10BaseFL Distance

RZetlin

I was doing the Tech Exam test and I ran to this question:

What is the maximum distance of a fiber optic link between a 10BaseFL and a FOIRL repeater.

The answer listed is 1000 meters.

When I check a few Network+ books including Mike Meyers 2000 meters (2 km) is listed as the max distance for 10BaseFL.

Webmaster

www.techexams.net/technotes/networkplus/mediatopo.shtml

10BaseFL (802.3j)

10BaseFL is the successor of the FOIRL (Fiber Optic Inter-Repeater Link) specification, and defines Ethernet over fiber optic cabling. FOIRL allowed a point-to-point link between two repeaters up to 1000 meters apart. When fiber optic cabling started to ‘reach’ desktops and other end-devices, new standards where developed, starting with the 10BaseF set including 10BaseFL, 10BaseFB, and 10BaseFP. 10BaseFL is the most common of the three, and is the only one of importance for the CompTIA Network+ exam. 10BaseFL is similar to 10BaseT but designed to operate over two strands of multimode fiber cabling and provides a maximum data transfer rate of 10 Mb/s. One strand is used for sending, the other is used for collision detection and receiving. It is designed to be able to work with existing FOIRL hardware, allowing a smooth migration to 10BaseFL. The maximum cable segment length is 2000 meters for a 10BaseFL multimode fiber link. 10BaseFL uses primarily ST or SC connectors as depicted below. Media converters can be used to provide fiber optic connections to systems that have regular Ethernet network interface cards.

It asks about the maximum distance between a 10BaseFL and a FOIRL repeater. The maximum distance for a 10BaseFL link is indeed 2000 meters, but if one end of the link is FOIRL (not 10basefl, but backward compatible with 10basefl) it's 1000 meters. It's supposed to be a tricky question