Network Cabling Types: Choosing The Right Structured Cabling Infrastructure
Technology evolves rapidly. Your business's cabling infrastructure must match your needs. Choosing the best choice for your company may save time and money. Infrastructure normally lasts ten (10) years, and cabling may typically support three (3) generations of active electronic equipment.
Before choosing a cable, establish if your company owns or leases the building. If you possess one, you'll need to examine your use and technology demands. Before signing a lease, determine how long you want to remain in the facility and if it will be enough for your company's particular offerings.
Know Your Industry's Cabling Structure
Do you need a dependable, fast Internet connection at your workplace or training facility? This may be the situation if you possess a high-tech executive office.
How would you choose IT in a busy medical clinic? You may require life-saving medical equipment, such as insulin or organs, and security measures, including reliable automatic entrances, medical supplies, and hospital-grade fridges.
Industrial cables must have an outer sheath that can endure the rigorous conditions of a factory or auto shop. To work effectively, heavy-duty cabling must withstand EMI and pollutants.
You should know your options if you need to re-cable an old office or install network cabling in a new building or chemical plantation.
You'll need to budget for IT workers and cabling infrastructure fees. Cabling should account for less than 10% of overall network costs. Replacement takes time and effort. To reach your company's goals, you'll need to understand various cable types.
Infrastructure cabling types
Cat5 cabling was standard in 1995. Don't fix what isn't broken if you currently use Cat5. Requirements may dictate your choice of IT technology.
5e (Cat5e)
The cable can only accommodate the power and speed of the device and Internet type it is now using. If your equipment is configured to a slower speed, upgrading your cable will have no effect.
Cat5e, which became a standard in 2001, is almost universally utilized in building wiring. It has four twisted pairs of copper wire with eight (8) connectors. Cat5e's reduced noise and interference allow increased transfer speed up to 350 Mbit/s across 100 meters. Thanks to effective encoding, Cat5e cables up to 50 meters long may reach Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) rates.
High-speed Cat5e cabling may not be available soon, or even today, if your network demands it. 100 MHz i/o
Consider replacing Cat5 cables with Cat5e or Cat5 cables for a more effective office setup.
6th tier (Cat6)
It's required if you own or want to inhabit the building. Suppose your company uses PoE (VoIP phone systems, cameras, automatic door entry, WiFi) in the building. In that case, you should utilize Category 6 cable rather than Cat5e since it can handle the power needs better. The allowed bandwidth is 200 MHz.
The Cat6 was introduced in 2002 and has been around since then. However, if you need high-speed equipment and video performance, such as for training conferences, it's worth looking at alternatives to Cat6a Ethernet cable.
Power over Ethernet (PoE) technology can replace power cables in wired Ethernet LANs. PoE decreases the number of network cables required.
PoE and AV (Audio/Video) applications need Cat6 cable. When Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) became standard, new industry-standard connections with a 250 MHz bandwidth became necessary.
Using 23 AWG wires and more pair twists per inch reduces signal noise and interference. With Category 6, 100-meter runs may carry data at 1000 Mbit/s.
Electronic equipment emits EMFs (electromagnetic fields). Cables close might cause interference. This kind of meddling is called "crosstalk."
Cat5 versus Cat6 cables are quicker and have less crosstalk. Crosstalk exacerbates errors and packet loss.
Both cat5e and cat6 have improved insertion loss, NEXT, return loss, and ELFEC (ELFEXT).
When two or more transmitting pairs are near together, FEXT (Far End Crosstalk) arises. FEXT and ELFEXT represent far-end crosstalk coupling. FEXT and ELFEXT refer to the same coupling but are measured using two different standards. The disruptive signal is included in FEXT. ELFEXT is based on signal dilution. Subtraction of FEXT from ELFEXT yields the channel's attenuation.
Cat6 and Cat6A cables now include twisted conductors and better shielding to reduce crosstalk. Cat6 improvements allow for increased data speeds and reliability in current and future applications.
Having a conference room that requires strong technology calls for Cat6 wiring – Fortunately, Cat6 will soon replace HDMI as the standard for A/V transmission.
HDMI stands for the high-definition multimedia interface. This cable can send video and audio between two HDMI-enabled devices (typically from a Blu-ray player or video games console to a high-definition TV). HDMI is the digital replacement for analog video standards.
6a (Cat6a)
Cat6a cabling has an improved specification to double transmission frequency. No cable length beyond 100 meters is required to reach full 10-Gigabit Ethernet speeds. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) wires also reduce foreign crosstalk.
Most PCs use Gigabit Ethernet. High-speed networking equipment based on IEEE 802.3 is still in demand (10GBASE-T). 10,000 Mb/s requires Cat6 or Cat6a cable.
If you want to upgrade or move in the next five to ten years, utilize Cat6 or Cat6a. Category 6 cable is sufficient for simple video applications and large-format displays. Cat6 cables have long been used for network connections. However, they may not be the greatest long-term alternative. This copper connection may soon run out of bandwidth as video streaming, and wireless communications become increasingly widespread in business.
Adding two lanes to a road triples bandwidth.
7th (Cat7)
Ready for Gigabit Ethernet Even with Cat7, newer cable specifications allow faster speeds and less crosstalk. There is no need to upgrade to Cat7 Ethernet cable, let alone Cat7a or Cat8 cables, released in 2010 and 2013.
Fiber Optic
As Cat6 bandwidth limits, fiber optic cable becomes the gold standard in data transmission infrastructure. Two basic cabling alternatives may assist firms in migrating to fiber optic cable without much difficulty: PON and AE.
Fiber Optic Cable connects network segments, buildings, and floors. But it is not utilized for the whole network wiring. Unlike copper cables, optical cables are constructed of molten silica glass filaments.
The fiber optic cable uses light instead of power means you can run it almost everywhere. This connection also eliminates electrical interference, making it the fastest way to deliver data. The low resistance of Fiber Optic Cable allows it to be used over long distances without signal enhancement. Signals may travel over 5,000 kilometers before needing to be processed. This cable makes setting up a network much simpler.
Fiber optics also concerns speed, with connections up to 10 GB/s. Moreover, the signal is cleaner than traditional wire, even at that speed.
Unlike coaxial wire, which is utilized for cable TV, fiber optic cables are similar to digital data. Fiber optics outperform other kinds of cables in terms of performance.
Cost, on the other hand, is an issue. These NICs may cost over $1,000 each. As demand grows for fiber optics and related technologies, prices may fall. After that, you'll want to compare a few cables before deciding.
Fiber Optic Cables Come in Two Types:
· 100GbE over 40,000m single-mode fiber optic cable. Due to its thinness, this cable is costly and difficult to handle.
· Delivers 10 GbE across 550m multimode connections; Larger core sizes cause multi-path light beams, causing signal distortion at the receiving end.
Fiber Optic Cable Advantages:
· Faster and more bandwidth for video applications
· Saves space in cable ducting
· Lower risk of electric shocks
· Covers long distances
· Fiber Optic Cable Network Solutions may be the best long-term alternative if you have a long-term construction loan and want to stay there. It's a top-notch product worth researching.
Put your company's phones here!
Even though the technology is always improving and no one can predict the future, your cable must function ideally for ten (10) years or longer. Electronics and future equipment updates need a long-lasting cable infrastructure.
When renting a building, a Cat5e or higher cable may be acceptable. If you own the building and want to stay there for a long time, you should upgrade the cabling infrastructure.
Long-term planning of cabling architecture pays off. Don't spend money on easy networking solutions when you need to update your network in a year or two to keep up with today's technologies. If you can avoid taking down your building's walls twice, why not do it right first?
Assemble An IT Crew And Budget For Overhead
Working with cable infrastructure experts that care about your company's success is essential. A new office buildout, a complicated office makeover, or a complex building expansion needs distinct cabling infrastructure.
It would help if you considered costs and time vs. infrastructure performance. Budget constraints may force you to compromise. You don't want to pay for new features.
Know Your Cabling Infrastructure Vendor And The Cables They Offer
A reliable cabling infrastructure supplier can identify any cable type. So they can recommend a solution that will fulfill your demands today and in the future without big alterations.
A globally known specialist in physical and electronic security systems, scDataCom specializes in big enterprises with complex security needs. We have our headquarters in the charming city of Savannah, Georgia, and we serve a wide range of business clients and government entities around the country.
scDataCom will give you a range of services, from the low voltage in savannah, low voltage installer in savannah, network cabling installation, structured cabling systems, RCDD, Commercial low voltage to Commercial structured cabling, etc., so contact us today!