om3/om4 fibre upgrade?

[john.francis]

We currently have OM1/OM2 throughout our network, but looking to upgrade to 10G in the nearer future. We may need to run new fibre cabling which will work with our current interfaces which are mainly GBIC WS-G5484 and sfp GLC-SX-MM tranceivers and be good enough to run 10G or even 100G at a later date after the hardware is updated?  I know this is a general question but any technical advice would be greatly appreciated.                

[Tom Randstrom]

As you increase the speed of the link, you typically shorten it's reach.  This link (FOA) is a good reference to show you the various link lengths based upon link speed (and transceiver type). 10Gbps on OM1 MMF is 220 meters

100Gbps transceivers are in their early stage of deployment; mainly targeted at the long-haul networks (singlemode fiber).  For short reach links (100m/125m), they are using multiple OM3/OM4 fibers, with 10 transmit & 10 receive (10Gbps per fiber) per 100G link or 4 transmit/4 receive (25Gbps per fiber) per 100G link.  Link lengths will continue to evolve as the market matures and will we will see improvements in reach length over OM3/4 fiber. We will probably even see 100Gbps over OM1/2 fibers (at reasonable link lengths) as volumes deployments increase (my prediction only).

It would be sound to install OM4-rated multimode fibers for new installations, to provide the highest capability along with some singlemode fibers to future-proof the backbone network (400Gbps and higher links). 

Hope this helps!

[john.francis]

Thanks Tom.