STRUCTURED CABLING : That Binding Cord!

According to a research by AMI Partners, the structured cabling market in
Asia Pacific (including Japan) should reach $1.53 bn by 2010, with a compounded
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% between 2005-2010. The research also revealed
that by 2010, 32% structured cabling business in the region will come from the
data center market.

The Indian data center market, estimated to be worth around $100 mn, is
expected to double by 2009. The growth is expected to be driven by increasing
supply and decreasing cost of Internet bandwidth and domestic companies hosting
their mission-critical applications such as ERP and CRM in third-party data
centers.

Data centers generally include redundant or backup power supplies, redundant
data communication connections, environmental controls, and special security
devices. When employees and customers are unable to access servers, storage
systems, and networking devices that reside in the data center, the entire
organization can shut down. Careful planning of cabling will prevent congestion,
which can significantly reduce network performance of enterprises.

Enterprises can optimize their data centers by selecting the data center
infrastructure solutions that work together. By recognizing the value of the
data center infrastructure and its components, enterprises can ensure that
employees and customers have access to servers, storage systems, and networking
devices so that they can carry out daily business transactions and remain
prolific.

Preparing for the future and lowering the total cost of ownership with space
savings, reliable performance, avoiding costly downtime, and effective
manageability are the ultimate means to a flourishing data center and completely
successful business. In the near term, cabling is safer than wireless, and the
costs are also less.

Why Structure Cabling?

Before an enterprise chooses to go for cabling, it needs to understand the
purpose and advantages of structured cabling. A structured cabling system refers
to all the cabling and components installed in a coherent and hierarchical way.
It provides a universal platform upon which an overall information system's
strategy is built. It can support multiple voice, data, video and multimedia
systems.

A structured cabling system provides support for multi-vendor equipment. With
structured cabling, network resources are always there and ready to go.
Selection of standards like Cat 6 ensures that your cable plant will support
future applications with little system upgrades. The system requires minimal
upgrades-and ultimately saves the business time as well as money.

A structured cabling system is essential for the data center. The majority of
data center managers and electronic vendors say with firm conviction that all
their devices are useless if the cabling is inappropriate or incapable of
supporting the applications.

Data Center Infrastructure Design

According to cabling manufacturers, a major turning point in the industry
has been the progress in technology from fast Ethernet to gigabit Ethernet and
more recently to 10 Gigabit over copper. IT managers realize that the speed,
performance, and manageability of networks are important factors.

Three basic principles of data center design, if kept in mind, will lead to
lowering the cost of total ownership, supporting future growth plans, trimming
down downtime risks, taking full advantage of performance, and improving the
ability to construct. These three principals are:

Space Saving: The cost of building a data center is high. Data center racks
and equipment can take up a huge amount of real estate, and the future demand
for more network connections, bandwidth, and storage may require even more
space. With insufficient floor space as the topmost concern among IT managers
today, maximizing space resources is the most critical aspect of data center
design.

Business environments are constantly budding; as a result data center
requirements continuously change. Providing a lot of empty floor space when
designing data center enables the suppleness of reallocating space to a
particular function, and adding new racks and equipment as needed.

As connections, bandwidth, and storage requirements grow, so does the amount
of data center cabling, key functional areas, and equipment. Sufficient overhead
and under floor cable pathways, as well as rich space, are also necessary for
future growth and manageability.

Tumbling existing data center space is likely the most expensive and
troublesome problem any organization can face. Therefore, properly designing the
data center for space savings at the start is essential. Cabling and
connectivity components of the data center infrastructure can have a direct
impact on the amount of space required in any data center.

Reliability: Service without any disturbance and continuous access are
critical to the daily operation and productivity of business. Data centers must
be designed for reliability and availability, besides other things. Data center
reliability is also defined by the performance of the infrastructure.

The infrastructure must constantly support the flow of data without errors
that cause retransmission and delays. Cabling and connectivity, backed by a
trustworthy vendor with guaranteed error-free performance, help avoid poor
transmission within the data center. A bad performing data canter can be just as
costly and disruptive to the business as downtime.

With the ever-increasing network expansion and bandwidth demands, data center
infrastructure must be able to maintain constant reliability and performance.
The cabling itself should support current bandwidth needs while enabling
probable relocation to higher network speeds without sacrificing performance. In
fact, data center infrastructure should be designed and implemented to survive
the applications and equipment it supports for at least 10-15 years.

The protection of cabling and connections is a key factor in ensuring data
center consistency. When cabling is bent beyond its specified minimum bend
radius, it can cause transmission failures, and as more cables are added to a
routing path, the possibility of bend radius breach increases.

Pathways must maintain proper bend radius at all points where the cable makes
a bend-both at initial installation and when cables are accessed or added. The
separation of cable types in horizontal pathways and physical protection of both
cable and connections should also be implemented to avoid possible damage.

Manageability: Manageability is the key to optimizing your data center. The
infrastructure should be designed in such a manner that it holds disaster
recovery, upgrades, manageability, and reliably. Manageability starts with a
strategic, unified cable management that keeps cabling and connections properly
stored and organized, easy to locate and access, and simple to reconfigure.

Cable routing paths must be clearly defined and spontaneous to follow while
enabling easy deployment, separation, access, reduced congestion, and room for
growth. This is especially important in data centers with large volumes of
cables. Cables managed this way improve network reliability by reducing the
possibility of cable damage, bend radius violations, and the time required for
identifying, routing, and rerouting cables. In this situation, all
modifications, rerouting, upgrades, and maintenance activities are proficient.

Deploying common rack frames with sufficient vertical and horizontal cable
management simplifies rack assembly, organizes cable, facilitates cable routing,
and keeps equipment cool. Cable management at the rack also protects the bend
radius and manages cable slack proficiently.

Choosing the Equipment

The total spend for network infrastructure equipment is but a little bit of
the entire data center cost. But the fact remains that 70% of all network
downtime is attributed to the physical layer, specifically cabling faults.

When selecting fiber and copper cable, connectivity and cable management
solutions for the data center, it's important to go for those products and
services that gratify the three principles-space saving, reliability, and
manageability. A data center infrastructure without components that ensure space
savings, reliability, and manageability minimizes the goal of optimizing the
data center.

ADC Krone's copper and fiber cable, connectivity, and cable management
solutions come together to provide a comprehensive data center infrastructure
solution that lowers the total cost of ownership, enables future growth, and
reduces downtime risks. High-density copper and fiber solutions that take up
less rack, floor, and pathway space, guaranteed performance for reliable
transmission and availability, advanced cabling solutions ideal for today and
for migrating to 10 Gb Ethernet tomorrow, cable management solutions that
protect cable and connections while offering easy identification, convenience,
and reconfiguration.

Cabling Solutions

A structured cabling system can alleviate workflow disruption and network
downtime associated with office restructuring. A well-designed cabling plant may
include several independent cabling solutions of different media types,
installed at each workstation to support multiple system performance
requirements.

Fiber Optic: For maximum versatility and durability, a fiber optic cabling
solution can be implemented into the network. Fiber offers speed and reliability
from the building entrance to the desktop, whether it is in office or on the
factory floor. Fiber cable also provides greater bandwidth and longer
transmission distances while improving the overall efficiency of your network.

Low-voltage Cabling: Structured cabling isn't limited to data and voice
networks. It can include music and paging systems, CCTV and security systems,
fire alarms, and access control.

Copper: The Enhanced Cat 5 (Cat 5e) solutions ensure the cabling system's
ability to support the expected application performance. AntennaPro can provide
a Cat 5e, or a Cat 6 (draft) solution that will exceed TIA Cat 5e performance
requirements and give your network an edge today and tomorrow.

The structured cabling market always moves at a tremendous speed, introducing
new designs and emerging standards. AntennaPro partners leading edge
manufacturers to offer solutions that will grow with the business making the
future of cabling infrastructure safe and secure.

Copper Cabling Vs Fiber Cabling

For years, copper UTP solutions have been the ideal network medium for
horizontal cabling due to its cost effective electronics, common plug-and-play
connections, and easy installation. As businesses evolve and data center demands
grow, transmission speeds have migrated to accommodate huge streams of data
being transferred back and forth between network equipment and servers.

But with the same percentage of terminations as copper, fiber optic cabling
and connectivity is a major part of the data center. Fiber links are also the
most critical links because they carry data to and from a large number of
sources.

Some data center designers have a propensity to misjudge fiber optic cabling
requirements. They believe that a few strands will be enough for the current and
future needs. But emerging technologies continue to be layered onto the network,
and because fiber optic cabling is backward, and not forward, designers should
choose the fiber type capable of supporting all the current and future
applications in the data center.

Copper Cable Management Systems

A good cable management system should save space by maximizing the number of
cables and connections in a given track. It should also ensure reliability by
protecting cable and connections, and offer manageability through easy
identification, access and reconfiguration. Because the use of a central
patching location in a cross-connect scenario provides a logical and
easy-to-manage infrastructure that helps manage growth without disrupting
service, data center cable management systems must also easily and efficiently
accommodate this scenario.

An Ethernet distribution frame (EDF) forms a central patching location
between active Ethernet network elements. By creating a centralized interface
for Ethernet equipment, EDF enhances data center manageability by enabling quick
modifications and reconfigurations without service disruptions.

With EDF, permanent connections protect equipment cables from daily activity
that can damage cables. EDF cross-connect also scales easily for adding new
technologies and its high-density interface maximizes active ports and conserves
valuable floor space.

Fiber Cable Management Systems

Fiber is a vital component of the data center but it is also a subtle
medium. Fiber cable management must protect fiber at all times for reliability
while providing space savings and manageability. Some vendors have introduced
next generation frame (NGF) product line, which meets these objectives while
promoting infinite growth. Within the data center, it is critical that fiber
jumpers not only be protected at the fiber distribution frame, but also within
the pathway going to and from the fiber frame.

This next generation frame is a fiber distribution frame that allows you to
implement the maximum number of fibers in a given space. This high-density
solution optimizes reliability and manageability through a balance of density,
protection, and functionality. Sufficient trough space reduces fiber blocking
and potential damage while enabling growth. Complete bend radius protection
reduces attenuation of the signal and maintains consistent, long-term fiber
performance. Easy front and nurture connector access, built-in jumper slack
storage, and intelligent routing paths provide easy identification, tracing, and
maintenance.

Additional Considerations

Standards: In designing any data center infrastructure, the standard is a
very valuable tool. The standard covers cabling distances, pathways, site
selection, space and layout. The TIA-942 telecommunication infrastructure
standard for data center specifies the following key functional areas in the
data center: One or more entrance rooms house carrier equipment and the
demarcation point; a main distribution area (MDA) houses the data center's main
cross-connect; one or more horizontal distribution areas (HDA) house horizontal
cross-connects and is the distribution point for cabling to the equipment
distribution areas; a zone distribution area (ZDA) houses a structured cabling
area for floor-standing equipment that cannot accept patch panels; and an
equipment distribution area (EDA) houses equipment racks and cabinets in a hot
aisle/cold passageway configuration to scatter heat from electronics .

Power Requirements: Electricity is the most important element of a data
center. Power interruption for even a fraction of a second is enough to cause a
server failure. The measures employed to prevent disruptions should be based on
the level of reliability required. Common practices include: two or more power
feeds from the utility company, uninterrupted power supplies, multiple circuits
to systems and equipment, and on-site generators.

It's very important for data centers to properly estimate their power
requirements based on the devices currently in use in the data center as well as
the number of devices anticipate needing in the future to hold growth. Power
requirements for support equipment should also be included.

Cooling: Servers and equipment are getting smaller and more powerful to
accommodate the need for high-density data center installations. However, this
concentrates a massive amount of heat into a smaller area. Adequate cooling
equipment is a must. The use of hot aisle/cold aisle configuration where
equipment racks are arranged in rows of hot and cold aisles is also important.
Cooling is a very real apprehension in data centers.

Faced with these consequences, enterprises today must optimize their data
centers, particularly the network infrastructure. When 70% of network downtime
can be accredited to physical layer problems, specifically cabling faults, it's
important that more consideration is given to infrastructure design.

Arpita Prem

arpitap@cybermedia.co.in