COMPLIANCE: The Golden Rules

Following standards pays in terms of life of the cabling,

durability and return on investment as one cannot possibly lay and remove cables

as it were a LAN Switch. As this forms the backbone of any company's

operations, the standards need to be respected and followed as per TIA/ EIA

listed standards.

Standards for True Value



Abiding and following standard guidelines is more to do with getting the

right throughput and extending the life of the product. Most cabling agencies

(small operations) are not aware of the standards completely. This is an

important aspect why structured cabling solutions may not give the right

performance. However, certification concepts followed by almost all major OEMs

help the industry in this aspect. Networks should be designed for easy

installation and access, and cabling should be provided with adequate support

and protection. Manufacturers' guidelines are designed to ensure that all

these criteria are met. They also take into account national and international

standards applying to cable pathways. The installer must ensure that the

requirements of building codes and standards are met in full.

Cost

vs Performance



In India, the choice of any product would be based on the cost as it is a

known fact that major OEMs follow TIA/EIA standards. While the cable and

component manufacturers follow the TIA/EIA standards, the durability of the

system would depend on the material used in manufacturing such cables and

components. Product (standards) compliance for some is more an art form than a

science, and there are very valid reasons why one patch cord sells for lesser

while another sells for a higher price. Likewise, installation practices alone

can take a first-class product and turn it into a mediocre one in an instant.

When contractors are driven by the knowledge that price is a foremost

consideration, be assured that shortcuts will occur-only a matter of where and

how many.

However, the central challenge to an end user today is to

truly define his needs-present and future. Cabling decisions that will hold

their value throughout performance and time.

An important question that builds the premise for all the

compliance/standard issues is what should be the performance of a structured

cabling system?

Performance of Structured Cabling System



Some prioritize link performance, others prefer channel performance. How do

you distinguish between what you understand and what performance you are really

buying-and be sure of what you get?

The channel is the entire cabling system comprising all the

cables, connecting hardware such as outlets and patch panels and all the cords

between (but not including) the mated plug/socket in the network interface card

(NIC) used in your PC at one end and the communications room equipment,

typically a switch, at the other. The performance requirement of the channel is

actually handed down to the cabling industry by the groups who define 'applications'

such as Ethernet, ATM, SDH and the like. These specifications basically say

"If the dc resistance is better than A Ohms, the insertion loss is better

than B dB, the signal to noise ratio is better than C dB, crosstalk is better

than D dB, the return loss is better than E dB, etc, then the application will

work over the channel". These groups that define the applications are only

interested that an RJ45 plug is at each end of the channel to fit into the RJ45

sockets provided. They are not very rigorous about the processors.

Varity in Standards



Even the different structured cabling standard bodies use different

definitions! In ISO/IEC11801:2002 and EN 50173-1:2002, a compliant channel can

be any collection of cables, connectors and cords that, as a cabling system,

meet the channel performance requirements. Whereas under the American standard,

TIA/EIA-568-B, a channel must be constructed of individually compliant cabling

components. And, of course, if the individual components are not Cat5e or Cat6

compliant, then there is very little chance of the channel continuing to meet

its specified performance requirement should a different manufacturer's patch

cord, outlet jack or patch panel be introduced later on-leading to network

performance problems and reduced throughput.

A permanent link, as defined in ISO/IEC and EN, includes the

horizontal cabling from the horizontal patch panel jack in the communications

room through to the telecommunications outlet jack at the workplace-including

the mated connectors at each end. The permanent link is defined because, in most

cases, when a cabling system is being installed, the channel (which also

includes all the additional cords and connections) simply doesn't exist.

The whole point of cabling standards is to be able to plug

together cabling components from different manufacturers and still meet the

overall channel requirement. You don't want a situation where an end user is

mixing compliant and non-compliant products. So, to ensure that cabling

components from different manufacturers will interoperate, we have Cat5e and

Cat6 component requirements. It's possible for poor terminations and wire map

errors to occur or for jacks and plugs to become damaged. And cables are all too

easily crushed, kinked or damaged on site during installation. So, cabling

components can cease to be component compliant with the result that channel

performance is hindered. In reality, it is imperative to test on site after

installation.

Although the standards allow for a great diversity of

proprietary solutions, 100% customers want to buy a system that is true Cat5e or

Cat6, ie, it's the fully interoperable, fully component compliant option. And

they can only achieve this by specifying that all of the cabling components in

the solution are fully component-compliant to the standards.

There is a defining way to measure product capability and

creating a level playing field. Ensure that all of the cabling components in the

system offered comply with Cat5e (or Cat6) according to ISO/IEC 11801:2002, EN

50173-1:2002 or TIA/EIA-568-B. Users should decide for themselves whether they

value the comfort of a safety margin or headroom and should totally discount

irrelevant claims about additional bandwidth and channel performance.

Minu Sirsalewala

'No system integrator can talk about exclusivity'

KB Prasad, DGM, marketing, structured cabling systems, Finolex Cables

What has been the focus of Finolex?



We are targeting projects in the range of 700 to 1,000 nodes and our target

customers are government and educational institutions, which contribute around

60% of our revenues.

What is the break-up of the market in India?



The structured cabling market can be divided into three parts-high end,

mid end, and low end. High end contributes 40%, mid end contributes 30% and low

end contributes another 30%. In terms of technology, Cat5e contributes around

50%, Cat6 contributes around 40% and others i.e. Cat6e, Cat7, and Cat7+

contributes another 10%.

What is Finolex's revenue projection from structured

cabling business in FY 2005-06?



Last year we had done business worth Rs 12.5 crore and this year plans are

for around Rs 18 crore. This year, growth will come from banking, PSU, software

and ITeS industry. In the banking sector there is lot of restructuring

happening. Software and ITeS is gaining ground in smaller cities like Pune.

How has been the performance till date?



Till date, Finolex has been doing pretty well and has done business worth Rs

8 crore. In terms of projects bagged, the company has got Indian Navy SeaBird

project in Karwar, NTPC projects in North and East.

What are the visible trends in FY 2004-05?



No system integrator can talk about exclusivity as it is presently a

customer choice driven by system integrators. In terms of prices, it has dropped

by around 8-10%.

What is the USP of Finolex in structured cabling business?



First, it provides better logistics management to its system integrators.

The company has 18 warehouses located across the country so the product movement

hardly takes time. In terms of channels strength, the company has around

30,000-plus electrical channels of which the company has cherry picked one or

two big distributors in each city for structured cabling products and this

strategy is paying off.