What is an Optical LAN?
Optical LAN is today’s best method for creating local area network infrastructure. Optical LAN systems utilize fiber optic cables to transfer data and information opposed to other antiquated systems that use almost exclusively metal cables. Fiber optic based systems offer a variety of advantages making them a clearly advantageous network option.
Why Optical LAN Is a Smart Next-Gen Strategy?
System Tech can help your organization deploy Optical LAN as a next-generation strategy. As mentioned, single-mode fiber optic cables break the distance and bandwidth bonds associated with copper lines. Optical LAN’s wide coverage area exceeds the needs of large and small business complexes, campuses and multi-story buildings.
Let us help you upgrade your network to next-gen Optical LAN with minimal business disruption.
Implementation of Optical LAN technology has come into its own over the past several years. Many businesses didn’t see the benefit of an all-fiber network for their needs. So, what’s driving the changeover from copper to optical?
The demands of business networks have evolved dramatically. Companies that used to consider network upgrades a best-case expenditure now consider fast, dependable performance mission-critical. Congested networks do more than inconvenience users, they now cost connected businesses a lot of money.
New Trends Demand Fiber Optic Network Infrastructure
Increased speeds and demands for networks that can keep up with the available technology put companies in awkward positions. However, there’s often a misconception of what an updated network costs in comparison to the gains. Plus, organizations easily underestimate the costs of not upgrading to an optical LAN.
Let’s look at an example. For an organization with Cat5 cabling, the max speed is 1Gbps. With Cat6, speeds of 10Gbps are possible for 55 meters of copper cabling. To reach the full 100 meters, Cat6A or higher must be used.
Passive optical LANs running on a fiberoptic backbone don’t require complex electronics to boost their signals — because there’s no associated degradation. With optical cabling, your network can support petabytes — millions of gigabytes —of data. Upgrading speeds becomes easier too. The technician simply changes out the optics at the end.
Optical LAN has the potential to act as a technology hero to organizations struggling with outdated network infrastructures. At System Tech, we can evaluate your current system and help you understand what you’re giving up by sticking to mid-last-century copper cables.
Trends that demand bandwidth and distance capabilities include:
- Cloud services: The cloud has considerable benefits in terms of access and security. However, the new demands of running your business in the cloud can wreak havoc on outmoded networks. Today, businesses use hybrid cloud architectures to connect directly to the cloud, ramping up North-South client-server traffic — on infrastructure designed for the previous move to East-West server-to-server data center traffic. Traditional networks may face constricted data flow with an upgrade to more robust backbones such as Optical LAN.
- Internet of Things (IoT): The future of mobile technology also impacts devices that communicate with one another and people via the internet of things (IoT). Soon, wireless speeds will equal wired speeds, straining campuses with copper cabling. Wi-Fi 6 and 5G will provide high-quality connections between more and more devices, straining network bandwidth — except at forward-looking organizations that invest in optical LAN capability.
- Video: A few minutes on social media shows that modern users are no longer camera shy. The pervasiveness of video in corporate and public settings includes video collaboration, surveillance, streaming and user support. High-quality, low-latency demands of videos and live-streaming tax traditional networks. This is a problem optical LANs can solve.
Top Reasons to Upgrade to Optical LAN
- Future Proof Infrastructure – For businesses looking to upgrade Cat5 ethernet cables that use RJ-45 connectors, optical LAN makes sense. Optical LANs can form the basis of business and other campus networks for many years to come.
Single mode fiber is not limited by the bandwidth constraints of copper cabling. When you install Single Mode Fiber with an Optical LAN, recabling is no longer necessary. With Optical LAN an upgrade doesn’t require tearing out cabling, only a nondestructive procedure of replacing the ONTs
- Reduced Space Requirements and Operating Expenses – It does more with less. The space you need for Comm rooms can drop up to 90% and what would require 100 copper cables, one single-mode fiber will do. OLAN has a reach of 20-30 kilometers as opposed to copper’s 100 meter reach. Having smaller and fewer communications closets also saves on operating expenses such as HVAC and electrical.
- Secure and Reliable – There are fewer points of vulnerability and requires fewer personnel to manage vs a legacy copper network. This equals simplicity and security.
Multiple redundancy options are available depending on your needs providing up to 99.9999% uptime.
- Cost effective – Carrier grade equipment, centralized management and lower maintenance costs allow you to allocate more funds toward activities that improve your organization-not maintaining your network. Also, fiber-based systems have an immensely greater bandwidth than copper-based systems. This means that more can be accomplished using less materials.
- Electromagnetic and Radio Frequency Interference Immunity – The way copper wire and optical fibers carry data is very different. Copper relies on electrical signals that are naturally susceptible to electrical magnetic signals interfering.
- Lower Risk of Sparks and Fire Hazards – Electricity traveling through metal wires are inherently at risk of causing sparks. These sparks could potentially start fires.
- Increase Transmission Distance – Optical LAN offers impressive transmission distances especially when compared to legacy copper networks. This does allow facilities to consolidate the amount of telecommunication centers needed to accommodate.
- Improved Network Bandwidth – Fiber optic networks offer significantly greater bandwidth than copper network systems.
- Scalable and adaptable to the future – Upgrades to 10G and beyond won’t require a forklift upgrade. Add higher speeds where you need them by changing out equipment on each end. Deploy higher speeds where you need it, over the same fiber infrastructure.Looking forward to SDN? OLAN provides a clear future path to open-source and standards-based SDN. Optical LAN is the best choice for the modern, high-performance 21st-century LAN
Professional Optical LAN Installations
Contact System Tech online today for an evaluation of your organization’s networking needs and to discuss our services further. Let us help you create a network that can handle the collaborative, remote and data-intensive traffic of current and future business trends.
