Which structured cabling system is best for your network?

With so much choice available and with names and terms that can easily confuse all but the experts, making the right choice for your network can be a confusing and frustrating process. In this blog I’ll try to make things clearer, so you know the best network that suits you.

Copper 

For thousands of smaller existing LANs (Local Area Networks), there is unlikely to be the need for anything other than Category 5e (Class D), as it is cost effective and provides the speeds that these networks typically require (up to 1 gigabits a second). They are also the ideal choice for short term networks, such as  a short term lease.

If you are thinking of putting a new network in place, it is likely this will be a long term investment, if the speeds aren’t expected to be over the 1Gb/s level, then you can build in a ‘headroom’ or safety margin into your network, by using Category 6 instead.  It’s only a little more expensive, but is a safer long term choice.  There are also shielded and unshielded cables, however that would need a blog on its own to explain, suffice to say most installs will be OK with unshielded cable.

If however you are looking to use speeds up 10Gb/s, then Category 6A is almost certainly the best option, having been designed for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. The switches for 10Gb/s are now readily available and desktop PCs and Laptops are likely to have the technology soon, with Intel having released their ‘on-motherboard’ chipset this year. In fact, 6A is the minimum level to use for all date centres. Cat 7 is effectively obsolete and Cat 7A is unlikely to be able to run 40 

Gb/s.

Fibre

For speeds up to 10Gb/s, all fibre links consist of two fibres, whether you use singlemode or multimode fibres. However at speeds over this multimode requires eight fibres per link for 40 GB/s and 20 for 100Gb/s, whereas singlemode can carry up to 100Gb/s using only two fibres. Singlemode is in theory the best solution, especially if you are covering distance of 100m and above. It also covers speeds from 1Gb/s right through to 100Gb/s, so is great for future proofing, but the costs are more expensive than multimode.

If the singlemode is more than your current needs, then multimode may be the answer. Keep in mind however, that different connectors are needed depending on the speeds you require and this can be costly to change If you require faster speeds in the future, especially if going from 40Gb/s to 100Gb/s. Recently however there have been a few products launched, designed in mind to easily migrate your network from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s and possibly 100Gb/s in the near future. If however you require the 100Gb/s speeds in the next two or three years, you are best to go for the singlemode or current 20 fibre multimode that is available now.

Which structure cabling to use, very much depends on your own circumstance. Hopefully this  blog gives a clearer picture of what is best for you and as the original articles says, there is no substitute for getting a highly knowledgeable consultant to help you make the best choice!

Thanks to the article from Network Communication News, written by Ken Hodge for the information provided here. If you are unsure on some of the terms used, please have a look at my previous blog http://www.it-cabling.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-laymans-guide-to-it-acronyms-and.html or get in touch.

A layman’s guide to IT acronyms and names

Network – I am talking about the IT network NOT business networking! A collection of IT devices like PCs and Printers etc that can talk to each other.

LAN – Local Area Network – The computer network in your office/school/factory and on your campus.

WLAN – Wireless Local Area Network (Not to be confused with a WAN below). A Wireless LAN is a Local network like the above, but via wireless signals like you have at home if you have wireless internet.

WiFi – Same as WLAN.

AP, Access Point or Wireless Access Point – These are the devices that supply the wireless signals for your wireless network, at home they are often incorporated into your internet router. If they are not part of the router then they need to be plugged into a wired network.

Router - Sounds like Rooter not Rowter which is how the Americans tend to say it. This device converts your internet signal to an Ethernet network (see below for Ethernet). Can also be used to split networks but that gets too deep for this page!

Firewall – A clever bit of kit that is set up by clever people to help stop nasty people getting on to your network, some routers have these built in.

WAN – Wide Area Network – The network beyond your office/school/factory and on your campus, the internet could be seen as a WAN.

SoHo – Small office, Home office – Some devices are described as “suitable for SoHo” this means a small number of network users.

G3 and G4 – Data connections to the internet from your mobile service provider such as Vodafone, 3, EE etc.  On your device you may see G changing to E or H, E and H are slower versions of the same thing.

The Cloud – This is disk space somewhere in the world where you can store and retrieve your personal data via the internet, this can be via 3G or 4G through your mobile device or just through the standard internet at your home or office. Things like Google Drive, Apple Cloud, Drop Box are cloud services, there are many others.

Server – This is the large PC that probably runs your office IT systems and sits in a cupboard or corner (or if you are a large outfit a computer room), you may have more than one server in your office for different IT functions.

Switch – Now this can get a bit confusing as there are Data switches and Voice/Telephone switches. The Server, internet router and the rest of the computers will be plugged in to this. The Voice/Telephone switch will have the phones plugged it to it.

Port – This normally refers to the connection on the switch that the network or phones plug in to. You will also sometimes hear people refer to the structured cabling “wall port”, that being the socket on the wall for the network.

VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol – Referring to switches above, some Telephone systems now use the Data network to run the Telephones either on a separate Data switch or the same one that is used by the rest of the network.

Ethernet – The network protocol that nearly all networks use to transmit data to PC’s and other devices, 40 years old on 23^rd May 2013! Invented by Xerox.

PoE – Power over Ethernet – Some devices that use Ethernet like VoIP phones, CCTV cameras and WiFi Access Points are often situated where it is inconvenient to get mains power to so PoE was developed to power these devices via 48 Volts DC. You always need a network cable to them so why not use it to power them as well!

Structured Cabling – The cabling within the building that allows Ethernet to transmit the data required by the network and so allow all the different services run. You can run all sorts of services over this cable including Ethernet, Voice, Video, VoIP, Fax and others. You should look your office and think “how many different services do I need on each desk”, a PC, a Phone maybe a Laptop or printer, so in this case 3. That is the least you should install per desk in this case. These cables are wired back to a central point where all your services are for you to connect them into your Structured Cabling System. It means you can have any service wherever you like in the building as long as there is a Structured Cabling Socket available.

UTP/FTP/STP – Structured cabling types are often referred to by these acronyms. They refer to the construction of the cable –

UTP = Unshielded Twisted Pair

FTP = Foil Shielded Twisted Pair

STP = Shielded Twisted Pair

There are a few other acronyms, however these are the ones you are most likely to hear. In simple terms most offices are cabled using UTP i.e. unshielded cable. Shielded, FTP or STP may be used in secure or electrically noisy environments, however it is crucial that any shielded cable is earth properly.

RJ45 – This is the common name for the connectors used in structured cabling, they look a bit like a BT socket but are a different shape, the plug is usually clear plastic as opposed to the white BT plug and has 8 pins. Your broad band plug is a smaller, very similar looking, clear plastic plug called an RJ11, please do not plug this into a structured cabling RJ45 socket as it will damage the pins as it is a different shape.

Category 5e (Also known as Class D: up to 100 MHz) – Is a structured cabling standard that allows the transition of data up to 1Gigbit/second up to 90 meters

Category 6 (Also known as Class E: up to 250 MHz) - Is a structured cabling standard that allows the transition of data up to 1Gigbit/second up to 90 meters but can offer better quality services if you wish to transmit video or other higher frequency services.

Category 6A (Also known as Class E_A: up to 500 MHz) - Is a structured cabling standard that allows the transition of data up to 10Gigbit/second up to 90 meters.

Category 7 (Also known as Class F: up to 600 MHz) - Is a structured cabling standard that allows the transition of data up to 10Gigbit/second and possibly beyond, up to 90 meters.

Fibre Optic Cabling – Very fine strands of glass that transmit Data signals. While BT use miles of the stuff in the street  within the office environment it will typically be used to connect buildings  together on a campus site or to connect two areas of the network that are over 90 meters away as fibre can run the same protocols as copper but over much longer distances. It is also immune from Electro Mechanical Interference.

Armoured Cable or SWA cable – This is a cover over any type of cable that needs robust mechanical protection. It consists of steel braids running the full length of the cable. SWA stands for Steel Wired Armoured.