26
CABLING
No mess,
no disruption
By Stephen O’Connell, MD,
Secom Networks Ltd
www.secomnetworksltd.co.uk
Structured cabling offers fast
installation into tight spaces
for today’s data centres
Structured cabling has been around in one guise or another
since the early 80’s. In the heady days of the big four
mainframe manufacturers, all desktops were connected
straight to the mini/midi/mainframes. All cabling was
specified, and only specified contractors were able to
install. Then in the late 80’s, along came the Ethernet
platform, which instantly enabled networking to be an
open system; after a lot of pushing the TIA was formed
and this allowed a truly open system. The cabling went
from RS232/Co-Ax/multicore to the 4 pair cable we now
take for granted.
Wire speeds are constantly being upgraded; the 4 pair
cable Cat 5e can now carry 2.5Mbs and Cat6 5Mbs. And
with more and more equipment running on POE, the
cabling and VoIP handsets having internal switches, the
cabling design has completely changed. No more just flood
wiring! New designs need to take into account desktop
computers, WiFi, IPCCTV, meeting room booking systems,
security systems and now POE lighting.
With all the services connected via the structured
cabling, it’s logical for the design of each project to be put
together by a specialist or competent cabling contractor.
With advice on ceiling void containment needed as the
ceiling distribution has grown with more services utilising
the structured cabling system. Failure to comply will lead
to overcrowded containment and could lead to POE power
budgets overloaded.
Add to the equation fast track installation, limited
storage space and limited programme time available, the
pre-terminated cabling solution then comes into a world of
its own. The installation is 75% quicker, no mess, labelled
and tested before coming to the site, and the costs are
similar to conventional systems.
Data centre cabling
With the introduction of the vendor-neutral data centre,
rack-mounted storage and multi-processing VMware
servers, the connections required to this equipment can
www.networkseuropemagazine.com