STRUCTURED CABLING: Up, up the Value Chain

The Global approach towards the structured cabling industry has changed

tremendously. This industry is now changing its nature and been popularly known

as Information Transport Systems Industry. The industry is a good merger of

established technologies and the new emerging technologies. It's amazing to

see the various products and technologies shaking hands together and what comes

out are the innovative solutions, just like a Network in a Box.

Around a year back or so, there was confusion over what would happen to the

wired industry since the wireless is going so strong all across the globe. It

was a subject of great debate. Then comes the news of copper supporting 10G

performance over a length of 100 meters. It was amazing. Slowly, the wireless

and wired network became the complementary products to each other. You need to

have a good physical back up to support wire less in big infrastructures.

Structured cabling was never as smart as it is now. Intelligent Cabling is

the buzzword today and is been implemented in many projects in India. Thanks to

the boom in call centers and BPOs, smart cabling allows the users to handle the

moves, additions and changes more effectively. It also helps in locating cabling

problems more quickly and accurately. The initial implementation cost may be bit

high but over a period of time this can be nullified as network down time

reduces drastically. It's very essential to evaluate the various vendors

before selecting anyone. Few vendors may quote less but then they make customer

to pay for every extra module he needs. It's important for the users to list

down which features we would be using in his network and make sure on whether

those features are incorporated in the core package he is buying. It is always

advisable to buy the web-based solutions since it allows the system managers to

access and control the network even from remote locations.

Looking

at the trends from past one year, Cat6 has already overtaken Cat5e market very

comfortably. The ratio of Cat6 over Cat5e could be as high as 60:40. In most of

the new projects Cat6 is preferred. Cat5e is going in the government and finance

sectors while in rest of the projects Cat6 has become the default technology.

The main reason behind the same is the requirement of better bandwidth plus the

reducing rate difference between these two.

10G over copper is the recent news, which has made waves around the world. In

fact, these standards are supposed to come out in June 2006. One of the IEEE

Task Force, IEEE 10 Gigabit Ethernet Standard Working Group, has already been

working on these standards. What has been declared so far is the proprietary

standard from couple of vendors. The technology is revolving around the

suppression of the cross talks, which occurs due to the presence of adjacent

cables, called as Alien Cross Talk. The cables construction is improvised in

such a way that the copper pairs remains away from each other thus meeting the

criteria for carrying the information with 10G per second over 100 meters of UTP.

Despite

the fact that some vendors have announced new infrastructure cables claiming to

support 10G, many issues still needs to be addressed. Little is known about the

effects of ANEXT of already installed cabling and whether or not conventional

design and installations methods can be used. Because these standards are very

much in their infancy and are not expected to be ratified until mid 2006,

customers need to know whether the choice they make when planning for 10G over

copper is sustainable over the longer term and will meet their future

expectations. What guarantees can the supplier provide that the system will meet

the new standard when it is ratified and there won't be network performance

issues?

IEEE P802.3an Task Force



Looking at the journey of these standards and technology, it is essential

for the industry to think on the product line which enables the users to use the

cabling solution of their choice as and when the need arises, without changing

the ambience or without having a major network down time. Blown and De-Blown

Cabling Technology, which is being used elsewhere, can be a good option to the

Indian market to meet this need. Vendors should work towards these technologies.

It works on the compressed air technology by means of which the copper or fiber

cables can be blown in or blown out. It suffices the need of system

administrators to accommodate the present need of the organizations.

The T&M vendors can play a very active role in the Indian market. Most of

the SIs today cannot afford the costly meters. They had to outsource the job

from the few ones who actually has got the meters. How will the system

integrator implement the job if he does not have exposure on the testing and

measuring of required parameters? What is needed possibly for the good of the

industry is the regular interaction of these players with the system

integrators. The back to back bank facilities or profit sharing can be a good

option which can be made available to the system integrators having good track

record.

Looking at these needs of the industry, I think an association like BICSI can

play a very vital role in the Indian market. From the day of its inception,

BICSI India has made the vendors to cross the competition barriers and think

above the commercial rat race for the good of the Industry. Having three

successful conferences on the side, it is gearing up for the 4th technical

conference on 9th December in Bangalore. This would definitely help the industry

to grow in the right direction and with the right spirit.

Finally, the Information Transport System Industry has come across a long way

in India. It has still to go a long way. It would be very interesting to watch

its journey further. Cabling technology had always dominated the information

carrying capacity. As I always give example to others, you need to have good

roads to speed up your car to the desired speed, other wise it is of no use in

investing in the good cars. The same is applicable in the networking industry as

well. Unless one has a strong and reliable physical infrastructure, the desired

performance of the network cannot be achieved.

Vikas Pinjarkar general manager, sales (SCS), D-Link India