The more your network demands from your company due to increasing demands in
terms of advanced applications like videoconferencing, high-definition graphics,
IP telephony, IPTV, multimedia networks, and e-commerce with both voice and
data, the more the bandwidth is required. Particularly when the communication
technology leapfrogs to unprecedented levels, the demand for new standards
grows. That's how the structured cabling standard has evolved from various
levels, with cynicism over the requirement of a particular standard plaguing the
industry at every level.
Today, 10 G cabling standard is talked about. In the past, enterprises chose
10 Mbps (10 BASE-T) capable cables and gradually moved to the next level 16 Mbps
token ring and fast ethernet (100 BASE-T), which was followed by the 155 Mbps
ATM. As the requirement of data transmission rates increased, the cabling
standard evolved from Cat 3 to Cat 4, Cat 5 and its enhanced version Cat 5E. And
then came Cat 6 and its augmented version, Cat 6A, followed by 10 G, fiber
optics, and now Cat 7 and Cat 7A.
Why Next Gen Cabling?
Why one has to go for next generation advanced structured cabling is the
question that often arises in the minds of CXOs. At a time when end users are
becoming more and more discerning in experiencing various applications from
emails to all of those graphic intensive files and multimedia files, end users
want speed, continuity, and reliability on the data highway and want the network
fast enough to feel that they own the LAN.
While network administrators go for next generation cabling standard, they
will have a smoother time. Now, with advanced cabling solution, much faster data
rates are achieved. This need has been felt at every stage in the structured
cabling history. Data rates on the horizontal cabling system have evolved from
10 Mbps to 100 Mbps and more-up to 1000 Mbps.
Cabling standards employed by various segments and verticals have witnessed
quite a change in the last decade. There has always been a need for most
enterprises to go for next generation cabling to update the data transfer rates
as their growing businesses demand. Most companies see the maximum longevity
factor before going for the data cabling installation. Higher data transmission
rates require cables with increased bandwidth, defined by frequency ranges.
There is a perception that the 'go wireless' mantra will cause structured
cabling to lose its significance. However, experts in the structured cabling
industry have a different take on it. They believe that though the mantra is
gaining momentum, and it will increase its presence in the commercial premises
in the medium term, wireless still needs structured cable to provide power for
wireless access points (WAPs).
Copper versus fiber optics medium is another issue. Apart from the copper
medium, the fiber optics medium is also emerging in certain areas. Will fiber
optics replace copper in certain areas is a much-debated question. Again,
industry experts vary. DS Nagendra, GM, Nexans Cabling Solutions, says, “Copper
cabling is preferred over fiber due to the latter's ease of installation
procedures and the familiarity of use in the installer segment.”
According to Jim Young, regional technical director, CommScope, the use of
fiber will continue to be a matter of cost benefit. If we go by history,
customers will continue to take advantage of the savings copper-based
technologies can offer while still supporting the new emergent 10 G
applications.
Dileep Kumar, director, Product Management, Enterprise and Carrier, ADC Krone,
says: “The fiber optics medium has certain benefits over the copper medium. In
campuses, between buildings (also across floors of buildings), and in data
centers, the better electro magnetic interference (EMI) properties of the fiber
medium are preferred. Copper does not provide high bandwidth over long
distances.” So, the truth is that these two media are not contradictory
technologies. As the two media have advantages in different aspects, they are
here to coexist.
Choosing the Solution
Before going for the next generation cabling standard, keeping in mind
applications that they currently run and may run in the foreseeable future,
enterprises nowadays try to find out if the solution is capable of handling
future demands in terms of bandwidth.
Enterprises also have to look for stability with VoIP technologies and the
capability to support the evolving higher wattage power over ethernet (PoE)
requirements. In short, they should be looking for future proofing, scalability,
compatibility, quality, reliability, performance, and security. Milind Tamhane,
VP, Manufacturing, D-Link India, says that enterprises should have a vision for
at least six years in advance for any physical layer installation because data
traffic and scalability would grow exponentially and reinstallation costs would
be far more than using the right medium the first time.
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“Most customers plan for 5-10 year operational period for any cabling plant. As and when they require more bandwidth, they expand to the latest in the market; apart from this, they also decide considering their investments and requirements put together” Sathya Narayanan MS, |
“Cat 7 has got a huge market in India. Some years ago, we were talking about 1 Gbps and today we are at tera speed or more. More frequency needed for many applications is driving Cat 7 adoption.” Shajan M George, |
The structured cabling industry is developing new products to address various
aspects of cabling taking into consideration the technology and optimizing costs
associated with it. Plastic optical fiber and intelligent infrastructure
management solutions are few products that are attracting a lot of attention
from the R&D community.
With updated technology, low cost, and application becoming major factors for
the success of any structured cabling solution, a lot of activity is taking
place on the structured cabling R&D front.
There is also a perception that enterprises don't change cables in advance
foreseeing problems in terms of performance levels and other things, and that
they go for next generation cabling solution only when the existing cabling
standard is not sufficient to provide the required performance. But industry
experts have different perception about it. Young says, “Recently, Systimax
completed a worldwide survey of over 1,400 IT users around the world. In this
survey, we learned that over 80% of these end users considered many different
factors in selecting the network cabling systems they implement for their
businesses. Stated conversely, less than 20% chose cost as the determining
factor for selecting network cabling.”
The selection of cabling is important in ensuring network reliability and
minimizing operating cost. The rule 'you get what you pay for' applies even in
the structured cabling industry. Investing in quality products and selecting
performance levels that offer future compatibility with emerging technologies
are sound investment strategies used by a majority of IT professionals around
the world.
According to Sathya Narayanan MS, country manager, India, Hubbell Wiring
Systems, “Most customers plan for 5-10 year operational period for any cabling
plant. As and when they require more bandwidth, they expand to the latest in the
market; apart from this, they also decide considering their investments and
requirements put together.” Shajan M George, technical manager, India, Reichle &
De-Massari India (R&M), recommends that for a long-term functioning of LAN,
which supports future demanding applications, the cabling standard has to be
chosen according to the new ISO/IEC Class EA standard. Class EA provides
consistent, continuous performance across the entire channel and better
protection of the signal transmission to 500 MHz, which is used for 10 Gigabit
Ethernet.
Cat 5E in the Last Phase
Today, cable deployment is seen in the Cat 5E, Cat 6, and Cat 6A segments.
Cat 5E deployment started long back and today it is in its last phase of
deployment. A 1998 cabling standard, it is capable of network applications
primarily designed to support 1000 BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) that utilize
bi-directional and full four-pair transmission schemes. Cat 5E is no longer much
recommended for new installation by most enterprises, but a substantial number
of Cat 5E cabling is supporting 1000 BASE-T applications.
Cat 6: Predominant Solution
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) was prompted by the
expense of noise-canceling technology to adopt an operating bandwidth of 250 MHz
in order to achieve high-speed, twisted-pair applications. The cabling and
application standards have always been developing correlatively.
Today, Cat 6 is the dominant cabling solution across all industry verticals,
and its market share is close to 70%. Cat 6 is capable of carrying bandwidths
ranging from 1-250 MHz for high-end applications.
Following its ratification by the ISO and the EIA, Cat 6A is expected to gain
momentum, as it is capable of carrying bandwidths ranging from 1-500 MHz. At
present, the market share of Cat 6A is about 2-5% only. “It is the cabling
solution of choice in data centers and in backbone cabling. Its market share in
horizontal cabling is also expected to increase,” says Dileep Kumar, director,
Product Management, Enterprise & Carrier, ADC Krone.
Cat 6 is becoming most sought after in the regular corporate, ITeS segments,
and in large enterprises. Take-off in Cat 6A has been taking place quicker than
expected.
Organization using Cat 6A include R&D centers, multimedia content developers,
and BFSI companies. According to Nagendra, few SMBs are also becoming early
adopters of Cat 6A. It is gaining momentum especially in networks that demand
higher bandwidth. For regular horizontal cabling in both large enterprises and
the SMB segment, Cat 5E and Cat 6 are the dominant copper medium to transfer
data.
For a larger bandwidth requirements, as in backbone cabling and data centers,
Cat 6A is considered to be a suitable cabling solution. Originally the Cat 6
cabling standard was designed to support 100 BASE-T and 1000 BASE-T
applications, but some installed base categories can support up to 10G BASE-T
applications.
Young says, “Cat 6A is emerging in areas where clients are looking for
long-term strategies to support emerging data communications applications for
the longer term.”
Typically, it is adopted in verticals like health care, government, data
centers, and universities. Many end users understand the financial benefits of
purchasing a high-quality data communications platform. Cabling, in particular,
outlasts all other investments in IT with an expected life of perhaps twenty
years.
Like in any other solution, ease of use is a major factor for driving the
solution's growth in the market. So, Cat 6A has emerged as a choice of UTP
solution.
Inching Toward Cat 7
Cat 7 STP (shielded twisted pair) is a shielded cabling solution for
avoiding alien cross talk during the transfer of data from one end to the other.
This shielded pair cabling solution has both individual shielding and for the
whole wire also. It comes with four individually shielded twisted pairs (STP)
inside and an overall shield. It is designed for transmission frequencies up to
600 MHz, which should enable it to carry 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBaseT) and can
support higher bandwidth than Cat 6A.
Cat 7 (600 MHz) and Cat 7A (1000 MHz) offer extra bandwidth to support a
number of applications like videophones and video-on-demand at the desktop that
will emerge in the next few years.
Cat 7 and Cat 7A are developed as a very high bandwidth shielded cable, which
could support anything likely to be developed in the near future. Advantages of
Cat 7 will push all industry verticals to adopt it in the future.
Along with more speed, its individual pair shielding enables better next
isolation allowing different application to run on the same cable. It's also
suitable for installing in strong RFI and electro magnetic interference (EMI)
environment. Cat 7 STP shielding eliminates EMI.
In Cat 7, there's a drastic reduction in noise level and the signal-to-noise
(S/N) ratio is better because the components are shielded and have a provision
for grounding. Entertainment media, biotechnology, BFSI, and pharma segment will
be bigger opportunity areas for Cat 7. Triple play, high-definition video that
requires around 800+ MHz, etc will drive Cat 7 solutions.
The other driving factor for Cat 7 deployment is the increase of the European
outfits in India. Most organizations would have deployed Cat 7 back home and
would desire homogeneity in the networks they wish to deploy whenever they
expand around the globe.
This completely shielded solution is predominantly used in various segments
like data centers, where there is an obvious need for high bandwidth,
organizations that require high bandwidth and consider security as main issue,
opt for Cat 7 cabling.
At present, Cat 7 is primarily a European phenomenon. Structured cabling
industry experts differ on the kind of opportunity Cat 7 has in India. Sathya
Narayanan MS, country manager, India, Hubbell Wiring Systems, says, “I don't see
any big future for Cat 7 in India. Cat 7 has more negatives like bulky cable and
cost going against it. Moreover, Cat 7 does not work with the conventional
connectivity type and may not be compatible with current solutions.” Also,
Sathya Narayanan will prefer fiber optics to Cat 7 as fiber optics has more
capability in terms of network speed, resilience, and data transmission than
copper wires.
But, Mylaraiah JN, regional sales manager (South) and product manager, Tyco
Electronics, differs. He says, “Cat 7 cable has been around for sometime and its
installation has been done in India, but not of Cat 7A.” In fact, it took off in
India almost four years back. According to reliable sources in the industry,
Shipping Corporation of India (Visakhapatnam) adopted this solution in 2004.
Another enterprise that has embraced this solution in India is car manufacturing
giant BMW, in Chennai.
Another industry expert, Shajan M George, technical manager, India, Reichle &
De-Massari India (R&M), says, “Cat 7 has got a huge market in India. Some years
ago, we were talking about 1 Gbps and today we are at tera speed or more. More
frequency needed for many applications is driving Cat 7 adoption. R&M has Cat 7
cable up to 1200 MHz frequency.”
Cat 7 is standardized since 2002 and has really become the most secured
offering in copper cabling to support customer needs in either the highest
bandwidth support, long lifetime and/or cable/sheath sharing of the same cable
for multiple applications.
Says James Bundey, marketing manager, Asia Pacific, Molex Premise Networks,
“The standards bodies are pushing Cat 7 toward the home market. The reason for
this is that the individually shielded pairs on Cat 7 cable enable it to support
multiple services/applications such as broadband, video, and data. For
enterprises, the biggest hindrance to the acceptance of Cat 7 will be the high
cost of the cable.”
Though India is basically a market for UTP (unshielded twisted pair)
solutions, as they are easier to be installed, Cat 7 STP has certainly got space
to grow across verticals in India.
Kannan K
kannan@cybermedia.co.in