Telecommunications standard in buildings
Introduction
Structured cabling consists of shielded twisted pair (Shielded Twisted Pair, STP) or unshielded twisted pair (Unshielded Twisted Pair, UTP) cables inside a building for the purpose of implementing a local area network (Local Area Network, LAN).
These are usually copper twisted pair cables, and/or for IEEE 802.3 type networks; However, they can also be optical fibers or coaxial cables.
Main elements of a structured cabling system
Horizontal wiring
The TIA/EIA-568-B standard defines horizontal cabling as follows: The horizontal cabling system is the portion of the telecommunications cabling system that extends from the work area to the telecommunications room or vice versa.
Horizontal cabling is made up of two basic elements: routes and vertical spaces (also called "horizontal data pass-through systems"). Horizontal routes and spaces are used to distribute and support horizontal cable and connect hardware between the work area exit and the telecommunications room. These routes and spaces are the "containers" of the horizontal cabling.
Horizontal wiring includes:
Certain considerations must be made when selecting horizontal cabling: It contains the largest number of individual cables in the building.
The costs in materials, labor and interruption of work when making changes to horizontal wiring can be very high. To avoid these costs, horizontal cabling must be able to handle a wide range of user applications. The horizontal distribution must be designed to facilitate maintenance and relocation of work areas. The designer should also consider incorporating other building information systems (e.g., cable television, environmental control, security, audio, alarms, and sound) when selecting and designing horizontal cabling.
The EIA/TIA 568A standard makes the following recommendations regarding horizontal cabling topology:.
The maximum horizontal distance must not exceed 90 m. The distance is measured from the mechanical termination of the medium in the horizontal interconnect in the telecommunications room to the telecommunications socket/connector in the work area. In addition, the following distances are recommended: 10 m are separated for cables from the work area and cables from the telecommunications room (patch cords, "Jumper (computer)" and equipment cables).