Increasing bandwidth on existing fiber cable

[itchibahn]

Can you increase the bandwidth of an existing fiber with 100Mbps media converter by just replacing with the 1Gbps media converter?

I got two buildings about 200 meters apart connected with fiber with 100Mbps media converter, which was installed many years ago. This is causing a bottleneck, and need to increase its bandwidth. Not sure what type of fiber it is. What are my options? Thanks.

 

[Jürgen Ender]

As far as i know, it depends on the fiber.
For example if it is a Cat5 cable you can't get higher than 100Mbps and if it is a Cat5e it is possible to get 1000Mbps. Both depends on the length of the cable.
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/proper-networks-cable-installation.2053136/

IMO you have three choices, first is to renew the fiber or lay a second one, the second is to rent a fiber from a provider and the last one is to get a radio relay, which is a bit costly.

 

[itchibahn]

Thanks for a reply. I think there's a misunderstanding, let me try to explain.

I'm trying to stream multiple 4K videos from one building to another building. With 100Mbps fiber connection, there's too much of lag. We ran this fiber many years ago because the copper wires (CAT5e) couldn't handle the distance.

I would like to know, by changing out the 100Mbps media converters with 1Gbps media converters would work. I'm hoping to find a solution without having to replace existing fiber.

I have also considered airFiber P2P radios from UBNT, but the cost is prohibitive.

 

[Gryz]

Ignore what mr Ender is saying.
Category-5 (cat-5 and cat-5e) are names for a specific type of copper cables. Cat-5 and Cat-5e have nothing to do with fiber.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

Ender does have a point. What you can do with a specific cable, depends on the properties of the cable. But fiber-connections are a lot more forgiving that copper cables. You can get futher with fiber. And you can do higher speeds. So yes, if your fiber is of decent quality, it is very likely that you can do 1 Gbps or even 10 Gbps over your existing fiber. But I'm not an expert, so I can't say.

I'm not even sure what a "media-converter" is exactly. Just a simple device that converts bits from copper to fiber ? Like a repeater ? Or does it understand what ethernet is ? That might make it a kind of bridge (aka layer-2 switch). Even if it is a simple repeater that repeats bits, that's good enough for you. Just buy 2 new converters, for 1 Gbps copper (cat-5 or cat-6) to 1 Gbps fiber. That should work.

The store or manufactorer that sells those converters should be able to tell you if your current fiber-cable is good enough or not. But if it runs only over 200 meters, most fiber should be good enough.

Let us know if you get it working. I'm curious.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Short answer. Yes.

Long answer. Depends on what the fiber specs are.

Chances are, it does gigabit. So, changing up the media converter to a gigabit version can work

 

[ch33zw1z]

Ignore what mr Ender is saying.
Category-5 (cat-5 and cat-5e) are names for a specific type of copper cables. Cat-5 and Cat-5e have nothing to do with fiber.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

Ender does have a point. What you can do with a specific cable, depends on the properties of the cable. But fiber-connections are a lot more forgiving that copper cables. You can get futher with fiber. And you can do higher speeds. So yes, if your fiber is of decent quality, it is very likely that you can do 1 Gbps or even 10 Gbps over your existing fiber. But I'm not an expert, so I can't say.

I'm not even sure what a "media-converter" is exactly. Just a simple device that converts bits from copper to fiber ? Like a repeater ? Or does it understand what ethernet is ? That might make it a kind of bridge (aka layer-2 switch). Even if it is a simple repeater that repeats bits, that's good enough for you. Just buy 2 new converters, for 1 Gbps copper (cat-5 or cat-6) to 1 Gbps fiber. That should work.

The store or manufactorer that sells those converters should be able to tell you if your current fiber-cable is good enough or not. But if it runs only over 200 meters, most fiber should be good enough.

Let us know if you get it working. I'm curious.

The media converter he's referencing is physical media. Just takes frames from copper and repeats them on the fiber, vise versa.

The OP really needs to know what the fiber cable is, should be printed on he cladding.

 

[sdifox]

http://www.lanshack.com/Fiber-Type-vs-Speed-and-Distance.aspx

 

[thecoolnessrune]

As @sdifox covered, the answer to your question is in determining the length of the fiber you ran, and the grade of fiber you laid. If your fiber is less than say 270 meters in length, then you can run gigabit over it, regardless of the fiber grade. At that point, if you get a media converter capable of 1gb (and a module of course for the converter than can do 1gb speeds) then you should have no issues running a gigabit link. If the fiber is longer than 270 meters, then you should check the grade written on the fiber and compare it with the table sdifox linked you to see if you have a high enough grade fiber laid to carry a 1gb connection the distance you need it to go.

Doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.