More than one-fifth of employees in the United States work remotely. Hybrid work environments expand the pool of professionals available for enterprises. Structured cabling can help you maximize network performance and team productivity for hybrid and remote operations.
What Is Structured Cabling?
Implementing a structured cabling system means following a standardized approach to your organization’s communications infrastructure. Instead of haphazardly adding components or leaving network design decisions to chance, your team has a reliable “blueprint” to follow in any situation. This way, you can scale operations securely and avoid confusion.
The ANSI/TIA-568 Family
The Telecommunication Industry Association, in partnership with dozens of manufacturers and industry professionals, developed a comprehensive family of standards for network cabling beginning in the 1990s. TIA is certified by the American National Standards Institute.
The current revision of general structured cabling standards for most business environments is ANSI/TIA-568.0-E (2020). TIA also publishes related cabling standards for specific applications:
- ANSI/TIA-568.1-E: Standards for cabling infrastructure, work areas, coverage areas, and access points
- ANSI/TIA-568.3-E: Standardized systems for fiber-optic networking, including single-mode and multimode cables, power cables, transceivers, and grandfathered connections
- ANSI/TIA-942-C: Robust standards for enterprise, multi-tenant, micro-edge, on-prem, cloud, and multi-cloud data centers
- ANSI/TIA-1179-B: Specialized standards for healthcare network cabling, IoT and security systems, RFID systems (IP-based and non-IP), and other hospital communications
Following these standards means that your organization is implementing industry best practices when designing, engineering, installing, and managing its cable infrastructure.
The Main Parts of a Structured Cabling System
Commercial structured cabling consists of several subsystems:
- Entrance Facilities: In these areas, external cables and public network infrastructure connect with your internal systems, usually through physical conduits. EF subsystems require environmental protection, security, and safety controls.
- Equipment Room: The next section is the Equipment Room, the centralized hub where EF cabling interfaces with switches, server hardware, PBXs, routers, and other network devices.
- Backbone Cabling (Vertical Cabling): Backbone cables provide the overall structure of your network, connecting separate buildings or work areas with the systems necessary for high-speed data transfers over medium to long distances. AOC fiber-optic cables and CAT6 or CAT6a copper cables are common examples.
- Horizontal Cabling: Horizontal cables have a shorter range, delivering network connections with the right bandwidth to discrete work areas on a single floor. Multimode optical fiber and Cat7 or Cat8 cables are examples of this subsystem.
- Telecommunications Room: The TR is a smaller enclosure or utility room where technicians can manage vertical and horizontal cabling, patch cables, and hardware to route network resources where they need to go. TRs are the link between the central ER and the Work Areas where end-users connect to the network.
- Work Area: WA components interface with user devices, such as workstations, PCs, laptops, mobile devices, printers, and security cameras. The WA generally needs adapters, outlets, patch cables, and routers.
Each subsystem plays a unique role in your network communications infrastructure. Choosing the correct data center cabling layout is important for hybrid teams in every industry, from software developers to global sales organizations.
Why Do Hybrid Work Environments Need Structured Cabling?
A hybrid work environment allows organizations to be more adaptable, but it also comes with additional challenges for IT departments.
Connectivity Issues
When remote workers have problems connecting to the network, their ability to work is compromised. Inconsistent access to company apps and platforms, slow page loading, and file errors are frustrating for employees inside and outside the office. Connectivity problems with hybrid environments can take longer for tech staff to troubleshoot.
Costly Downtime
The more confusing a network’s layout is, the longer it takes to resolve platform stability issues. Tangled messes of cabling can even directly cause errors, such as when maintenance workers accidentally unplug a connection or when fiber-optic transceivers are oriented with the wrong polarity. System downtime is bad for any organization, and especially costly for enterprises with hybrid work environments.
Heavy Bandwidth for Hybrid Collaboration
High-speed networking is a must for the collaboration required by hybrid work teams. Depending on the configuration, popular video conferencing tools can use between 600 MB and 3.5 GB of data per user each hour. When organizations have hundreds or thousands of remote workers, the need for robust network infrastructure increases dramatically.
Cybersecurity and Compliance Needs
Having fewer workers physically present in office environments can introduce security vulnerabilities. Carefully planned physical and network access controls are necessary to follow cybersecurity best practices, and a structured cabling system makes it easier to find and monitor sensitive areas.
What Are the Advantages of a Structured Cabling System?
Structured cabling isn’t just about overcoming challenges. Implementing a standardized system can deliver improved performance at a lower cost.
Strong Scalability
In a structured cabling system, the size of the network doesn’t matter. The same standards and processes apply regardless of how many floors your building has, what type of server architecture you use, or where users connect to the network. This enables seamless expansion of data processing capabilities as your workforce grows.
Future-Proof Solutions
Structured cabling allows enterprises to integrate cutting-edge tech while including consistent backward compatibility. Industry-accepted networking standards mean you can invest in high-performance fiber-optics for 400G without replacing infrastructure mapped to 100G or 25G connections.
Cost-Effective Investments
Standardized cabling systems also give IT teams unparalleled flexibility to create layouts that meet the unique needs of your organization. Network engineers can make full use of each fiber-optic and twinax connection instead of wasting bandwidth.
Streamlined IT
First, structured cabling standards reduce the chances of cable configuration errors. For example, MPO/MTP connectors have guide pins to indicate cable orientation. An organized system also makes it easier to pinpoint and fix issues, reducing the time needed for maintenance.
How Can Your Organization Implement Structured Cabling?
For modern enterprises and data centers, structured cabling systems are synonymous with fiber optics. Single-mode and multimode cables and transceivers support longer distances, excellent signal quality, and next-gen data transmission speeds. DAC copper patch and breakout cables also play a role in cost-effective networking.
Approach structured cabling strategically for hybrid work. Improve your network infrastructure where it delivers the most performance benefits, and then gradually scale. Browse our complete range of cabling solutions, including optical transceivers, fiber and copper patch cables, and OEM-compatible AOC and DAC cabling at Equal Optics.
