A better way to cable buildings - Technology Information

Communications News, Sept, 2000 by Bill Fortin

Take a look at a common network and cabling infrastructure.

As stated in a recent article for BICSI, "Several things are happening in our industry that will change the way we cable and build networks in the future ... construction specifications are being written to include the telecommunications pathways, spaces and cabling ... the cabling for the control and monitoring of BAS(building automation system), such as fire, security, and heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) is also being integrated with the telecommunications cabling" design.

The reason this integration has taken so long to occur, especially in U.S. markets, lies mainly in the master plan development procedures, and the new construction and renovation building processes. The ability for a building owner, property manager or the CFO of a corporation to be able to address the deployment of a common network for all building systems into a project, in terms of both time and money, has been retarded by the separateness of the traditional bid-process itself. The development of 1 GB copper and 10 GB fiber-optic cabling systems for voice, video and data clearly lends itself to the integration and deployment of the BAS applications for all commercial buildings.

The development of the PathMAX pathway system products has made providing an integrated (partitioned) cable delivery system possible for all low- and high-voltage cable for a commercial building. This engineering technique allows for the integration of the required electrical distribution system into a partitioned raceway with all of the required low-voltage building systems cable.

By integrating the voice, data, BAS and the electrical distribution systems cabling into a common pathway system, a building owner can expect that a single installation crew can provide one cable delivery system method on which to connect all required network applications. This also eliminates a duplication of effort of six to eight system installation work crews and four to five cable delivery methods, which are usually part of the purchase and installation price for each voice and data, and BAS system. This will have a significant impact on both time and cost of the implementation phase of a commercial building project.

What else is new? The deployment of structured-system zone cabling into commercial spaces has become a requirement, with property managers wondering why it was not made available 10 years ago. Azone cabling design can live in both a raised access floor area (including the new low profile 2" to 4" floor systems) or in the ceiling areas above the commercial space. A mathematical matrix can be constructed to provide the correct number of service connections (I/Os) for all low- and high-voltage systems. This design approach, combined with the new pathway products, sets the stage for a common network and cabling infrastructure for commercial buildings.

Probably the most important outcome of common network and building systems integration has been in the operational phase of the building project. This phase is seldom considered in master planning of a new or renovated building project. What is important to note, however, is the impact of the operational expense (cost to operate/sq, ft.) of the commercial space, when the flexibility of the building's infrastructure is considered in the master plan.

When you compare traditional nonintegrated infrastructure components with an integrated solution, and project the cost of management and change over a five- and 10-year operational cycle, the expectation of a 40% to 60% operational systems cost reduction can be obtained. This capability also includes a well-defined investment protection quality for a property manager's cabling infrastructure. This is significant when you consider that the operational phase of a building is about 40 years in length and contains the majority of the expense.

Finally, commercial building cabling systems will be required to support the ever-increasing speeds of the gigabit networks; therefore, a cabling system infrastructure must be capable of not only high-speed performance, but a wide selection of system application capability. How the commercial facility is built will determine how much it will cost to live there.

Fortin is a member of the Bell Laboratories' technical staff in the systems engineering group for SYSTIMAX structured connectivity solutions at Lucent Technologies, Hunt Valley, MD.