Fibre speeds — too hot to handle?
Being not yet able to use full power of UFB network is a nice problem to have
The thing about doing something right is that problems related to it will generally bemuchnicer to deal with. That’s certainly true for our fibre broadband, with Chorusnowhaving madeits Hyperfibre wholesale offering available throughout the areas it operates in. Enable toldme they’re looking at a similar offering, andmaybenorthpower is thinking about it too.
Hyperfibremovesufbupseveral notches with symmetric 2, 4 andlater on, 8 gigabit-per-second offerings, someof which offer prioritised data channels for business customers.
That’s really fast: I’ve used a Hyperfibre connection since July through Orcon which calls it Fibre 4000and retails it for $199.95 a month, and having 4 gigabits per secondupanddownis something else. It’s mainly the upload speed that’s the “killer feature” for businesses that depend on being able to shift data around.
Jacking upthe already fast 550 Mbpsupload of standard Gig connections by morethan seven times for just over twice themoney is excellent value. Abargain even, whenyou considerhowmany thousandsmuchslower dedicated links cost not too long ago.
For business users, there aresome things to think about asyou breach the gigabit barrier, as Auckland tech and network specialist firm Searchlight founder Nathanward points out.
First, can sites and services that you connect to keepupwitha4gbps connection? Togive you ahint, Fibre 4000is so quick thatsomespeed-test sites on certain networks can’t handle it.
Hyperfibre offerings openupnew possibilities though, Nathan says, like software-defined networking services for distributed offices over standard internet connections rather than expensive private links.
“In this Covid-19 remote work era, a lot of businessesmaysee benefit in being able to provide faster remote access to office resources like file servers and hybrid clouds, or providing security for remote workers on companydeviceswhen accessing the internet by bringing these connections through the companynetwork without bottlenecks,” he adds.
Speaking of security, while the Nokia optical network termination (ONT) box with a single 10 Gbps and four 1Gbps Ethernet ports that Chorus installed is pretty good, Nathan points out that it’s not a fully-featured firewall.
Organisations with specific needs mayneed to look at 10 Gbps-capable firewalls, and be careful to select ones capable of high data packet rates. Internet data is “wrapped” in packets of different sizes that a firewall looks at and monitors, which in turn requires plenty of processing power in the device.
That makes them expensive, and the firewall will likely use quite a bit of power with noisy fans to cool it.
Distributing the Fibre4000 bandwidth bonanza around your premises will take somesmarts, as Orcon chief exec Taryn Hamilton notes.
The 802.11ac Wi-fi on the Nokia Ont/router works well but it’s not 802.11ax or Wi-fi 6which promises the multi-gigabit/s speeds that Fibre 4000needs. More onnewwireless networking in a different column, and let’s look at the wired options currently.
Oneproblem is that most wired network ports are still single-gigabit speeds (yes you can bond them together for faster performance but that’s a bit of ahack) and the copper Ethernet cables are notupto faster speeds.
That last thing can be annoying if you’ve neatly hiddenawaycategory 5wires in walls and ducts because youwant 10Gethernet-capable cabling.
Cat 6a and Cat 7 is needed to get the full 100 metre reach for 10 GE. Those cables can transmit signals at hundreds of megahertz and for that needed good interference shielding which in turn meansthey’re quite thick and can’t be bent much.
Ideally, weshould be looking at morefuture-proofed passive optical internal networks but they’re not commonyet. Idid a fewtrials with optical patch leads which are easy to connect (keep ’em clean though) but again, they’re only “bend tolerant” and a little tricky to install nicely.
If Ihad amac Pro workstation, which Idon’t, Iwould’ve plugged somecables into its 10Geports and been done, butmy2018macbook Pro uses Thunderbolt 3 connectors.
These are great, with40gbps data speeds andowcsent a 10GE Thunderbolt adapter, and Nathan lentmeaqnapand a Sonnet one as well. Hooked upwith short Thunderbolt cables, the 10GE adapters areminimumfuss and give you4/4 Gbps speed with ease.
However, they’re not cheap at $200-$400 each, andcomein biggish boxy cases. And, like 10Geswitches, they use a fair bit of power (5V / 3A) and run hot. Using one with a laptop on battery is suboptimal and it’s better to be on mains power at adesk.
Things will change withmore eleganthomeand small office solutions becoming available for multi-gigabit connections like Fibre 4000soon.
Meanwhile, it’s good to seehow easy it was to future-proof theufb network, somuchso that it’s perhaps a little ahead of its time right now.