The fiber optical cable provides long distance, low latency and fast speed network connection, which is a perfect choice for long reach applications, such as IP camera outdoor deployment. The fiber optic cable can deliver up to 120km fiber optical link. You are able to see the video pops up fast on NVR comparing with the copper Ethernet cable. The characteristics of fiber optic make it surge-proof. The fiber optic cable doesn’t pick up the surge in the environment which is a quite common thing in the long distance network deployment. However, there is still one downside on fiber optic cable, that is the power can’t be injected and sent through the cable itself.
To solve this problem, PoE Switch with fiber optic feature is one of the practical solutions. Its connection between the main control room and PoE Switch stays in using fiber optic cable. The front-end IP devices such as PoE IP camera will be attached to the PoE ports by using Cat5e or Cat6 copper Ethernet cable.
You know that the PoE Switch would be installed at outdoor and this presents challenges that concerned about the whole system.
Most of the commercial grade switches are designed to use in the rack with A/C cooling system. While the temperature goes up very quickly in summer after the sun arises. In such situation, hardened industrial grade products can work under the wide range temperature between -40℃to 75℃.
The next challenge is all kinds of surge incidents. Even the fiber optic cable won’t bring the surge to the PoE Switch, the power cord still could be the source of the surges. Thus the PoE Switch should come with strong surge protector to provide useful protection at outdoor deployment .
The last but not least is the waterproof capacity. If the rain leads into the switch, the switch could get rusty and even result in short circuit that will break the device or the whole system.
Let’s come back to the main topic about how to install outdoor PoE switch with fiber optic cable.
6100-26 is the outdoor PoE Switch with SFP fiber optic slot. The power supply unit is built-in which can supply 100W PoE power budget. Besides, it meets IP67 waterproof rated, so the PoE Switch can be buried under the ground directly.
By employing fiber optic link, the SFP modules are required before you can connect fiber optic cable. The SFP module converts signal between fiber optic and electronic. But most of time, the SFP module is not included and sells separately.
While choosing the SFP module, it has to be hardened grade as well. If the SFP module goes down because of ultra high or low temperature, the whole system will become unstable.
The SFP module also determines which type of fiber optic cable you should use. There are two major types of fiber optical cable – single mode and multi-mode fiber optical cable. The single mode fiber optic cable is being used for outdoor deployment in most of the cases. You can easily find the core of multi-mode is bigger than single mode fiber optical cable, so mixing up these two fiber optic cables is should not be and not recommended as well.
What’s more, bi-directional SFP module can save one piece of the fiber optical cable. Both transmitting and receiving signal will go through the same fiber optical cable but in different wavelength.
In the practical installation, the connector of fiber optical cable could become the challenges. Unlike cat5e/cat6, you can crimp the connector fast in the field. It needs fiber splice tools and special skill to make the connector. The pre-made fiber optical cable can get rid of these troubles. The terminate is pre-made in the factory and 100% test before shipping out. The pulling eyes are installed on both end, you will just need to wire the fiber optical cable and plug into the SFP module. You will get the fiber optical link ready. If the length is not enough, the fiber optical coupler can conjunct two cable together.
On the control room, you can either borrow the fiber optic slot from existed switch or use one media convertor to convert the fiber optical signal to electronic signal. Then attach media convertor to the primary network. The fiber link from point A to point B is set.
The outdoor PoE Switch with SFP also benefits the straight line setup. If you need to deploys PoE IP devices in the straight line, you can wire multiple pre-made fiber optical cable through the line, and each strand will be link to one PoE Switch. Want to know more about outdoor fiber optic PoE power system, you can get some useful information here.
