CPE

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milomak

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What does this actually do in terms of connectivity?

Especially if a router is still needed?
 
milomak said:
What does this actually do in terms of connectivity?

Especially if a router is still needed?
Click to expand...

Depends on the provider but normally provides layer 2 connectivity. Router is layer 3.
 
milomak said:
What does this actually do in terms of connectivity?

Especially if a router is still needed?
Click to expand...

Generally it converts the optical signal from the fibre into a digital signal, including negotiating speed, layer 2 protocol and authenticating to your fibre provider's network. In Telkom fibre, they use the serial number of the CPE coupled with the line identifier (B14000xxxx) to authenticate the CPE and provide you with service.

Your router will dial the actual internet connection and act as your gateway, DHCP server, perform firewalling, routing, NATing, etc.
 
With zero networking knowledge, it seems odd to have 8 available WAN ports on the CPE when you can only connect your router to 1 as the gateway...

Or is there some use for these? Why would Vuma install 8 port CPE's at residences?
 
GoB said:
With zero networking knowledge, it seems odd to have 8 available WAN ports on the CPE when you can only connect your router to 1 as the gateway...

Or is there some use for these? Why would Vuma install 8 port CPE's at residences?
Click to expand...

Futureproofing. You could provision multiple VLANs on the switch, one for voice, one for data etc... and assign different ports to them.
 
Sinbad said:
How so?
Click to expand...

There's definitely an argument for clean fibre direct from some centralised point to your residence, despite how expensive it may be.

I like the idea of it but Active Ethernet is fantastic and cheap to implement, fast to roll out, low expertise required. The company I worked for did Active Ethernet too, so "No fibre providers in SA use active ethernet" is entirely incorrect.
 
stroebs said:
There's definitely an argument for clean fibre direct from some centralised point to your residence, despite how expensive it may be.

I like the idea of it but Active Ethernet is fantastic and cheap to implement, fast to roll out, low expertise required. The company I worked for did Active Ethernet too, so "No fibre providers in SA use active ethernet" is entirely incorrect.
Click to expand...

I have clean fibre lit at 1gb full duplex to an aggregation pop about 5km away...?
 
Sinbad said:
I have clean fibre lit at 1gb full duplex to an aggregation pop about 5km away...?
Click to expand...

I think I may have confused terms here. Point-to-point IS Active Ethernet, by definition. Either you use some sort of prism to split & aggregate fibre, or you use direct termination fibre into a dedicated port per client. Former is xPON, latter is Active Ethernet.

Vumatel, Octotel, IS, Faircom, Greencom, Cybersmart (Lightspeed) and some others all use Active Ethernet. Openserve (Telkom) use GPON. Not sure of others.
 
stroebs said:
I think I may have confused terms here. Point-to-point IS Active Ethernet, by definition. Either you use some sort of prism to split & aggregate fibre, or you use direct termination fibre into a dedicated port per client. Former is xPON, latter is Active Ethernet.

Vumatel, Octotel, IS, Faircom, Greencom, Cybersmart (Lightspeed) and some others all use Active Ethernet. Openserve (Telkom) use GPON. Not sure of others.
Click to expand...
Octotel 100% use GPON, in fact I only know of Vumatel that uses AE.
 
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