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Structured cabling

 
Structured Cabling

 
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Structured cabling
 
 
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Structured cabling is building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into six subsystems:

Structured cabling design and installation is governed by a set of standards that specify wiring data center
Data center

A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls and security devices....
s, office
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
s, and apartment building
Apartment building

An apartment building, block of flats or tenement, is a Multi-family residential made up of several apartments , or flats . A difference may be drawn such as in San Francisco, California, between an apartment and a flat, where an apartment is one of many units on a floor and a flat is the only unit on a given floor....
s for data or voice communications, using category 5
Category 5 cable

Category 5 cable, is a twisted pair high signal integrity cable type often refered to as "Cat5". Many such cables are shield but some are shielded....
 (CAT 5E) or category 6 cable
Category 6 cable

Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat-6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5 cable and Category 3 cable standards....
 (CAT 6) and modular sockets
Modular connector

Modular connector is the name given to a family of electrical connectors examples of which are pictured. These connectors were originally used in telephone wiring....
.






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Datacenter Telecom
Structured cabling is building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into six subsystems:
  • Entrance Facilities are where the building interfaces with the outside world.
  • Equipment Rooms host equipment which serve the users inside the building.
  • Telecommunications Rooms house telecommunication equipment which connect the backbone and the horizontal cabling subsystems.
  • Backbone Cabling
    Backbone Cabling

    Backbone Cabling is the inter-building and intra-building cable connections in structured cabling between entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications closets....
     connect between the entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications rooms.
  • Horizontal Cabling connect telecommunications rooms to individual outlets on the floor.
  • Work-Area Components connect end-user equipment to outlets of the horizontal cabling system.


Structured cabling design and installation is governed by a set of standards that specify wiring data center
Data center

A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls and security devices....
s, office
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
s, and apartment building
Apartment building

An apartment building, block of flats or tenement, is a Multi-family residential made up of several apartments , or flats . A difference may be drawn such as in San Francisco, California, between an apartment and a flat, where an apartment is one of many units on a floor and a flat is the only unit on a given floor....
s for data or voice communications, using category 5
Category 5 cable

Category 5 cable, is a twisted pair high signal integrity cable type often refered to as "Cat5". Many such cables are shield but some are shielded....
 (CAT 5E) or category 6 cable
Category 6 cable

Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat-6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5 cable and Category 3 cable standards....
 (CAT 6) and modular sockets
Modular connector

Modular connector is the name given to a family of electrical connectors examples of which are pictured. These connectors were originally used in telephone wiring....
. These standards define how to lay the cabling
Twisted pair

Twisted pair cabling is a form of wiring in which two conductors are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference from external sources; for instance, electromagnetic radiation from unshielded twisted pair cables, and crosstalk between neighboring pairs....
 in a star formation
Star network

Star networks are one of the most common computer network Network topology. In its simplest form, a star network consists of one central Network switch, Network hub or computer, which acts as a conduit to transmit messages....
, such that all outlets terminate at a central patch panel
Patch panel

A patch panel or patch bay, not to be confused with the jackfield, is a panel, typically rackmounted, that houses cable connections....
 (which is normally 19 inch
19-inch rack

A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple electronics modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws....
 rack-mounted), from where it can be determined exactly how these connections will be used. Each outlet can be 'patched' into a data network switch (normally also rack mounted alongside), or patched into a 'telecoms patch panel' which forms a bridge into a private branch exchange
Private branch exchange

A private branch exchange is a telephone exchange that serves a particular business or office, as opposed to one that a common carrier or telephone company operates for many businesses or for the general public....
 (PBX) telephone system, thus making the connection a voice port.

Lines patched as data ports into a network switch require simple straight-through
TIA/EIA-568-B

TIA/EIA-568-B is a set of three telecommunications standards from the Telecommunications Industry Association, a 1988 offshoot of the Electronic Industries Alliance....
 patch cables at the other end to connect a computer. Voice patches to PBXs in most countries require an adapter at the remote end to translate the configuration on 8P8C modular connectors
Modular connector

Modular connector is the name given to a family of electrical connectors examples of which are pictured. These connectors were originally used in telephone wiring....
 into the local standard telephone
Telephone

The telephone is a telecommunications device that is used to transmitter and receive electronically or digitally encoded sound between two or more people conversing....
 wall socket. No adapter is needed in the U.S. as the 6P6C plug used with RJ11
RJ11, RJ14, RJ25

RJ11 is a physical interface often used for terminating telephone wires.It is probably the most familiar of the registered jacks, being used for single line Plain old telephone service telephone jacks in most homes across the world....
 telephone connections is physically compatible with the larger 8P8C ("RJ45")
8P8C

The 8 Position 8 Contact plugs and sockets are most regularly used as an ethernet connector. 8P8C connectors are typically used to Electrical_termination twisted pair cable....
 socket and the wiring of the 8P8C is compatible with RJ11. In the UK, an adapter must be present at the remote end as the 6-pin BT socket is physically incompatible with 8P8C.

It is common to color code patch panel cables to identify the type of connection, though structured cabling standards do not require it, except in the demarcation wall field.

Cabling standards demand that all eight connectors in Cat5/5e/6 cable are connected, resisting the temptation to 'double-up' or use one cable for both voice and data.

Structured cabling standards

There are structured cabling standards used internationally published by ISO/IEC. The main structured cabling standards used in the USA are:

  • TIA-526-7 Measurement of Optical Power Loss of Installed Single-Mode Fiber Cable Plant – OFSTP-7 - (February 2002)
  • TIA-526-14-A Optical Power Loss Measurements of Installed Multimode Fiber Cable Plant – OFSTP-14 - (August 1998)
  • ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.1 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements: General Requirements, May 2001.
  • Adenda ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.1-1-2001, Addendum 1, Minimum Curve Radius for 4 pair UTP and ScTP cable, July, 2001.
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.1-2 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements Addendum 2 – Grounding and Bonding Requirements for Screened Balanced Twisted-Pair Horizontal Cabling - (February 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.1-3 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements Addendum 3 – Supportable Distances and Channel Attenuation for Optical Fiber Applications by Fiber Type - (February 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.1-4 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements Addendum 4 – Recognition of Category 6 and 850 nm Laser Optimized 50/125 µm Multimode Optical Fiber Cabling - (February 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.1-5 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements Addendum 5 – Telecommunications Cabling for Telecommunications Enclosures – (March 2004)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.1-7 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 1: General Requirements Addendum 7 - Guidelines for Maintaining Polarity Using Array Connectors – (January 2006)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components - (December 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 1 – Transmission Performance Specifications for 4-Pair 100 ohm Category 6 Cabling - (June 2002)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-2 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 2 – Revision of Sub-clauses - (December 2001)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-3 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 3 – Additional Considerations for Insertion Loss & Return Loss Pass/Fail Determination - (March 2002)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-4 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 4 – Solderless Connection Reliability Requirements for Copper Connecting Hardware - (June 2002)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-5 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 5 – Corrections to TIA/EIA-568-B.2 – (January 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-6 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 6 – Category 6 Related Component Test Procedures – (December 2003)
  • TIA/EIA-568-B.2-11 Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Part 2: Balanced Twisted-Pair Cabling Components – Addendum 11 - Specification of 4-Pair UTP and SCTP Cabling – (December 2005)
  • TIA/EIA-568-3 Optical Fiber Cabling Components Standard - (April 2002)
  • TIA/EIA-568-3.1 Optical Fiber Cabling Components Standard – Addendum 1 – Additional Transmission Performance Specifications for 50/125 µm Optical Fiber Cables – (April 2002)
  • TIA-569-B Commercial Building Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces - (October 2004)
  • TIA-598-C Optical Fiber Cable Color Coding - (January 2005)
  • TIA/EIA-606-A Administration Standard for Commercial Telecommunications Infrastructure - (May 2002)
  • J-STD-607-A Commercial Building Grounding (Earthing) and Bonding Requirements for Telecommunications - (October 2002)
  • TIA-758-A Customer-owned Outside Plant Telecommunications Infrastructure Standard – (August 2004)


European countries use another set of standards, the main one being CENELEC 50173.

See also

  • Category 5 cable
    Category 5 cable

    Category 5 cable, is a twisted pair high signal integrity cable type often refered to as "Cat5". Many such cables are shield but some are shielded....
  • Category 6 cable
    Category 6 cable

    Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat-6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5 cable and Category 3 cable standards....
  • ISO/IEC 11801
    ISO/IEC 11801

    International standard ISO/IEC 11801 specifies general-purpose telecommunication cabling systems that are suitable for a wide range of applications ....
    , the International Organization for Standardization
    International Organization for Standardization

    The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations....
     standard for generic cabling for premises
  • TIA/EIA-568-B
    TIA/EIA-568-B

    TIA/EIA-568-B is a set of three telecommunications standards from the Telecommunications Industry Association, a 1988 offshoot of the Electronic Industries Alliance....
    , the Electronic Industries Alliance
    Electronic Industries Alliance

    The Electronic Industries Alliance is a trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States....
     standard for telecommunications cabling in commercial premises
  • Registered jack
    Registered jack

    A Registered jack is a standardized physical Network Interface ? both jack construction and wiring pattern ? for connecting telecommunications, or data equipment or computer networking equipment to a service provided by a local exchange carrier, a long distance carrier, or a data network in the case of the RJ45 connector....
    , a set of standards for telephone cabling termination (including RJ11, RJ15, and RJ45)
  • Telecommunications Industry Association
    Telecommunications Industry Association

    The Telecommunications Industry Association is a global trade association headquartered in the United States that represents about 600 telecommunications companies....
  • Multimode fiber