Structured Cabling Installation — Exploring 6 Components of It
Structured cabling installation is an essential part of modern data and voice communications systems. Structured cabling has certainly made the procedure of installing data and voice communications devices easier than ever before.
With the use of structured cabling, latest equipments like IoT systems are also supported. Of course, it has revolutionized voice and data communications options.
Do you want to learn more about structured cabling? If yes, so keep reading it.
What Are the Benefits of Structured Cabling Installation?
Obviously, there’re various benefits of choosing structured cabling installation. Structured cabling makes the installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of cable infrastructure easy and swift.
The key benefit of choosing structure cabling is that it helps you saving money by standardization of cable types and hardware components.
Since connectors as well as wiring are simplified, structured cabling helps people saving lots of time with structured cabling installation.
With the help of structured cabling, you can easily adapt ANSI/TIA-568 standard for any type of commercial and residential wiring requirements.
What Are the Components of Structured Cabling Installation?
If you want to understand the eco-system of structured cabling, you first need to know about its components. There are 6 components of structured cabling. These are called subsystems of structured cabling.
Let’s unveil each structured cabling subsystem one by one to understand the architecture of structured cabling installation system.
1 — Entrance Facilities — First Step towards Structured Cabling Installation
EF (entrance facilities) is an essential component of structured cabling installation. When telecom facilities enter a residence or building from the outside, especially from a private or local network service carrier, it goes through a wall attached to a conduit.
The same structured cabling enters a target room or space where other equipments are deployed, such as patch panels, network connection points, equipment racks, power supplies, hardware connectors, and protection systems for shielding, grounding and yes lightening protection.
2 — ER (Equipment Room)
The area especially where entrance cabling simply connects to the internal residential or building wiring architecture is the device room or equipment room.
ER contains patch panels that easily offer connections for available backbone cabling, intermediate cabling and horizontal cabling.
Since Equipment room also houses PBXs, network switches, servers, and various other devices, it needs to work on temperature and humidity control. This way, it can maintain the humidity and temperature levels according to specifications of the equipments.
3 — Backbone Cabling
Backbone cabling is the third component of structured cabling installation process. It is also known as riser cabling. Backbone cabling is usually installed in vertical channels that simply connect to each available floor.
It links telecommunications, EF, ERs, and carrier spaces with each other.
There are two subsystems for backbone cabling.
1. Cabling subsystem two is simply cabling between an intermediate cross-connect and horizontal cross-connect.
2. Cabling subsystem three is certainly the cabling between the main cross-connect and IC.
Here, one point must be noted that entrance cables are generally determined by network carrier. Thus, it is not the responsibility of the users.
4 — TE (Telecommunications Enclosure) and TR (Telecommunications Room)
You should know that it is an environmentally controlled space that could be a dedicated space or room (TE) or simply a part of another bigger room (TR), like a usual utility area.
Hardware installed in this area terminates backbone and horizontal cables. This is also the area where cables, such as patch cords and jumpers are installed on given patch panels to cross-connect different types of cables.
Moreover, MCs or ICs can also be used here to offer added connection resources.
5 — Cabling subsystem 1 or Horizontal Cabling
The fifth component of structured cabling system is horizontal cabling. Horizontal cabling provides telecom resources or systems to users especially at their workstations.
A usual cabling goes from the device of user to the nearest TR in the same room. Moreover, the maximum cable length allowed between user device and TR is only 295 feet, irrespective of the cable type.
Horizontal cabling houses patch panels, connectors, patch cords in TE/TR, and jumpers. It may also house multiuser telecommunications assemblies as well as consolidation points especially to connect various cables or devices in a single given connector.
6 — WA (Work Area)
Work Area (WA) is the space from a jack or connector in given wall outlet to a user’s device uses a cable. This is the final and sixth component of a structured cable installation system.
Final Words about Structured Cabling Installation
Structured cabling has certainly made process of installing innovative data and voice communications devices easier and faster than ever before.