Details of Structured Cabling Systems Installed By Professionals

A structured cabling system is a perfect system of cabling and linked with hardware, which offers a comprehensive telecommunication framework. This framework serves a wide range of functions, such as telephone services or data transfer through a computer network. A structured cabling system should not be device dependent. It can also be viewed in terms of ownership. This is because a structured cabling system begins where the service provider terminates, at the point network interface device. For instance, in a telephone installation system, the surface provider provides one or more service lines and then connects the service lines at the point of demarcation.

This form of cabling system is considered distinct as a result of various changes in:

• The building structure that contains the cabling installation
• The products for the cable and connections
• The use of the cabling installation.
• The present and future equipments the cabling system will support.
• Upgrades and retrofits of an already installed cabling system.
• Requirements by the customers.
• Warranties by the manufacturer.

Because of the need to ensure an acceptable system performance from the increasingly complex arrangements, standardized methods are used to complete and maintain cabling installation. In United States for instance, cabling industry accepts the American National Standards Institute in conjunction with TIA/EIA, as the organization responsible for offering and maintaining standards and practices within the profession.There are resulting benefits of these standards which includes:

• Uniformity of design and installation.
• Conformity to physical and transmission line requirements.
• Offers a ground for examining a suggested system expansion or other changes
• Consistent documentation.

The standard term for a network installation serving a small area such as a building is the local area network (LAN). There are also other networks such as metropolitan area network and wide area networks. Structured cabling installations generally consist of; vertical and horizontal backbone cables, vertical and horizontal backbone pathways, horizontal cables, horizontal pathways, entrance facilities transition points and consideration points.

The entrance facility accommodates the transition outside plant cabling to cabling sanctioned for intra-building construction. This mainly involves transition to fire rated cable. The entrance facility is the network demarcation between the service provider and the customer premises cabling. The point where entrance facility is located is dependent on the type of facility, the route of the outside plant cabling, architecture of the building as well as the aesthetic considerations. The main types of entrance facilities include aerial, tunnel, buried and underground.

Benefits of structured cabling system

• Uniformity. This type of cabling system can use the same cabling system for everything. You can standardize your systems for ISDN, phone, and Ethernet cabling in order reduce trouble shooting issues and make it possible for future cabling updates.
• Offers a long life. With support for multi-vendors equipments, a standard based cabling system will support your application and hardware even after you change or mix and match vendors. With an excellent structured cabling system, you can avoid reworking the cabling when you upgrade to another vendor or model.
• Supports future applications. This cabling system is able to support other applications in future such as video conferencing, multimedia and many other with little or no upgrades.