Re: [nznog] Fibre circulators?

On Thu, Jan 16, 2014 at 11:54 AM, Mike Jager wrote:

On 16/01/2014, at 11:16, Sam Russell wrote:

...

Does anyone recommend a supplier for fibre circulators, preferably with LC connectors? I'd be keen to hear anyone's experiences/horror stories with them if you're willing to volunteer them.

At first glance, they seem like a nifty idea.

In my experience they end up being a lot more hassle than they’re worth (finding somewhere to locate them in a rack, especially when that rack isn’t yours; optics that launch a little bit too bright or receive a little bit too dim resulting in ports standing up to themselves when the line side of the circulator is disconnected), especially with availability of single fibre optics up to 10Gbps.

I'll 2nd what Mike says here. When they work they work really well. The problem is that when things get slightly strange you can still have a port being up but you then have what you're advertising out being reflected back. When every MAC you send out a port is advertised back at that port then "interesting things happen". Dave