Fiber-based Local Area Networks are very adaptable to the Education market, providing solutions that meet the unique needs of educators and school IT managers. Fiber supports very long runs that can reach all the wings of a school from just one centralized location. It has the bandwidth to share large media files throughout the school, and within schools in a small campus environment. New fibers are almost indestructible, and provide “interference-free” systems that are not affected by copiers, shop equipment, or any other motors. Several recent breakthroughs that have made fiber more cost effective include centralized cabling architectures, small form factor connectors, media conversion and the use of 850 nm electronics. As a result, in many schools, installing fiber costs no more than other traditional infrastructure systems – something we will illustrate by sharing the FOLS proprietary interactive cost models, which will allow School IT managers to compare estimated fiber costs vs. traditional copper costs
