Telephone Systems
The oldest (and probably most common) use for a cabling system is to carry telephone signals. In the old days, pairs of copper wires were strung throughout a building to carry the phone signal from a central telephone closet to the individual telephone handsets.
In the telephone closet, the individual wires were brought together and mechanically and electrically connected to all the incoming telephone lines so that the entire building was connected to the outside world. Surprisingly, the basic cabling layout for telephone systems has changed very little.
The major difference today is that telephone systems have become digital. So most require a private branch exchange (PBX), a special device that connects all the individual telephones together so the telephone calls can go out over one high-speed line (called a trunk line ) rather than over multiple individual lines.
Generally speaking, today’s telephone networks are run along the same cabling paths as the data cabling. Additionally, telephone systems use the same UTP cable that many networks use for carrying data. They will usually share the same wiring closets with the data and television cabling. The wires from telephone connections can be terminated almost identically to data cabling.
Television/CATV
With the increase in the use of on-demand video technology, it is now commonplace to run television cable alongside data and telephone cabling. In businesses where local cable access is possible, television cable will be run into the building and distributed to many areas to provide cable access.
You may be wondering what cable TV has to do with business. The answer is plenty. News, stock updates, technology access, public-access programs, and, most importantly, Internet connections can all be delivered through television cable. Additionally, television cable is used for security cameras in buildings.
Like telephone cable, television cables can share the wiring pathways with their data counterparts. Television cable typically uses coaxial cable (usually RG-6/U cable) along with F-type, 75-ohm coaxial connectors.
The cables to the various outlets are run back to a central point where they are connected to a distribution device. This device is usually an unpowered splitter, but it can also be a powered, complex device known as a television distribution frame.
