residential fiber

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tortuga

tortuga

Code Historian
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Oregon
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Electrical Design
What are you all using to pre wire new homes for fiber ?
Pre made cables? Or are you splicing / fusing your own pig tails etc ?
 
When my daughter had a new home built in 2013, I had the EC install some strategically-placed raceways. Originally used for RG-6 and Cat-5. When it came time to go fiber, it was a simple matter to pull out the old stuff and replace with fiber.
 
I think cat6 is the more common approach to in home wiring.

If I wanted to do it today, I would probably have custom cables made (fiber is cheap), and inwall boxes for splices/connectors. I wouldn't mount any connectors like cat6 ethernet because fiber needs to be clean for the light to be clear. Bending radius for fiber is larger, and the glass can break, so i would probably oversize the boxes to avoid any issues.

I would avoid using patch cables unless in conduit or in air conditioned settings. I would use thick outdoor insulation. I would also avoid any shielded cable because why worry about the grounding and bonding of fiber if you don't have too.
 
Elect117 said:
I think cat6 is the more common approach to in home wiring.

If I wanted to do it today, I would probably have custom cables made (fiber is cheap), and inwall boxes for splices/connectors. I wouldn't mount any connectors like cat6 ethernet because fiber needs to be clean for the light to be clear. Bending radius for fiber is larger, and the glass can break, so i would probably oversize the boxes to avoid any issues.

I would avoid using patch cables unless in conduit or in air conditioned settings. I would use thick outdoor insulation. I would also avoid any shielded cable because why worry about the grounding and bonding of fiber if you don't have too.
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Perhaps I'm behind the times, but is CAT 6 really necessary/useful in residential applications?
 
I like to play videogames so I prefer hardwired connections.

I think greater than 1Gbps on the in home wiring helps future proof.
 
tortuga said:
What are you all using to pre wire new homes for fiber ?
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You don't.

It's only one run anyway from the outside to the ONT location which can be anywhere the installer or owner decides- not you.

The provider will push for WiFi, but CAT5e or 6 should be used and that is where you come in. Home runs to a convenient accessible location like you have always done (attic, basement, closet...). Let the installer handle it from there.

-Hal
 
Smurf tube. Then they can install whatever they want, later.

Fiber To The Desk (FTTD) has been just over the horizon for 25 years now. I don't know why it hasn't caught on but I'm sure there are reasons.

It does seem that twisted copper is coming near the end of its possible bandwidth, but it works for now.

I moved into an office that had older cat 5 and it is running gigabit (really 600) on the existing cables just fine for now.
 
To answers Tortuga, honestly you could just stick with cat6/6a(if needed and coax. Anything above Docsis(coax) 3.1 or Docsis 4 will be fiber like speeds. Some new homes or master planned communities are pre-wired to a media can somewhere inside a closet and then copper/coax/fiber out to the side of the house where incoming services are at. Not 100% on the fiber though. Hope it helps.
 
gadfly56 said:
Perhaps I'm behind the times, but is CAT 6 really necessary/useful in residential applications?
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Depends on who's answering your question. For most applications 5e is perfectly fine since it carries 1GbE, which is what most switches and NICs support these days. That said, I used 6a (and copper-core RG-6Q on the off chance I get satellite tv) when I did my house a couple years back, but there were two contributing factors to that decision. First was that I record my kids sports events so we can review and discuss later, and those recordings are so stupidly large that I wanted 10GbE links between my desktop, television, and NAS. Second factor was that I had access to the stuff for cheap, so why not? I suppose it'll be nice if FTTP ever arrives in my area, but that wasn't a motivating factor.
 
ModbusMan said:
Depends on who's answering your question. For most applications 5e is perfectly fine since it carries 1GbE, which is what most switches and NICs support these days. That said, I used 6a (and copper-core RG-6Q on the off chance I get satellite tv) when I did my house a couple years back, but there were two contributing factors to that decision. First was that I record my kids sports events so we can review and discuss later, and those recordings are so stupidly large that I wanted 10GbE links between my desktop, television, and NAS. Second factor was that I had access to the stuff for cheap, so why not? I suppose it'll be nice if FTTP ever arrives in my area, but that wasn't a motivating factor.
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OK, fair enough, some people might find it useful. Second ignorant question; my understanding is that CAT 6 terminations, of whatever flavor, are famously finicky and it's very easy to miss the performance mark via a subpar termination. Excepting those doing it for a living, is this a fair caveat for the weekend data warrior?
 
Of course, running some sort of conduit, like smurf tube, is the most future proof.

There are also cable bundles that have a number of different technologies in the same sheath. I've seen in the same sheath: 2xRG6, 2xFiber, 2xCat5.
 
gadfly56 said:
Second ignorant question; my understanding is that CAT 6 terminations, of whatever flavor, are famously finicky and it's very easy to miss the performance mark via a subpar termination. Excepting those doing it for a living, is this a fair caveat for the weekend data warrior?
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As long as they're using the appropriate tools and following the instructions (like not having silly amounts of cable untwisted and flapping in the breeze), most folks should be able to do things with minimal fuss, especially if they leave themselves enough slack in the wall that cutting off a bad keystone and making a second (or third, or fourth) attempt isn't an issue. Even if there is a non-optimal connection, the hardware will just downshift to a slower speed to compensate anyway, provided it's not a fatal error (like having a shield strand escape notice and short against a data line).
 
Thanks for the responses, its surprising that Charlie B has terminated fiber in his new home, presumably to several rooms and a patch panel.
 
tortuga said:
Thanks for the responses, its surprising that Charlie B has terminated fiber in his new home, presumably to several rooms and a patch panel.
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I believe he said the fiber outlet (singular) was in the main bedroom. I read that is the builder ran a fiber from the MPOE location of the building to one location in the townhouse. The bedroom seems like a strange location to me but I have no idea of the floor plan.
 
Not everyone who does network wiring should be doing it. A friend called me to help with a job he couldn't get to work, and this was only for a VOIP system. He had no clue about maintaining twists, etc.


This is his work:

Bef.JPG


This is my work:

Aft.JPG
 
LarryFine said:
Not everyone who does network wiring should be doing it. A friend called me to help with a job he couldn't get to work, and this was only for a VOIP system. He had no clue about maintaining twists, etc.

This is his work: SNAFU

This is my work: Perfection
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Nice work master Larry.
 
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