Your manager asks you to determine a reliable, cost-effective solution to connect a building access switch to a building distribution switch at a distance of 400 feet (120 meters) in the same…

Question

Options

• AUTP
• Bmultimode fiber
• CPoE
• DWi-Fi bridge

• A
  10% (2)
• B
  80% (16)
• C
  5% (1)
• D
  5% (1)

Explanation

Multimode fiber is the right choice because the 120-meter (400-foot) run exceeds UTP's 100-meter maximum distance limit, making copper unreliable at this length. Multimode fiber handles up to 550 meters (OM3) or beyond, is well-suited for intra-building switch-to-switch links, and costs significantly less than single-mode fiber - hitting the "cost-effective" requirement.

Why the others are wrong:

• A (UTP): Tops out at 100 meters for standard Ethernet; at 120m you risk signal degradation and unreliable links - a direct disqualifier.
• C (PoE): Power over Ethernet delivers electrical power through a cable - it's a power delivery technology, not a distance-extension solution.
• D (Wi-Fi bridge): Wireless introduces latency, interference risk, and throughput variability - none of which are acceptable for a reliable switch uplink, and it's rarely cost-effective compared to running fiber once.

Memory tip: Think of 100m as UTP's hard wall - the moment a distance question pushes past 100 meters inside a building, multimode fiber is almost always the answer on the exam.

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