Cabling System Design

Proper Cabling System Design

A proper cabling system design is paramount to a well-functioning cabling infrastructure. As with any other major project, the key to a successful cabling installation is planning. A proper cabling-system design is simply a plan for installing the cable runs and their associated devices. So what is a proper design? A proper cabling system design will take into account five primary criteria:

• Desired standards and performance characteristics
• Flexibility
• Longevity
• Ease of administration
• Economy

Failure to take these criteria into account can cause usability problems and poor network performance. We’ll take a brief look at each of these factors.

Desired Standards and Performance Characteristics

Of the proper cabling design criteria listed, standards and performance characteristics is the most critical. Standards ensure that products from many different vendors can communicate. When you design your cabling layout, you should decide on standards for all aspects of your cabling installation so that the various products used will interconnect.

Additionally, you should choose products for your design that will meet desired performance characteristics.

For example, if you will be deploying video over your LAN in addition to the everyday file and print traffic, it is important that the cabling system be designed with a higher-capacity network in mind (e.g., Gigabit Ethernet or fiber optic).

Flexibility

No network is a stagnant entity. As new technologies are introduced, companies will adopt them at different rates.

A proper cabling system design should plan for MACs (moves, adds, and changes) so that if your network changes your cabling design will accommodate those changes. In a properly designed cabling system, a new device or technology will be able to connect to any point within the cabling system.

One aspect of flexibility that many people overlook is the number of cabling outlets or drops in a particular room. Many companies take a minimalist approach, that is, they put only the number of drops in each room that is currently necessary.

That design is fine for the time being, but what happens when an additional device or devices are needed? It is usually easier to have an extra drop or two (or five) installed while all of the others are being installed than it is to return later to install a single drop.

Longevity

Let’s face it, cabling is hard work. You must climb above ceilings and, on occasion, snake through crawlspaces to properly run the cables. Therefore, when designing a cabling system, you want to make sure that the design will stand the test of time and last for a number of years without having to be replaced.

A great case in point. Many companies removed their category 5e networks in favor of newer, more reliable category 6 UTP cabling.

Others are removing their category 6 cabling in favor of fiber-optic cable’s higher bandwidth. Now, wouldn’t it make more sense for those companies that already had category 5e to directly upgrade to fiber-optic cable (or at least to cat6a/cat7, high-end, high-quality copper UTP cabling system) rather than having to “rip and replace” again in a few years? Definitely.

If you have to upgrade your cabling system or are currently designing your system, it is usually best to upgrade to the most current technology you can afford. But you should also keep in mind that budget is almost always the limiting factor.

Ease of Administration

Another element of a proper cabling design is ease of administration. This means that a network administrator (or subcontractor) should be able to access the cabling system and make additions and changes, if necessary. Some of these changes might include the following:

• Removing a station from the network
• Replacing switches, routers, and other telecommunications equipment
• Installing new cables
• Repairing existing wires

Many elements make cabling-system administration easier, the most important of which is documentation. Another element is neatness. A rat’s nest of cables is difficult to administrate because it is difficult to tell which cable goes where.

Economy

Finally, how much money you have to spend will play a part in your cabling-system design. If you had an unlimited budget, you’d go fiber-to-the-desktop without question. All your future-proofing worries would be over (at least until the next fiber-optic innovation).

The reality is you probably don’t have an unlimited budget, so the best cabling system for you involves compromise taking into account the four elements listed previously and deciding how to get the most for your investment.

You have to do some very basic value-proposition work, factoring in how long you expect to be tied to your new cabling system, what your bandwidth needs are now, and what your bandwidth needs might be in the future.