FTTP installation

[John Rumm]

Doing the total load is easy... doing it for 2 hours is somewhat harder (i.e. significantly more expensive). Typically you will need to over spec the power handling capacity to also get the battery size and run time. (having less run time, but comms between NAS and UPS to do a graceful shutdown might make more sense)

First look at what you actual load is. You could be pulling 100W ish from what you describe (depending on how many drives the NAS is running), then run the numbers through a manufacturers calculator.

APC do expansion battery packs for some of their units. So for example a

1.5kVA Back-Ups Pro, and an external battery pack could hold up a 100W load for over 3 hours - but might also set you back £600+

As to brand, I would tend to stick to the better known ones like APC or MEM EATON simply because the software support is better, and more devices will understand how to talk to them without any faffing about.

APC have a reputation for being hard on batteries [1], but work and integrate well generally.

[1] Here is one I had some difficulty prising out of one of my 1kVA Back-Ups units:

(installed March 2013, removed Dec 2017)

[John Rumm]

Many can be persuaded to do so with a long push of the button.

[Andy Burns]

Here's one where the UPS was in an unventilated broom cupboard with a half-height rack of IT kit

[John Rumm]

Probably chosen since it will handle multiple "lines" with good quality and low latency, without needing to worry about more expensive routers with QoS or VoIP prioritisation. (I did read a suggestion they may also allow it to be used for a basic broadband provision if required)

[Theo]

And GPON has you sharing bandwidth with the other people on your local segment. It's still the same line rate as if you took the 1Gbps package, they just throttle you down to 500kbps in software. 128k, 500k, 1Mbps,

10Mbps - it's all minimal as far as the FTTP is concerned. Possibly 500K is something even ADSL1 can handle and yet 'good enough' for a few voice lines. (you don't really want multiple FTTP connections, ONTs, etc) 500K broadband sounds pretty painful in today's world!

Theo

[Sn!pe]

Sn!pe wrote: [...]

Thank you everybody for your answers, I have a much better understanding of what's involved now. I'll do some more research. Thanks again.

[Dave Liquorice]

They don't seem to have quite the same problem these days. Mine is Smart-UPS 700 manufactured 11/03/98 (it says) and been in constant use since l bought it in the first half of '99. So reliabilty of the unit isn't an issue.

If in the market for a UPS i'd be looking to see if APC and cooked batteries was still a topic for dicussion on the 'net.

When the last lot of batteries almost went into meltdown, the UPS was sat on top of a small tower PC under table in a living room, So plenty of ventilation and < 20 C.

Before being "got at" mine would be running at 40 C plus in the living room, ie a good 25 C above ambient. It's now in the "services cupboard" along with the thermal store, it's warm in there, 25 to 30+ C a lot of the time. Currently the cupboard is at 30 C but the UPS is only 37 C.

Before being got at the voltage on mine was two or three volts above the recommended level, over 12 cells (2 x 12 V batteries).

I lied earlier the batteries currently in the UPS were installed when I modified it in Mar 14, 6 1/2 years... I guess I really ought to give it a run-time test.

Niether do I, that's a sure way to shorten battery life.

I've got a 2.5 kVA (I think) APC Smart UPS stored. Needs batteries but 4 x 17 AHr SLAs don't come cheap. I might get a tuit for 4 x leisure batteries for it at some point. The Smart-UPS 700 does it's job without eating batteries now, so getting the 2.5 up and runningh is a long way down the list.

[Bob Eager]

I run a test once a week. THe 1400 and 1500 models have batteries last

5-6 years. The 700 (in a rack, hotter) lasts about 3-4 years.

[Andy Burns]

All of mine (2x SU2200, 1x SU1400) are quite ancient, the beige cases, not black.

The reasons I'm willing to be generous to mine a) they're designed to withstand nuclear attack b) they were free.

£102 delivered.

[Dave Liquorice]

Your definition of "cheap" is at variance with mine. B-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Where have you been? First surfaced around 17/18.

Define "fibre". FTTC or FTTP? We are too far from the cabinet for VDSL to work, well it'll work but be no better than ADSL2+ which gives us 5 Mbps. But down in the village they where lucky to get 1 Mbps. Beyond the village basically forget it.

FTTP, maybe, Tempted to say "don't make eye larf". Yes Openreach are going for a full fibre network but I can't see that being in place by end of 2025.

I suspect they are going to have a solution that works over 5+ miles of copper, is easy to install (swap out the rear half of the NTE?) and emulate analogue POTS. But where does the power come from if there is no handy mains socket with 6' of the NTE?

[The Natural Philosopher]

its called fttp. the cost of laying fibre is in the end less than the cost of putting in powered repeaters.

FTTP doesnt use the NTE,

[Dave Liquorice]

But who supplies it? If the provider is responsible for the back up solution Openreach aren't going to be interested. And no doubt there will be variations in the (optical and/or copper) termination kit that Openreach install so how does the provider know which BBU to supply? I guess the provider subs it out to Openreach. You can't expect Granny Arbuckle to "self install" anything.

Longer term who is responsible for making sure any back up solution is maintained so it actually works when needed?

Even up here (1400' on the North Pennines) the power is very reliable. In 20+ years we've only had one outage that triggered the compensation payments that kick in after 12 hours off supply. We were off for 36 hours after an ice storm brought down the lines in multiple places, snapping lots of poles in the process.

Most outages are a few seconds auto reclosure trip and reset when a branch touches the line or less than hour as they reroute the distribution around a fault.

[Dave Liquorice]

Powered repeaters? AIUI FTTP is provided over GPON it doesn't have powered repeaters just passive optical splits that can be stuffed into a hole in the ground miles from the head end.

Is there a fibre equivalent to 50 pair armoured cable that is buried direct? Miles of such cables feed many places around here, the only over head bits being from the road to premises. Trenching for a duct is very expensive, even ploughing in a duct isn't cheap. Fibre doesn't like being stretched, not sure you could plough in an armoured fibre cable.

[charles]

round heer, openReach have just been installing fibre on old fashioned poles. I'm not sure of the reason.

[Dave Liquorice]

Part of the full fibre project I expect, it's quick and cheap. There are loads of locations near here that have had the copper removed and fibre installed. They are all places with the copper over head and with a dozen or more permises close to each other. I've yet to see anywhere with fibre popping out of the ground at single pole feeding a single premises with places spaced at 1/4 to 1/2 mile intervals.

[Scott]

Cost, I assume?

[Scott]

Returning to the original topic, I assume that most exchange only lines will be underground. To replace them with fibre optic, would the road typically require to be dug up for the entire route, or could they be pulled through using the existing copper cables?

Would selling the copper as scrap help to pay for the project?

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's exactly why I said what I said Dave. The cost of fibre is less than the cost of powered repeaters (for copper)

Armoured fibre will take an enornous number of 'circuits' . So very little fibre replaces a 50 pr. One fibre should do

So it can be dragged through existing ducts easily, or just added to a pole

I am not sure BT has *ever* buried cables in the soil without ducts.

But in principle burying fibre should be MUCH easier and more problem-free

[The Natural Philosopher]

well if you had looked at my website that is precisely what you would have seen.

My pole feeds me, and me alone, and the same for my nearest neighbour.