Speed between Switches & IDF MDF

[springxdxml]

Hello,

I had a question reguarding the types of speed and cable one should use when connecting switches in an IDF togeather, and then connecting those swtiches back to an MDF.

If I connect each switch in the idf togeather with gigabit ethernet, probably cat 6 cables,  how do I know that these 1 gigabit inter-connections will support all the traffic between the switches without issues? What if the right speed that I should have used was 10 gigabit? How often is 10gigabit used to interconnect switches in the idf?

And this is the same issue im trying to figure out with connecting the IDF back to the MDF. Would 1 cat6 via gigabit ethernet speed be enough for all that traffic goign back to the MDF? Is there a general rule or something to follow so that I know what speeds to use when?

Also, why use fiber 1gb vs 1gb over cat6 if distance between mdf and idf is less than 100m.

Thank you for your time

[Leo Laohoo]

Duplicate post #2.

[Joseph W. Doherty · Accepted solution]

Disclaimer

The  Author of this posting offers the information contained within this  posting without consideration and with the reader's understanding that  there's no implied or expressed suitability or fitness for any purpose.  Information provided is for informational purposes only and should not  be construed as rendering professional advice of any kind. Usage of this  posting's information is solely at reader's own risk.

Liability Disclaimer

In  no event shall Author be liable for any damages whatsoever (including,  without limitation, damages for loss of use, data or profit) arising out  of the use or inability to use the posting's information even if Author  has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

Posting

Regarding your questions about bandwidths between switches, that really depends on traffic volume.  An old rule-of-thumb has been uplink bandwidths might be good at about 24:1 for users and 4:1 to 8:1 for servers.  Such a rule-of-thumb doesn't account for your hosts their bandwidth requirements, and I believe, with higher bandwidth links, ratios can be increased.

For various technical reasons, fiber is generally considered superior to copper, and so is often preferred by many for inter-network-device links, even when copper offers equivalent performance.  I, though, have used gig copper for inter-network-device links with no notable issues (but with huge cost savings).

[springxdxml]

Thanks for this, it makes sense to me.