TTB Leased Line Question

Hi Guys

I have a TTB leased line 100/100 going in on a 1gb bearer.

I'll be honest when I say that it's turning out to be a little more complex than I first imagined so hoping you guys can point me in the right direction.

Openreach are in the process of putting the fibre in the kiosk at bottom of my driveway and terminated it into a NTE. From here onwards I need to get my own equipment.

They offered me the following.

Cisco 891F (Cheaper) This is a solid choice for fibre connections, the router is rated up to 300mb speeds.

Cisco ISR4331 (More expensive) This is a future proof router rated to 1gb + speeds.

Do you all have any other suggestions on what equipment I should look to buy ? It is important worth noting that where the NTE comes in, we are then taking the network another 600m to my home via SMF.

Does the NTE only accept one router? Due to the extra distance up to my home I was unsure on best way to do it.

Either use a media converter from the router to the fibre and then back to my house with another media converter or can the NTE accept two fibre outgoing connections.?

Do you know what NTE you are getting?

Based on OpenReach Advar experience; anything less than 1Gb (customer access speed) will be enabled on the RJ45 copper port anything 1Gb or more will be via the SFP

The NTE will only accept 1 customer side connection.

You may be able to request via your account manager as part of the order that you need the customer side SFP interface enabled and not the RJ45 as its a remote deployment.

If they won't/cant/don't offer that option. Then media converter would be the easy way to go. You don't need single mode for 600mtr (And the interfaces will cost more anyway) you could do it with OM4 and still almost be good for 10Gb if you ever needed it. then just get a suitable SFP for the router at the house end of the link. (Unless you can't in which case another media converter then into the router.

There is a slim chance you can ask them to provide the NTE at the house end and simply patch via your private SMF (if its already installed) but in reality it will just muddy the support waters if ever there was an issue)

As for the router we use a lot of the ISR range and there very nice, but check your license options and interface options first (I always hear people internally moaning about licenses on the 82/8300 series but don't get involved in that side of things)

Edited by IamQ (Sat 27-Apr-24 15:34:09)

Just quick note to say if you go *above* 1Gbps you will probably need quite a bit of work (it's not just "let's send you new kit and it's easy install") so don't assume that upgrade is easy..

Why not have the LL presented to the main building up the drive? having the NTE 600m away from the router will end up causing you extra sleepless nights.

Edited by PCJM40 (Sat 27-Apr-24 17:12:22)

I would consider single mode fibre for this distance. At 1G the optics are a few pounds more per end, at 10G perhaps a tenner and at 25G perhaps £20/end more expensive. Peanuts in the context of a leased line.

For me the only application for multimode is short links at 100G and up where the money saved on the optic outweighs the cost/hassle of multimode MTP.

Does anyone else spec multimode any more?

Thanks for this. I really am not sure but I will check when I get home.

Moving the NTE is an option for me, it's just I planned to build two new properties on my estate and was going to tap them into the same network for wifi.

Only issue with moving NTE to my house is that I would then need to feed the network back down the driveway to feed equipment such as CCTV and the new properties.

By terminating the NTE at the bottom of my drive, anything there after would be plain sailing.

If you’re a builder then speak to the Openreach new sites team, bury the ducting and build the chambers that they provide you from the stores, and provision FTTP for the homes put on the site. You can probably dig the trench in a couple of days with the right machine. Getting a leased line installed to an out building to avoid ECCs and then thinking you might share this out in future to multiple houses sounds like a janky approach that will have far higher ongoing costs than doing this the proper way.

In reply to a post by jurassic86:

Thanks for this. I really am not sure but I will check when I get home.

Moving the NTE is an option for me, it's just I planned to build two new properties on my estate and was going to tap them into the same network for wifi.

Only issue with moving NTE to my house is that I would then need to feed the network back down the driveway to feed equipment such as CCTV and the new properties.

By terminating the NTE at the bottom of my drive, anything there after would be plain sailing.

You said in your first post you was going to put the NTE at the gate and the router up at the house so you was always going to need to feed the CCTV and wifi connections from the house as thats where the router is.

A leased line used to aggregate service for other dwellings ( this is something that some New build estates do , leased line into a cabinet , many dwellings connected to that leased line ) have different T&C’s applied , compared to a ‘regular’ leased line

OR don’t agree to a leased line used in this way on standard terms , where ( for example) OR charge £400 a month for a leased line , the client then connects 50 customers paying them £30 a month for connection to that leased line ,

In reply to a post by jurassic86:

I planned to build two new properties on my estate and was going to tap them into the same network for wifi ... By terminating the NTE at the bottom of my drive, anything there after would be plain sailing.

I concur with jpm. Plus you don't supply new houses with wifi, really you don't. You make sure an ONT is provided and let the customer make their own arrangements for contracting with an ISP and for provision of wifi kit. Moreover, if your development has any class, you would put in some cat 6 network points.

The very fact you write about providing wifi would be a distinct negative for many buyers. I would never want to share wifi with a neighbour. I run my system with Network servers [not accessible outside my network] and I would not want them accessible to neighbours. If your buyers are discerning, they will not want internet with CGNAT, they might want a Public IPv4 address, they might want IPv6.

This will be far from plain sailing. You really don't know what your buyers' needs are. Plus I would not want to be knocking on your door to have the router reset [what happens if you are on holiday?], I would want to have control of my own IP addressing and I would want to change the router if I didn't like yours.

As for the CCTV, etc, the hard part about this is digging the trench. Once you have dug the trench another duct besides the OR duct and cables for your CCTV should not be too difficult.