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dual-ring topology

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by clickhappy

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I work for a general contractor. My company has installed a fiber optic backbone for one of our customers. They have recently asked us to put in a digital PA system that runs over the fiber. I would like to use a dual-ring topology to keep the system running in case a line gets cut. What kind of equipment do I need to accomplish this (i.e. hubs/routers)?

11 replies

by brv_gupta

Hi,

You can very well go ahead with your idea of setting up Dualo-ring topology. The best option would be going for a backbone Switch that supports Layer3 functionality with fiber ports.
There are several OEMs like Cisco, D-Link, Nortel, etc who supply Layer3 switches.

All the best.

Rgrds,

Gupta

by mshavrov

If you need to have "dual ring" means that you should have all required devices with FDDI interfaces connected as "dual-attachment station". What does it mean in general - you have traffic flow one direction in one ring from peer to peer, and in another direction on second ring. If one ring is failed, data still flow in another ring.

You should look a FDDI interface cards for equipment your client have or buy additional equipment to be integrated in the infrastructure which fits into your budget.

by mshavrov

Yes, FDDI is pretty expensive technology. But it's only way to use 2 fibers and have redundancy. With point-to-point links you ahve to use one strend for transmission and one for receiving. And if you want to have redundancy you need 4 fibers.

Another technology, which allows you to use one pair of fiber and interconnect many "fiber optics systems" is DWDM. But it's very very expensive.

Good luck,

Michael Shavrov
(CCNP, CCDP, MCSE W2K, MCSE+I, Sun SCSA, ...)

by Former member

Cards come with dual rings sometimes, like OC-192 cards...etc. Find out what kind of switches/interefaces they use now.

by Former member

FDDI is too old. Don't use it. Regarding your further comment concerning 100BT or Gigabit routers, yes, you can connect two different lines to the same source/destinations, using fiber tranceivers or fiber connectors on the router. You can even use them both for redundancy AND speed, provided you use an ECMP portocol between them, such as OSPF or EIGRP.

by clickhappy

I have been considering going with FDDI, but that is an expensive option. We are also going to put in power monitoring and direct digital control of HVAC. The customer requires that each of these systems run on separate fiber, so I would effectively have to set up a new network for each of these systems. Is there a way I can set up a dual-ring using 100base-t or gigabit ethernet routers?

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