The Role of Structured Cabling in a Future-ready Building
If we look into Structured cabling from a technology and infrastructure point of view, we’ll get some interesting key takeaways from the above mentioned report like :
> The increase in demand for high-speed
connectivity devices and services due to the acceptance of convergence is
fuelling this growth along with the expansion of
telecommunication infrastructure as the campus cabling infrastructure is
set to play a prominent role.
> The growing acceptance of cabling infrastructure in residential and
commercial applications is likely to aid in the market growth of Structured
cabling.
> An increase in the adoption of copper cables will increase the
market demand for Structured cabling market in the near future. On the other
hand, the growing popularity of fiber optic cables is creating a significant number
of opportunities for the Structured cabling market during the forecast period.
> The fiber optic cables and their components are anticipated to grow
at
it’s highest CAGR during 2020-2025 when compared to the copper
counterparts. This is mainly to meet the rise in the demand for higher
transmission rate as well as bandwidth.
When we deal with the demanding requirement of integrated voice, data, video, telecommunication applications IoT etc. the cabling infrastructure definitely need to be a structured one.
Unstructured systems usually
have a lower initial cost than a well-structured system, but this is a glaring
example of how the cheap comes out expensive.
Having known about the significance and necessity of Structured cabling, let’s go a bit more in detail into it.
Structured Cabling is defined as building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements/components (hence structured) called subsystems. A structured cabling system is a complete system of cabling and associated hardware, which provides a comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure. This infrastructure serves a wide range of uses, such as to provide telephone service or transmit data through a computer network.
The Major Subsystems of Structured Cabling
1. Entrance
Facility
Points in building facility where the cabling
from the telephone/network company connects with cabling at the building
premises.
2. Equipment
Room
The equipment room accommodates the major tools such as
servers, cross connects, and the telecommunications equipment for occupants of
a building. The nature of this equipment is typically much more complex than
that stored in the telecommunications room.
3. Backbone cabling
The backbone cabling consists of all the main
cables that interconnect the entrance facility, the equipment room, and the
telecommunications closet(s). These 3 components are the back end of the Structured
cabling system that are not visible to most occupants of a building, and
this cabling acts as a backbone and is why it’s called so!
4. Telecommunications
Closet
The telecommunications closet is usually
designated for a specific floor of a building, housing the less complex
equipment needed for that floor. It is much smaller than the equipment room,
and can be thought of as a satellite location of the equipment room. These
closets usually store things like panels and switches.
5. Horizontal
Cabling
Horizontal cabling runs between the telecommunications closet and
the work area. It includes cabling that runs in through the ceiling, parallel
to the floor and in the walls to the outlets present in the workspace.
6. Work Area
Finally, where it all matters- the work area!
This is probably what you are sitting at right now! A work area can be a desk, cubicle, office etc. where connection to the structured cabling system is needed via a computer, phone or other devices. This is the final stop in the structured cabling path.