Wireless networks have been a great convenience in the consumer market, but business IT and data centers must deal with large amounts of physical wiring. While wireless is adequate, affordable and reliable enough for the performance needs of home and mobile, the high availability and bandwidth requirements of businesses are very different. It is difficult to estimate the total length of network cable that runs through the average office or data center, but if laid out end to end it would be quite extensive.
The most important consideration in network wiring is managing the expansion of networks in a controlled manner. Just as telephone networks were once standardized with methods for forming and modifying connections with as little chaos as possible, the IT industry has developed best-practices for ensuring cleanly connected, high performing, scalable networks. Many of these are defined in ANSI-TIA-EIA 568. Let us look at some of the important considerations in cabling that are often invisible to those who work in an office environment but are essential to an operable network.
Entrance Facilities
Any facility will have a point of entry connection to external services providers. As this point of entry can also become a critical point of failure, the entrance facilities must serve as a defined line of demarcation between the private network and access providers and must have the proper electrical protection.
Equipment Rooms
As the name implies, this area of standardization refers to the most complex centers of computing and networking – the location of sophisticated items such as racks, hubs, switches and routers. According to standard, this area requires precautions against unwanted access and should be located as close to the center of facilities as possible in order to ensure that each work area receives equal transmission reliability.
Backbone Cabling
This form of cabling connects floors and equipment rooms, usually running vertically and consisting of cross-connects and patch cords.
The standards that go into ensuring quality connections and reliable networking in the business environment are specific enough to take into account everything from maximum lengths to cable materials. There is a great deal to consider in connecting a facility for enterprise. For more information please contact Columbus Data today. We are an experienced IT partner that offers structured wiring on both new and old construction and we understand how to ensure efficient growth of a network well into the future.