If BAAs current cable is tested and determined to be reliable with Gigabit Ether
ID: 3697966 • Letter: I
Question
If BAAs current cable is tested and determined to be reliable with Gigabit Ethernet, should the company use its existing wiring or install new wiring? If costs (including installation labor) for Category 6 and fiber-optic cable are $25,000 and $40,000, respectively, which cable should BAA choose if the existing network must be rewired for Gigabit Ethernet? What are the advantages of operating a separate high-speed network to support video-editing applications in addition to the existing network? What are the disadvantages? Which cable type is most suitable? Should BAA seriously consider moving to InfiniBand and stand-alone storage servers? Why or why not? If BAA should adopt InfiniBand, how quickly should it do so
Explanation / Answer
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Q) What are the advantages of operating a separate high-speed network to support video-editing applications in addition to the existing network? What are the disadvantages
A)
>The advantages would be increased performance for the video-editing software and any other multimedia applications being used on the dedicated network. Even though a new infrastructure, whether it is Cat 6 or Fiber-optics, will be installed, the new network will still have its limitations if the video workstations and other equipment are both housed on it. Either the video editing software or the normal day to day tasks will hog up bandwidth and eventually they will have decreased performance. The company would still be much better off without the separate network, but to spend this kind of money it is important to get maximum performance
>The disadvantage to the dedicated/separate high-speed network would be the cost. We can see from the above question that installing Cat 6 or Fiber-optics will be expensive and there needs to be a clear return on investment. If the company is going to use a dedicated network for video-editing I would suggest considering going all fiber-optics since the next suggestion would be to use the InfiniBand, which can only use Fiber-optic wiring. Since the company is installing more video-editing workstations this year and the next, the bandwidth usage is only going to increase, especially with HD videos needing to be process/shared amongst the network
Q)If BAAs current cable is tested and determined to be reliable with Gigabit Ethernet, should the company use its existing wiring or install new wiring?
A)
Even if BAA’s current cabling is able to work with Gigabit Ethernet, it may only be able to handle up to 1 Gbps. It is assumed they are using a maximum of Cat 5 cabling currently, simply because Cat 6 was not available in 1993. Cat 5 can handle the 10/100 Mbps switch however Cat 5 is not as reliable for Gigabit and definitely will not be able to handle 10 Gbps which is expected to be the norm in the near future
Q)Should BAA seriously consider moving to InfiniBand and stand-alone storage servers? Why or why not?
A)
InfiniBand touts an increase in transfer capabilities and support for multiple simultaneous connections. With BAA’s congested network that is constantly needing multiple simultaneous connections I believe BAA would benefit from InfiniBand. However, to ensure that they are future-proofed in their investment, I would wait until the future of InfiniBand technology is better known