In reply to a post by candlerb:

Yes. Each SFP port is independent, and you plug whatever type of SFP module you require for that particular link, which can be 1G or 10G, multi-mode or single-mode, etc. (SFP = 1G, SFP+ = 10G; most SFP+ ports can also take SFP modules)

There is actually one special case which is 1000baseLX: this standard works on both SMF and MMF. However the device at the other end also has to be 1000baseLX. If you want it to talk to a media converter which is 1000baseSX then you'd need a 1000baseSX module.

It's easy to remember: L = long haul = single mode, S = short haul = multi mode. You can tell the difference by looking at the wavelength on the module. If it's 1G and it says 850nm, it's SX. If it's 1310nm, it's LX.

Very good (i.e. carrier grade) modules are available from Flexoptics and Approved Optics, at about 1/10th of the price of those from Cisco/Juniper etc. The Chinese ones from fs.com aren't bad and are even cheaper, so you can keep some spares in stock. Avoid vendors on Amazon: you have no idea what you're getting.

Perfect. So I have spoken to a company who resell the Mikrotec equipment and advised me the CRS112 is a compact router which has 4 fibre ports. which can replace all my Media Converters whicih link fibre to the Switches.

Are these also capable of talking to TTB via the NTE?

In reply to a post by jurassic86:

Perfect. So I have spoken to a company who resell the Mikrotec equipment and advised me the CRS112 is a compact router which has 4 fibre ports. which can replace all my Media Converters whicih link fibre to the Switches.

Be a bit careful: the CRS112 is primarily a switch. The switching is done in hardware so it's full speed, and it *does* have the software to do routing, but all the routing has to be done via a very underpowered CPU - a single core, 400MHz MIPS. Go to Support & Downloads and click "Block diagram" to see.

I have the hEX PoE router which has a 1-core 800MHz CPU, and it can route at about 300Mbps. Therefore, your CRS might *just about* handle your 100M leased line, but it would be working flat-out and would certainly need to be swapped if you upgrade your LL to 1G in the future.

It also has only 16MB flash and 128MB RAM, same as the hEX PoE. It's sufficient for RouterOS today, but modern devices will have much more.

Having said that it *is* cheap, so if it turns out to need swapping you've not lost much. I keep my hEX PoE as a PoE switch for driving wireless access points.

Also, you can use a router and a switch back-to-back. So if you start with the CRS112 for combined switch+router, you could add a separate router later and relegate the CRS to just switching, effectively a port expander for your router.

The first Mikrotik "router" with more than 2 SFP ports is the CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS, which is rather overkill for your needs: it has twelve SFP+ 10G ports and two 25G ports. But it's a very nice device... there's a quad-core 1.7GHz CPU, and 4GB of RAM, and it'll still be cheaper than the Cisco.

In reply to a post by jurassic86:

Are these also capable of talking to TTB via the NTE?

The NTE will provide some sort of ethernet connection. Depending on the configuration they supply it in, it could be either regular copper ethernet or they could be presenting you with single-mode fibre (1000baseLX)

Given that TTB quoted you the Cisco 891F, which has an SFP (fibre) port, it's possible the NTE will present fibre, but I have also heard suggestions that Openreach are enabling the copper port on the NTE for lines less than 1G.

Don't know if this helps or not, but here is my setup.

RackSetup

I have two leased lines on 10G bearers (Currently set at 2Gb bandwidth each)

One is Virgin, one is from BT.

Virgin NTE is Rack Slot 1 - OS6450-U24SXM
BT NTE is Rack Slot 2 - ADVA XG120Pro
Watchguard Firewall is Rack Slot 3, which is my main firewall for work. (Downstream of the Rack Slot 5 device)
In Rack Slot 4, this is where I use the R86S, which is my router of choice running OPNSense.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Routing-Multi-net-Intel-N51...
These are perfectly capable little units to deal with up to 10G.
Rack Slot 5 is a Netgear M4300-8X8F (XSM4316S), which is where both the NTE's plug into, and segregated using port based VLAN.
This allows me to pull off various downstream routers from the NTE's.
Rack Slot 6 is a UDM Pro for a "non work network", e.g. to give staff free wifi. (Connected to BT only)
Rack Slot 7 is another R86S running OPNSense that I use to provide IPv6 (Using NPT) on my LAN from the BT side (As Virgin dont offer IPv6)

I spent quite a long time like you looking for an appropriate router for wires only leased line installs, and I can tell you the R86S has been working perfectly for years.

As others have mentioned, certainly for OpenReach, if you are less than 1G, the copper port is generally active, less so at 1G.
I wanted to make sure right from the start everything was capable of up to 10G, which meant SFP+, and that's where the R86S stepped in.

Hope that helps you.

Great advice on the router side of things.

I know you say the CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS is overkill, but one of my rooms will need 4:fibre ports, so we could use this as our router for TTB and then patch it into a switch for the extra POE ports?

Id sooner go overkill and not have to worry about the equipment running at full speed.

Will this router be ok talking to TTB?

Yes, you can connect it to a separate PoE switch.

If the PoE switch has an SFP port then you can do fibre between them. If it doesn't, then you can get a Copper SFP (which plugs into your SFP switch, and gives you an RJ45 port there).

Will this router be ok talking to TTB?

Yes - but you shouldn't rely on the advice of complete strangers on the Internet

I think TTB use PPPoE and will give you the username/password and your IP address allocation to configure.

I take onboard your point but you all seem to know what you're on about.

Having now read all the forums and information on it, I have learned a lot in the process so its been a worth while exercise.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I think TTB use PPPoE and will give you the username/password and your IP address allocation to configure.

Only on broadband connections. Leased lines are static IP.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

In reply to a post by candlerb:

I think TTB use PPPoE and will give you the username/password and your IP address allocation to configure.

Only on broadband connections. Leased lines are static IP.

By which you mean, native ethernet encapsulation of IP frames? In that case, even easier.

Yes, regular IPoE. For wires only they typically provide a /31 for the WAN link, plus a routed /30 subnet to be used as you wish on the LAN side (NAT, DMZ, public server, etc.) unless you ask for more.

In reply to a post by tdw42:

Yes, regular IPoE. For wires only they typically provide a /31 for the WAN link, plus a routed /30 subnet to be used as you wish on the LAN side (NAT, DMZ, public server, etc.) unless you ask for more.

Sure on the LAN? For those who don't know a /30 would give 1 usable address, the others of the 4 being consumed by network, broadcast and gateway.