Planning an Infrastructure/Structured Cabling Systems

Wherever communications are needed, a cabling infrastructure is required to support it. A Structured Cabling System solution provides all the communications cabling for an entire building in a unified and structured manner, allowing the flexibility for every user to connect to data (computer) and voice (telephone) services or even video (CCTV).

One of the key selling points of a structured cabling system is its ability to overcome the problems associated with 'churn rate' which is the average frequency that each person in an office moves location in a year, typically thought to be around 70%. For this reason, buildings are often 'flood wired', whereby more outlets than are initially required are installed, an ideal way of future proofing and allowing for expansion.

Structured (copper) cabling relies on patch panels to feed individual workstations, thus allowing for easy changes in configuration & distribution to be made. Rearrangements are therefore simply catered for at virtually no extra cost. Cabling is run through to each user position and back to a central comms area. At the user end, RJ45 outlets (similar in appearance to telephone outlets) can be presented in various ways including:

		Wall Outlets
		Surface mounted (mini-trunking)
		Trunking Outlets (Dado)
		Floor boxes (in offices