Structured cabling system

14 October 2021 at 0:10 AM

Structured cabling system is a cable system built from connecting cables and equipment and accessories for the purpose of transmitting services: voice, data, image or management signal transmission in the building.

1. Components of a structured cabling system

According to TIA/EIA standards, a structured cabling system is composed of the following seven main components:

-  Work Area (Work Area Output)

-  Horizontal Cabling (Horizontal Cabling)

-  Telecommunications Room

-  Backbone Cabling (Main cable connection line)

-  Equipment Room

-  Entrance Facilities

-  Administration

Work Area: The area connected to the user terminal (Computer or phone, fax). This area consists of network sockets (network nodes) and a piece of cable called a patch cord. The cable connecting the device to this network drive is up to 3m long.

Horizontal Cabling: The part of the cable that connects the network socket in the work area - Work Area to the hardware that connects the cables to the centralized cable in the communication equipment room. The maximum length of this connecting cable is 90m.

Telecommunication Room or Telecom Closet: As a central point for cables, all cable ends are gathered here and connected to cable concentrator devices such as cross connection (Cross-Connect), connection bar (Patch Panel)... , the part of the cable connecting from the point where the cable is gathered to the device is called a jumper cable with a maximum length of 6m.

Backbone Cabling: The part of the cable that acts as the main axis connecting equipment rooms and buildings. This cable shaft is usually fiber optic cable or high speed copper cable.

Equipment Room: Different from the TR room, the ER room contains many complex communication devices that provide applications to users in the building. The ER room may also include the function of the TR room. The TR room must be designed to comply with the requirements of ANSI/TIA/EIA 569.
The equipment room can contain cross terminals, intermediate connection racks for the backbone cabling system.

Entrance Facilities:  Area located in the building  serves as the building entry point for cables from outside of service providers such as: telephone, ADSL, cable TV, Lease line….Signal lines This is connected in the Entrance Facilities room. This room also houses protective equipment such as lightning arresters, and acts as the demarcation point of the common access service providers.

Administration: This is the administration part of the system. Including labeling, making records, drawings... allows the system administrator to manage all equipment in the whole system, can easily maintain and upgrade when necessary.

Note: Based on the purpose of use and the size of the office, the building will have corresponding cabling components for the actual cabling system.

2.  Types of models of a structured cabling system

A structured cabling system is designed based on two main models: distributed management model (DNA) and centralized model (CNA).

2.1. Distributed Management Model (DNA)

In this model, the cable system at the floors is pulled to a centralized cabinet located on the floors or nearby areas, from these centralized cabinets will connect to the main central cabinet via the backbone cabling system (Backbone). ).

This model has the following specific advantages and disadvantages:

*  Advantages

- For large buildings and campuses

- Based on TIA/EIA and ISO design standards

- Reduce the number of Spindle cables

*  Defect

-       Need a lot of electronic equipment (converter, switch, ...)

-       Not convenient for MAC

-      Increase management time and cost

-       Not making effective use of network ports

2.2. Centralized management model (CNA)

In this model, the cabling system is planned to be centrally planned in one main cabinet located in the central room of the whole system.

Like the distributed management model, the centralized management model has specific advantages and disadvantages as follows:

*  Advantages

- Simple MAC, less expensive

- Reduce management time and costs

- Make full use of network ports

- Based on TIA/EIA TSB-72

- Reduced space for the Telecomunications closet

- Easy to relocate the cabling system

- Reduce damage points on the switch

*  Defect

- High initial installation cost

- Increased cost of electronics for fiber optic cables

3.  Telecommunications Standards

A standard structured cabling system must be designed and implemented based on a system of international standards, the most commonly applied standards today are TIA/EIA:

TIA/EIA-568B: The TIA/EIA – 568B standard is a standard for connecting telecommunications cabling systems for commercial buildings, commonly applied in the Americas and Asia.

Purpose: Enables planning and installation of structural cabling systems for commercial buildings. Specify a common cabling system that supports multi-vendor environments.

TIA/EIA-569B: The TIA/EIA-569B standard is the space and cabling standard for commercial buildings. Including pathway (cable line - how to get cable from one place to another) and space (space - location of telecommunications equipment and terminals).

Purpose: Standardize design and construction specifications inside and between buildings, support signaling environments and interconnect telecommunications equipment.

TIA/EIA-606A: The TIA/EIA-606A standard is a standard for the management of telecommunications infrastructure in commercial buildings.

Purpose: Provide a unified administrative support system, independent of applications. Establish guidelines for owners, users, manufacturers, consultants, contractors, installers, administrators, etc. involved in administering (and labeling) telecommunications infrastructure.

ANSI-J-STD-607A: The ANSI-J-STD-607A standard is a grounding and connection standard for commercial buildings in the telecommunications industry.

Purpose: To enable planning, design and installation of telecommunication earthing systems, regardless of the telecommunications system to be installed later. Supports a wide range of products with multiple vendors, as well as the actual grounding of the systems.

TIA/EIA-942: The TIA/EIA-942 standard is a standard for a data center cabling system (Data Center Cabling).

Purpose: Standardize the design and installation of cabling for a data center infrastructure, optimizing the demand for high density data centers. Specify a common cabling system that supports multi-vendor environments in a single data center.

TIA/EIA-862: The TIA/EIA-862 standard is a standard applicable to the design of an automatic control system for the entire commercial building. Allows automatic control of all security systems, surveillance systems (CCTV), fire alarm systems, environmental management systems, temperature, humidity, internal lighting and power management systems. outside the building…

Purpose: The TIA/EIA-862 standard unifies cabling technology, architecture, design, installation, test and measurement for a whole building automation system (BAS) in commercial buildings. The system allows to meet all devices, cables, connection standards, different technologies in the same structured cabling system. Another important feature “low voltage systems” (audio/video paging, service/equipment alarms, nonvoice/ data communications, wireless access points) supported by telecommunications cabling infrastructure is also required in the standard.

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