Pay attention to the cabling

Communications News, March, 2004

When deciding on the installation of new IT systems, usually the hardware and software attract the most attention. Yet, the successful performance of the network relies much more heavily on an element that is often given a back-seat role--the cabling infrastructure.

Making the choice about the right cabling system may have a critical impact on an enterprise. According to Robert Carlson, vice president of global marketing for Siemon, a provider of structurcd cabling systems, "When a company's cabling system is inadequate for the amount of traffic running over it, the network slows to a crawl--or worse, crashes. This network downtime is a major concern for businesses because of the cost in lost productivity and revenue.

"Our recent analysis in the U.S. market of the cost of downtime demonstrated that, in the commercial banking industry, the cost of only one hour of downtime (including salary and revenues) was a loss of $34 million. In the healthcare sector, a similar hour's downtime equated to a loss of $22 million."

Establishing which cabling infrastructure system is going to be the right choice depends on the performance level you need from the network, based on the applications to be run now and in the future. Advanced business applications, such as voice over IP, IP-based videoconferencing, IP-based security and others, are taxing networks and their cabling infrastructure like never before.

"These applications demand more bandwidth and higher speeds," Carlson explains, "and when you add to that a myriad of other business applications, such as computerized access control, building automation control and video surveillance, now converged onto one system, you can see why choosing the right cabling infrastructure is so critical."

In the early years of network systems, every manufacturer offered its own proprietary systems most of which were not compatible--creating a situation with little flexibility and significant costs every time a change was made. Global standards created for the industry by the Telecommunications Industry Association and International Organization for Standardization changed this situation.

"The standards range from Category 5e through to Category 7 and define the minimum performance specifications for structured cabling systems," explains Carlson. "Higher bandwidth means more data can flow through the cables, so it is important to choose a level that will support the types of applications your business will be using today and in the future."

Structured cabling systems are available in copper or fiber--and most systems include a combination of both. Unshielded twisted-pair copper is the most widely used because it is highly reliable and the least expensive.

Another type of twisted-pair copper cabling--shielded twisted-pair (as specified for Category 7 cabling)--is more expensive, but has greater signal-transmission performance. Shielded twisted-pair cable is particularly suitable for areas with high electromagnetic interference, like factory floors. It is also ideal for organizations where data is critical and needs to be highly protected, such as banks, stock exchanges and hospitals.

Fiber cable allows even more data to run much longer distances than copper, without degradation, Carlson explains. While increased distance and transmission performance are the main benefits of fiber, it is also more expensive to implement due to the higher cost of the associated active electronics. "Fiber is often used in the backbone of a system, typically between floors or buildings, while shielded or unshielded twisted pairs are used in the horizontal cabling," he says

The cabling system represents only 5% of the overall network investment, according to Carlson. Since a cabling system should be designed and installed to last 10 years, he suggests selecting the best possible cabling system to support future bandwidth needs, as information technology and networking applications continue to advance at a rapid pace.

For more information from Siemon: www.rsleads.com/403cn-263