These outlets can be controlled by SNMP.

Since having webmanageable switches in every office with IP addresses would mean a security breach, Black Box FTTO has several concepts for you to maintain all necessary aspects of administering the network.

If you now consider this to be a great idea, but you want to save cost by using normal Desktop switches at or in your cable conduit, you should consider which temperatures you will have in summer right at your window with sun shining in. In Winter there is the radiator right underneath the cable conduit. Only Black Box FTTO switches can really withstand all these environmental challenges.

There are mounting kits available for these FTTO devices for various cable conduits and even for your floor tank. If you plan your network using this concept, you should surely take advantage of Black Box Support and Services. Call your Black Box office or local contact person right now to get detailed investment and cabling plan and a mature concept.