The Bigger Picture

As India is growing, maturing, and advancing technologically, the structured cabling market is scaling up parallelly. As organizations are moving towards digitization, their network infrastructure is the key and fundamental component, and an inseparable part of bandwidth-hungry applications, internet-led applications such as VoIP and video conferencing, other IP applications, and high computing business needs.

The Indian structured cabling market was pegged at '1,382 crore in FY11, according to VOICE&DATA estimates. Re-couping from recession in 2009-10, the structured cabling market escalated in 2010-11 with a growth rate of 24.7%, although US and European markets have dominated the global structured cabling systems market. However the structured cabling business in Asia-Pacific (including Japan) is expected to be growing the fastest. This growth would be led by a host of factors such as a greater demand for enhanced bandwidth, more adoption of greener technologies, increased incidence of Indian companies hosting mission-critical applications such as ERP and CRM at remote locations.

Today, the physical infrastructure is being recognized as a fundamental and critical component of IT operations. Next-generation data centers and emerging convergence and top-of-rack switching technologies have changed the requirements for the underlying physical network. With the virtualization efforts, much of the existing infrastructure was re-used and re-purposed. The structured cabling segment is experiencing growth in order to keep pace with advanced technologies such as in-building wireless, thin-client terminals, VoIP phones, videoconferencing stations, in-building security and environmental sensors and controls, security systems, smart panels, and the overall connected building infrastructure and industrial automation needs.

Industry stalwarts say that it is a bad idea to forgo structured cabling and invest in a network switch. Structured cabling investments have a lifespan of at least 3 or 4 times the life of network hardware, therefore it is crucial to build a structured cabling system that supports any and all existing technologies and hopefully build in growth. The system should have the option for different topologies and tier structures. The older establishments which were on unstructured cabling are migrating to SCS when they renovate or upgrade their facilities. The data center market will continue to witness growth-currently estimated to be 40% annually.

Customers must lay emphasis on performance and sustainability rather than price factor. And they should focus more on structured cabling which has a longer lifespan. Structured cabling provides good RoI for any customer. The upgrades required would be very minimal, thereby saving time and money. Customers have to understand this before they decide on going for structured cabling solutions.

Ruling Trends

A structured cabling system should be consistent and should use the same cabling systems for data, voice, and video. It has to support multi-vendor equipment, applications, and hardwares. It can support any changes within the systems. It simplifies troubleshooting with structured cabling systems and problems are less likely to reduce the entire network, easier to isolate, and easier to fix. It ought to provide support for the future applications.

New network cabling installations are opening up all over the country. Today, structured cabling is evolving faster than ever before with the mix of network technologies being the most volatile while the overall growth seems to be very strong as well. The adoption of new technologies such as virtualization and all the subsequent advantages it offers are driving change.

Companies are placing greater emphasis on structured cabling as a part of their IT infrastructure and are willing to ensure that their network cabling performance is top notch. They also have to see cabling as a future-proof investment that can accommodate moves, adds, and changes easily, therefore maintaining optimal network performance over a long period of time.

In the early days, enterprises used several types of cabling systems like co-axial cables, multi-pair cables, etc. The industry lacked a unified standard due to the existence of proprietary standards of various manufacturers. This raised issues of compatibility, maintenance, and troubleshooting. However, in due course, standards like TIA/EIA, ISO, IEC emerged and brought a more streamlined, efficient approach to cabling systems. Transformation leads to the optimization of time, cost, and network performance.

In recent years, there has been an increased deployment of fiber-optic systems including components and MPO/MTP solutions. This will be in line with the growing performance needs of data centers and networks. Cabling vendors are vigorously focusing on a consultative approach. Most of them work closely with customers to understand and address their business requirements. Cloud computing, 40G solutions, FTTH adoption, data center implementation, pre-terminated fiber/copper cable harnesses, bend insensitive fiber cords, Cat 6A, Cat 7, etc, are few new product segments and trends expected. Some of the prominent efficient cabling solutions at present include AMP Sigma link cable assemblies, U/UTP cables, TG500, TG800, FSO (Free Space Optics), Blown Fiber, MIIM, pre-terminated copper solutions, FM45, UPI (unified physical infrastructure) solutions, Z-MAX copper cabling solution, XLR8 Pre-Polished Fiber Connectors, GG45, Cat-5e, Cat-6, Cat-6A, Cat-7, Cat-7A, EMAC (Environment Monitoring and Control) solutions, OM4 fiber and 10GBase-T among others.

Some of the trends in vogue from past couple of years include early deployment of FTTH in high-end residential complexes; Cat 6A cabling started to gain momentum; 10G networks considered for LAN cabling; high density of fiber connectivity in data centers, and increasing acceptance of intelligent cabling.

Intelligent Cabling

Intelligent cabling has stolen the show of late. IT managers are demanding intelligent cabling as it enables proactive network monitoring and fault diagnosis. It is more efficient, reduces costs, and resolves issues like unplanned downtime, inefficient manual moves, reliability, redundancy, additions and changes, redundant ports, and inaccurate records. It will provide real-time management of the physical layer. Having an intelligent cabling solution enables an immediate rectification, as this system can indicate where exactly the network is experiencing problems. It can track IP based addresses and the network manager can access, control, and manage them from one central location, thereby troubleshooting them remotely.

Intelligent cabling system is a real-time physical layer management system for the enterprise network. It consists of an end-to-end structured cabling system with intelligent patch panels and software agents that provide a complete view of physical layer connectivity and its relation to the logical layers.The technology now allows for remote monitoring and management across multiple sites around the world. Any PC with internet can be used to access and manage the system. It increases the network management efficiency and network security considerably.

Intelligent cabling systems will be of advantage for any network where downtime is critical, and also when there are constant moves, adds and changes. These are manageable manually when the network size is small. When the network size gets larger, manageability becomes an issue.

Copper Cabling

Copper cabling would never take a back seat because setting up a network wholly on fiber is highly expensive which is neither worthy nor a requirement. It is recommended to have a combination of copper and fiber to maximize flexibility and minimize cost.

At present, most of the cabling vendors have quit Category 5 manufacturing. Category 5e is widely installed across India currently than any other cabling infrastructure. Category 6a operates at a frequency of 550 MHz. It is backward compatible with the existing standards; this technology is suitable for industry sectors utilizing high-performance computing platforms to support very high bandwidth-intensive applications. 10G/Cat 6a applications would initially be deployed in server farms, storage area networks, data centers, and riser backbones. It supports 10G.

Currently, most organizations are migrating either to Cat 6 or 6a based on the applications required in India. However uptake of Cat 6a is still slow and in pockets mainly in financial sector. Cat 6a is the evolution of UTP cabling to support 10G and more bandwidth when compared to Cat 6. We hardly see any difference between Cat 6a and Cat 7. Moreover, Cat 7 is likely to have a natural death as it is inadaptable, issues in installation issues and cables ought to be repulled. Category 7a is known to operate at 1,000 MHz, but it is yet to be ratified. It is at a very nascent stage. Cat 6A will see an increased deployment as it is in line with the growth in sectors such as data centers. Also, end-customers are future proofing critical parts of the network such as their storage, server farms, and backbone with, latest technology.

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cabling is generally not called for in most commercial environments, just as residential environments. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) is cheaper, and therefore more common, since the shielding from electromagnetic radiation is not generally needed. There are, however, circumstances under which STP is beneficial or required. Specifically, steel mills generally use shielded cabling (or optical, where possible) because of the massive currents in use, which play havoc with the signal in a traditional UTP Ethernet cable.

In summary, the only benefits likely to be observed would be in intra-server communication, which would be better served by UTP to offset cost or FDDI to increase reliability over distance and in backbone wiring (again, UTP would generally be the less expensive but equivalent, and therefore a better idea, unless there is severe electromagnetic interference. At that point, it may be more beneficial to go with fiber optic, which is immune to electromagnetic interference). It would be very difficult to justify Cat-7 STP at this time.

Copper is restricted for installations within 100 m. Copper is prone to get affected due to EMI resulting in data loss. Installation of copper cable is much simpler and easier when compared to fiber cables. Increase in copper prices is always a concern. Customers plan their budgets and typically the execution of a building project could take a year and significant changes in cable cost can upset a planned budget. Copper prices have almost doubled over the past one year. Copper cables constitute of around 70% of the structured cabling business in India, while fiber has still a long way to go.

Fibering

Fiber is still primarily used for backbone applications despite the improved viability of fiber as a to-the-desk solution with the cost of active equipments still stagnant. Increased use of fiber connectivity particularly, factory terminated plug-and-play fiber solutions, can be attributed primarily to the data center applications where the density is critical. Multimode (50/125, 62.5/125um) OM1, OM2 &OM3, Single mode (9/125um) in fiber category are ruling. OM4 fiber cabling was seen last year in parts. OM3 fiber cabling is gradually picking up and plug-and-play copper and fiber solutions have been employed in key installations. Outdoor plant fiber cabling also saw an increase in usage last year. OS2 (Low Water Peak Fiber-G652.d) is the standard for most deployment.

OM4 in multi-mode technology will see increased deployment-to support 40G & 100G applications. Fiber requirement has gone up to address campus networking situations. Fiber optics has an advantage of being immune to electromagnetic interference. Fiber optic cabling uses less power and provides less signal degradation than copper cables. Fiber cables are generally non-flammable, virtually unable to be tapped. It is also of smaller diameter and weighs less than its copper counterpart, making it ideal for a variety of cabling solutions. Fiber optics has always been the preferred choice for backbone cabling in buildings and campuses. The cable costs much less to maintain and offers greater signal capacity. The fiber optic cable's smaller diameter also makes it impervious to interference, with a much lower transmission loss.

Fiber cabling is becoming a major discussion point with many new market developments in India-higher density of fiber connectivity in data centers and central office and new generation fiber connectors such as MPO are getting popular to manage higher fiber counts. Fiber-to-the X is the next big wave in the industry that will promote the usage of optical fiber replacing all or part of the usual metal local loop used for the last mile connectivity.

Drivers

Growth drivers in structured cabling has remained same since 2003 such as the growth in the software exports, exponential growth in IT enabled services, government initiatives to enhance IT deployment across various departments, growth in BFSI segment, higher deployments in educational institutions, hospitality, retail, and manufacturing. After healthcare, government is the second largest sector, with an 11.8% share, followed by retail sector, with an 11.6% share. Other leading sectors include professional and technical services at an 8.7% share and manufacturing with a share of 8.4%. These 5 vertical sectors account for more than half the SCS market and are expected to continue with a positive growth till 2015.

Earlier tier-1 cities were the high-revenue earners, but now new opportunities are being thrown open by tier-2 and -3 cities viz, Coimbatore, Cochin, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Puducherry, Mysore, etc. The mid-sized market has picked up, despite its price sensitivity, because of the industry verticals-IT and ITeS, BPO, BFSI, PSUs, government, healthcare, SoHo, and residential. These drivers will roll in a positive growth curve for the market.

The data center cabling market is poised to grow several times which is expected to drive the potential market for Cat 6A and above. In addition, FTTH deployment is also projected to grow multiple times in the near future. Emerging markets like the tier-2 and 3 cities and verticals like manufacturing, IT/ITeS, and hospitality are expanding.

Designing-The Key

At the end of the day, it is not just a product or solution which becomes important but well-qualified system integrators who can design and certify the project is very important. Designing the network cabling is very crucial. Designing or installation ought to be done by working closely with network engineers, cable plant designers, and also contractors involved with building the projects. Designers/installers ought to have in-depth knowledge of cabling components, systems, installation processes along with the knowledge of codes, standards and electrical power systems. Design and execution of cabling systems are necessary for an error-free performance. Designing out potential failure modes such as ground loops, short link limitations are first steps in minimizing the chance of network failures. Designing system terminations that consider the skillset and practice of the installation teams is a key. Efficient networks are a result of meticulous planning and thoughtful design. Quality of the installations is an important factor that needs attention. Installations not carried out properly, where the best practices are ignored, are likely to lead to complications or failures.

Quantity of repairs and fibers needed in individual backbone runs should depend on the area served. Avoid installing where sources of high levels of EMI/ RFI may exist. A few recommended cabling practices include using connecting hardware that is compatible with the installed cable, terminate each horizontal cable on a dedicated telecommunications outlet, locate the main cross-connect near the center of the building to limit cable distances, maintain the twist of horizontal and backbone cable pairs upto the point of terminations, tie and dress horizontal cables neatly and with a minimum bend radius of 4 times the cable diameter, and lastly place cabling at a sufficient distance from the equipment.

It would be an added boon if a designer understands both the technology of communications cabling and the technology of communications; and to keep abreast of the latest developments in not only the technology but the applications of both. Documenting is also an important part of design and installation process as part of the planning process as it can save time and material in the installation and allow better planning for upgrading. During installation, it will speed up the cable pulling and installation since the routing and terminations are already documented.

Every installation requires confirmation that the components are good and are installed properly. This entails testing to specifications which are created when a loss budget analysis is done. The process comprises testing 3 times-testing the cable before installation, testing each installed segment, and testing complete end-to-end loss. The key things to future proof the cable infrastructure is-select the optimally required components, install them from trained/certified installers, and get the network certified as well as documented. Select the components with higher head room (positive margin to allow installation inefficiencies) and adhere to discipline, especially during Move-Add-Change (MAC).

While selecting a structured cabling system, organizations must consider the future applications that they may add in future. Typically a networking gear (computers, switches etc) will have a maximum useful life of 3-5 years, whereas structured cabling has a maximum useful life of 10-15 years (3 X networking gear). That means the cabling installed today should support the three generations of networking gear. Installation of a structured cabling product is equally important like the product selection. Following the right installation practices and adherence to standards is very important when it come to new applications that require higher data rate transfer.

BICSI as an organization is working with an objective to enhance the design and installation capabilities in the ITS industry. It provides information, education and knowledge assessment for individuals and companies in the ITS industry. This being an industry that goes through enhancements very fast, BICSI supports the members through the Continuous Education Credits (CECs) which allows them to be updated on latest developments in the industry.

Wireless Technology: Complementing or Competing?

Undoubtedly, wireless does not dare compete but it complements, despite being the need of the hour. Isn't mobility the order of the day? Every second person uses laptop these days, in addition people use BlackBerry, iPhone or other mobile handsets for wireless communications. In recent years, Wi-Fi has become more reliable and also offers what seems to be an adequate bandwidth for most users. This desire for mobility and the expansion of connected services appears to lead to a new type of corporate network. Since wireless rides on a wireline technology, therefore wiring the core access points is very important and having a perfect LAN and MPLS is essential. Fiber optic backbone with copper to the desktop where people want direct connections and multiple wireless access points for full coverage and maintaining a reasonable number of users per access point is the new norm for corporate networks.