Structured cabling system

A structured cabling system is the wiring network that carries all

your data, voice, multimedia, security, VoIP, PoE, and even wireless
connections throughout your building or campus. It includes everything
from the data center to the desktop, including cabling, connecting
hardware, equipment, telecommunications rooms, cable pathways, work
areas, and even the jacks on the wall plate in your office.

The importance of structured cabling

A structured cabling system is as important to the success of your

organization as the people are who work in it. A well-planned structured
cabling system facilitates the continuous flow of information, enables the
sharing of resources, promotes smooth operations, accommodates ever-
changing technology, offers plenty of room for growth, and evolves with
your organization. Plus, it will be around far longer than your current PC,
server, and network switches. In essence, a structured cabling system is
the life blood of your organization. If done right, it will serve you well for
years. If not, your organizations growth and bottom line can suffer. The
importance of structured cabling has increased right alongside the growth
of LANs, MANs, and WANs. It started with individuals working on
standalone PCs. It didnt take long to connect those PCs into workgroups
and then to connect those workgroups to a server. One server became
multiple servers. Todays networks are complex systems running on
technologies that no one could have imagined just 15 years ago.
Entrance Facility

The entrance facility is the point where the outdoor cable connects with
the buildings backbone cabling. This is usually the demarcation point between
the service provider and the customer-owned systems.

Equipment Room

The equipment room is typically the existing telecommunications closet. It

can be any secure storage area where the communications racks, cables, and
other more expensive hardware devices, such as patch panels, hubs, switches,
and routers are located. A locked equipment room helps prevent the theft of
equipment and data security and also helps prevent accidental damage from
untrained individuals.

The equipment room houses telecommunications systems, such as PBXs,

servers, and the mechanical terminations. Its different than the
telecommunications room because of the complexity of the components. An
equipment room may take the place of a telecommunications room or it may be
separate.

The Equipment Room is the area of the building where incoming cabling
interfaces with electronic equipment. It is also the main cross-connect (MC) to
the backbone cabling. (The electrical equivalent would be the Main Distribution
Panel.)

Telecommunications room

Formerly known as the telecommunications closet, the telecommunications

room (TR) houses all the equipment associated with connecting the backbone
wiring to the horizontal wiring. It includes:

Intermediate cross-connects
Main cross-connects
Patch cords
All connecting equipment

The telecommunications room can also house auxiliary equipment such as

a PBX, security equipment, etc.

Backbone Cabling

Backbone cabling is the wiring that runs vertically

between floors and/or between equipment rooms.
Backbone cabling provides the interconnections
between equipment rooms and the building entrance
site, including cross-connects, patch cords, and
terminators. Backbone cabling can also extend
between buildings. When planning a network it is a
good idea to double or even triple the length of backbone cable that is needed for
installation. This provides for expansion and the ability to run redundant
connections.

When using copper wire for backbone cabling, avoid sources of high level
electromagnetic or radio frequency interference (EMI/RFI). Fiber optic cable,
although more expensive, has distinct advantages over copper since it can be run
in locations such as elevator shafts or alongside power lines with no EMI/RFI
affects. Since backbone cabling is stationary and there is less of it used,
spending more money per unit length for high-speed backbone fiber optic cable
is often the best choice. Recently, the price of fiber optic cable was reduced
making this the current backbone cable of choice.

Backbone cabling provides the main information conduit connecting all your
horizontal cabling within a building and between buildings. Its the inter-
connection between telecommunication rooms, equipment rooms, and entrance
facilities. In large organizations, you can connect multiple LANs with a high-speed
backbone to create large service areas.

The main requirement of any backbone is that it be able to support your

current needs as well as future applications.

Horizontal Cabling
 The horizontal cabling
system encompasses everything
between the telecommunications
room cross-connects to the
telecommunications outlets in the
work area. Its called horizontal
because the cable typically runs
horizontally above the ceiling or
below the floor from the telecommunications room, which is usually on the same
floor.

Horizontal cable is the physical media that runs from the wall jack at the
workstation outlet to the termination in the equipment room. It also includes the
cable run from the wall outlet to the workstation, and the cable in equipment
closets that connects hubs, switches, and so on. These short pieces of cable are
called patch cords or patch cable. There is a 3-meter limit from the wall jack to
the workstation and a 6-meter limit between equipment in the
telecommunications closet.

Most often, horizontal cable is routed directly from the wiring closet to the
workstation, without splices, cable junctures, or taps. By eliminating splices,
cable junctures and/or taps, the potential for faulty connections and electrical
noise is reduced. Although not necessary, it is recommended that horizontal
cabling be rated for category 5 use.

Work Area

The work area consists of all the components between the

telecommunications outlet and the users workstation equipment. The work area
components include the computers, telephones, patch cables, adapters, and so
on. Workstations are connected to the wall outlet by patch cables. The work area
consists of all the components between the telecommunications outlet and the
users desktop workstation equipment. This covers:

Telecommunications outlets, including wall plates, faceplates, surface-

mount boxes, etc.

Patch cables.

Adapters, including connectors, and modular jacks

Workstation equipment, such as PCs, telephones, printers, etc. although

they arent included in the standard.

IP PBX

An IP PBX is a private branch exchange (telephone switching system within an

enterprise) that switches calls between VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol or IP)
users on local lines while allowing all users to share a certain number of external
phone lines. The typical IP PBX can also switch calls between a VoIP user and a
traditional telephone user, or between two traditional telephone users in the
same way that a conventional PBX does.

IP PBX: How an IP PBX / VoIP Phone System Works

A VoIP Phone System / IP PBX system consists of one or more SIP phones / VoIP
phones, an IP PBX server and optionally includes a VoIP Gateway. The IP PBX
server is similar to a proxy server: SIP clients, being either soft phones or
hardware based phones, register with the IP PBX server, and when they wish to
make a call they ask the IP PBX to establish the connection. The IP PBX has a
directory of all phones/users and their corresponding SIP address and thus is able
to connect an internal call or route an external call via either a VoIP gateway or a
VoIP service provider to the desired destination.

At the center we have, the the IP PBX. Starting from the bottom, we see the
Corporate Network. This is the companys local network. Through that network,
Computers running SIP clients such as 3CX Phone, and IP Phones connect directly
to the PBX. On the left, we see the companys router/firewall connected to the
internet. From there it can connect to remote extensions in the form of computers
running 3CXPhone, remote IP Phones, mobile devices running 3CXPhone, and
Bridged PBXs. Using a VoIP provider we can connect to the PSTN network. To the
right a VoIP Gateway connects the PBX directly to the PSTN network.

Because a part of PBX functionality is provided in software, it is relatively

inexpensive and makes it easy to add additional functionality, such as
conferencing, XML-RPC control of live calls, Interactive voice response (IVR),
TTS/ASR (text to speech/automatic speech recognition), Public switched
telephone network (PSTN) interconnection ability supporting both analog and
digital circuits, Voice over IP protocols including SIP, Inter-Asterisk eXchange,
H.323, Jingle (extension of XMPP protocol introduced by Google Talk)[1] and others.
Features
The features of an IP PBX are similar to the features of a normal PBX but are
typically enhanced with features taking advantage of Internet/intranet
connectivity, such as:

Unified communications/unified messaging

Voicemail transcription (speech to text)

Find me/follow me

Call recording

Least-cost routing/MPLS call routing

VoIP phone/soft phone connectivity

Unified communications

Unified Communications (UC) is a marketing buzzword describing the integration

of real-time, enterprise, communication services such as instant messaging
(chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features
(including extension mobility and single number reach), audio, web & video
conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing
(including web connected electronic interactive whiteboards), call control and
speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified
messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not necessarily a
single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user-
interface and user-experience across multiple devices and media-types. [1]

In its broadest sense, UC can encompass all forms of communications that are
exchanged via a network to include other forms of communications such as
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and digital signage Communications as they
become an integrated part of the network communications deployment and may
be directed as one-to-one communications or broadcast communications from
one to many.

UC allows an individual to send a message on one medium, and receive the same
communication on another medium. For example, one can receive a voicemail
message and choose to access it through e-mail or a cell phone. If the sender is
online according to the presence information and currently accepts calls, the
response can be sent immediately through text chat or video call. Otherwise, it
may be sent as a non-real-time message that can be accessed through a variety
of media.
Unified communications ability is useful for everyday communications. The ability
to easily communicate seamlessly via a wide range of integrated components
would arguably better facilitate all types of communication.

Unified communications is important in an emergency communication system. In

an emergency, the ability to communicate life-saving and damage-mitigating
notifications and instructions is very important, and the integrated and wide-
ranging scope of unified communications would bear great benefit for
emergency-oriented communications.

Contrasting unified messaging

Unified communications is sometimes confused with unified messaging, but it is
distinct. Unified communications refers to both real-time and non-real-time
delivery of communications based on the preferred method and location of the
recipient; unified messaging culls messages from several sources (such as e-mail,
voice mail and faxes), but holds those messages only for retrieval at a later time.
Unified communications allows for an individual to check and retrieve an e-mail
or voice mail from any communication device at any time. It expands beyond
voice mail services to data communications and video services. [16]

Components
With unified communications, multiple modes of business communications are
integrated. Unified communications is not a single product but a collection of
elements that includes:[17]

Call control and multimodal communications

Presence

Instant messaging

Unified messaging

Speech access and personal assistant

 Conferencing (audio, Web and video)

Collaboration tools

Mobility

Business process integration (BPI)

Presenceknowing where intended recipients are, and if they are available, in

real timeis a key component of unified communications. Unified
communications integrates all systems a user might already use, and helps those
systems work together in real time. For example, unified communications
technology could allow a user to seamlessly collaborate with another person on a
project, even if the two users are in separate locations. The user could quickly
locate the necessary person by accessing an interactive directory, engage in a
text messaging session, and then escalate the session to a voice call, or even a
video call.

In another example, an employee receives a call from a customer who wants

answers. Unified communications enables that employee to call an expert
colleague from a real-time list. This way, the employee can answer the customer
faster by eliminating rounds of back-and-forth e-mails and phone-tag.

The examples in the previous paragraph primarily describe "personal

productivity" enhancements that tend to benefit the individual user. While such
benefits can be important, enterprises are finding that they can achieve even
greater impact by using unified communications capabilities to transform
business processes. This is achieved by integrating UC functionality directly into
the business applications using development tools provided by many of the
suppliers. Instead of the individual user invoking the UC functionality to, say, find
an appropriate resource, the workflow or process application automatically
identifies the resource at the point in the business activity where one is needed.

When used in this manner, the concept of presence often changes. Most people
associate presence with instant messaging (IM "buddy lists") the status of
individuals is identified. But, in many business process applications, what is
important is finding someone with a certain skill. In these environments,
presence identifies available skills or capabilities.

This "business process" approach to integrating UC functionality can result in

bottom line benefits that are an order of magnitude greater than those
achievable by personal productivity methods alone.