October 07, 2023
Whether it's a business network or a home network, fast and reliable Ethernet is a must. With maturity and popularization of 10G Ethernet technology in commercial field, cost of deploying 10G network has dropped significantly, so some home users have begun to consider upgrading previous 1G fiber optic home network to 10G, but for home users, 10G fiber optic network is a new area. In this article, you will find some useful tips and typical solutions for a 10G home fiber network to help you plan and deploy an efficient and cost-effective 10G home fiber network.
Web evaluationBefore deploying a 10G home fiber network, most important thing is to conduct a comprehensive assessment of your home network to ensure that network deployed later can meet all your traffic needs. Essentially, how many computers, printers, and other peripherals do you need to connect to your network? What types of mobile devices need access to your network? What range should your wireless Wi-Fi cover? Do you need to control all network devices? Do you want your network equipment to have some special features? Where do you want 10G connection? Do I need to keep my previous 1G connection?
What equipment is needed to deploy a 10G fiber optic home network?The essential components of a 10G home fiber network are home's 10 Gigabit switches, routers, and wireless access points (APs). Depending on your home network requirements, you may also need devices such as network servers, 10 Gigabit NICs, PoE switches, and IP cameras.
It can be seen from above that home network switch, router, and wireless access point are three most important network components of a home optical network. If you want to have an efficient and reliable network, high-quality equipment is essential. Here are some tips for choosing your home network switch, router, and wireless access point.
Home network switchThere are many types of network switches on market, such as gigabit switches, 10 gigabit switches, 25 gigabit switches, PoE switches, etc. Among them, for your home 10G fiber optic network, you may need 10 gigabit network switches and switches PoE. So, how can we choose most suitable switch for our home network? You can start with following three aspects:
Features and performance
Network switches have many features, especially managed network switches. However, for home network switches, it is not necessary to select a network switch that supports all features, but rather to support basic features such as QoS, VLAN, and security. . . . At same time, you can also consider stacking function and Power over Ethernet function. The stacking function can increase network flexibility. If you want to upgrade network later or add more network devices to network, stacking multiple switches can be most efficient and cost-effective solution because it can be used according to your needs. needs without changing original network architecture. The Power over Ethernet function can supply power to PoE devices. If you need to deploy PoE devices such as IP cameras in your home network, it is recommended to select a switch that supports Power over Ethernet (PoE switch or PoE+ switch).
In addition, power consumption and capacity must be considered. Since larger switching capacity, more powerful communication capability of switch, it is recommended that you choose a network switch with a larger switching capacity to ensure stable and reliable operation of your home network. At same time, you must choose a fanless network switch for your home network, because a fanless network switch is basically silent and helps reduce system power consumption.
Port
Generally, home network switch port types include electrical ports (i.e., RJ45 ports) and optical ports (i.e., SFP/SFP+ ports). Among them, electrical ports are usually connected with Cat6 network jumpers, while optical ports usually need to be used with optical modules and fiber jumpers, for example, SFP+ ports are usually used with SFP+ optical modules and duplex LC fiber jumpers.In addition to considering type of port, number of ports on home network switch is also a factor to consider. If your network does not require many network devices to be connected, generally speaking, an 8-port or 12-port 10G switch can meet demand, but if you need to connect a lot of network devices or network scale will expand in short term, it is recommended to choose a 24-port or 48-port 10G switch. all options are based on actual needs of your network.
Cost
Because cost of an electrical port is lower than that of an optical port, cost of a network switch with an electrical port (such as an RJ45 port) is usually lower than cost of a network switch with an optical port. Managed network switches are also more expensive than unmanaged network switches. By identifying type of home network switch, you can compare home network switches provided by various vendors in market and choose most cost-effective one.
Home routerA router is an essential device that connects your home network to Internet. Compared to home network switches, choosing home routers is much easier. First of all, you should contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or check your account details directly to find out bandwidth speed and see how fast a router is needed to handle bandwidth speed. Given that you are now connecting your home 10G fiber network, router you choose must have at least one SFP+ port. Secondly, you need to determine type of router you need. Currently, routers are divided into wired routers and wireless routers. Although wireless routers can provide both wireless and Ethernet connections, their wireless Wi-Fi signal coverage is limited and they are usually more expensive than wired routers. Therefore, if your home network covers a large area, given cost and stability of connection, it is recommended to give priority to a wired router (which can be used with a wireless access point).
Home wireless hotspotA wireless access point is required if you want to access Internet from wireless devices. When choosing a wireless access point, you must first answer a few questions: How many wireless devices do you have? What is maximum area that WiFi signal must cover? How far can your chosen wireless access point work? By answering these questions, you can determine how many wireless access points you need to purchase to avoid choosing too few or too many wireless access points.
After choosing your network equipment, it's time to deploy your 10G fiber optic home network. A typical 10G home fiber deployment scheme is as follows. There are many network devices in house. After calculating connection lines, 10G 24-port switch is used as main switch in home network. Among them, 24 10G switch ports Ports are connected to most terminal devices, and 4 optical SFP+ ports on 10G switch are connected to PoE+ switches, routers, network video recorders (NVRs), and servers. For PoE devices in yards, garages, etc., simply plug them into an 8-port PoE+ switch.
In introduction above, you learned about evaluating your home network and how to choose the right network equipment. Now you think that deploying a 10G fiber optic home network is not as difficult as it sounds?