Edu-leaders

In every network, wireless points or radios need to be connected through structured cabling. Wired networks run on 100 Mbps, whereas wi reless networks run on 11Mbps/54 Mbps, which means wired networks have better speed than wireless networks. Wired networks provide protected access and keep a check on virtual intruders and freeloaders. Cabled networks are stable connections as compared to a wireless network, which uses radio signals and similar techniques for transmission, prone to interference from electronic devices.

Growth Curves

UK-based research firm BSRIA reported that India emerged as one of the fastest growing structured cabling markets, with an increase of 33.6 percent by value, in 2008. The mounting pressure on the data centre environment, with companies increasingly hosting their mission-critical applications in third-party data centres, is also a key growth vector in this aspect. Besides data centres, growing demand from the expansion programmes in banking, government, IT and ITeS sector, business process outsourcing (BPO) units, and upcoming townships are also fuelling the growth of this market segment in India.

Technology Trends

On the technology front, vendors continue to deploy accepted and proven solutions, such as Cat5, Cat6, and Cat6A. According to IDC’s India Structured Cabling Solutions Market Study last year, the Cat6 cable segment is expected to clock a CAGR of around 22 percent, growing from Rs 3.65 billion in 2008 to Rs 9.77 billion in 2013. Cat6 is expected to, thus, remain the biggest market segment throughout the five-year forecast period, mainly for high bandwidth requirements and high-speed data transmissions across data centres and other enterprise India is also witnessing the deployment of latest technologies such as Cat6A and Cat7 in niche segments. Cat6A cabling is mainly used for data centre applications. Cat7 is yet to gain momentum, since there is no widespread preparedness or demand for Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) and Foil screened Twisted Pair (FTP) cables in India. Reports also state that there has been a very slow uptake on the 10G front. While the debate on fibre versus copper continues, fibre has some advantages over standard copper co-axial cables in terms of data transmission, extended coverage, resistance to interference and robustness and better security, which make it a smart choice for enterprises. However, the cost of the supporting equipment poses a deterrent in the mass adoption of fibre, leading to growth in the adoption of copper. Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) will also continue to make people invest in copper in days to come.

To Wire Or To Be Wireless

While some fear that wireless networks will eventually displace all physically structured cabling system networks, most vendors believe that wired and wireless network swill complement each other. Though a number of business and technology trends are creating a new set of requirements for wireless networks that can deliver increased value to the enterprises, unfortunately, the current WLAN architecture is not equipped to enable optimum benefits for enterprises. There is no functional, performance or economic advantage that wireless networks provide over physically cabled networks. That is why wireless today does not pose any potential threat to wired networks, believe many industry watchers. “In old and already-constructed buildings, where it is difficult to lay cables, or public places where there is no cabled connectivity, wireless networks are preferred. New, modern structures are also opting for wireless networks,” says Dr J.S. Sodhi, Assistant VP (IT), Amity University. “Therefore, it would be incorrect to say that with wireless networks one can do without cabling. They are complementary, but definitely not substitutes of each other,” he adds. Sathish Kamath, System Head at Manipal University, says, “Structured cabling is necessary to address the growing demand for bandwidth intensive applications in academic institutions for using e-learning, multimedia applications, e-journal access, digital library, intranet portal, video conference, unified communication, access control, and survelliance system. The wireless network will complement the wired network”

Intelligent Cabling

The advent of intelligent cabling has added a new dimension to the conventional cabling infrastructure by providing greater visibility into the network. It can reduce manpower and downtimes cost considerably, while increasing network efficiency and network security a great deal. Though real-time monitoring and troubleshooting becomes very simple with intelligent cabling, it can be expensive to deploy a full intelligent cabling solution within an organisation; in some cases, an educational institute may not be able to afford that. This is where patching technology comes in— which can take a lot of pain out of the cable management process. “Whenever we plan  structured cabling in our institution, we make ample provisions for future expansion in terms of increase in the number of users and up gradation of applications,” observes Sodhi. The institute has a dedicated core layer which gives them the flexibility to manage growth and prepare for future media types and applications and  provides the capacity and scaling capability for the campus as a whole, without changing the design of the distribution blocks and the rest of the network. “Everyday, new applications and software come into the market, therefore cabling is done in a manner where minor changes and additions in uplinks and switches can help in upgrading the connectivity. Basic cabling structure remains the same. While designing the network, we avoid the “cascading” effect so that the network speed remains faster for end users,” Sodhi adds. Structured cabling is used extensively in building campus area networks, which is mandatory for network expansion. “Offices have a homogeneous type of user and the bandwidth intensive applications are less. Academic institutions have heterogeneous users” points out Kamath. This difference of users should be kept in mind. Cat Five cables are used for laying out the network and can be used to cover 100 meters of distance (inclusive of patch and drop leads). Cat Six Cables, which are generally used in uplinks, provide better outputs and can cover a distance of 100 to 150 meters. Optic fiber cables are used where there are different connectors.

The Road Ahead

The future of next generation cabling and connectivity solutions is bright, as new technology and trends mark the path for future growth. Consolidation and virtualisation techniques force organisations to move into next generation cabling and connectivity. Structured cabling plays an important role in managing one aspect of high density. To give an example, if you have 40 1RU servers in a rack, each with say 4 1G Ethernet ports, you have 160 ethernet cables in a single rack. Being able to run these cables across multiple racks to the distribution can quickly become unmanageable. In many cases, data centre architects make design and planning decisions around cabling to make sure that the constraining factor does not become cabling. Different techniques exist to address these types of problems. “For example, using MRJ21 cables to connect into high fan out modules in the network aggregation/distribution layer can simplify the cabling issues as well as cut down tiers of switches in the network. Extreme Networks has been a proponent of this solution since it leads to lower cabling cost, simplifies cabling challenges and leads to a scalable network architecture with less over-subscription and less latency,” surmises Shehzad Merchant, Senior Director of DataCentre Strategy, Extreme Networks. “Organisations that would like to be at par with the current technologies would like to be early adopters of next generation cabling and connectivity solutions. However, based on the standards being published, few organisations gradually wake up to the next generation cabling and connectivity solutions,” says Prasanna Kumar, regional director, India & SAARC, Leviton. “The structured cabling market has been going through a tough time due to a steep rise in copper prices this year, which has diminished the growth rate further in this down economy,” opines KK Shetty, managing director, Tyco Electronics India. Rising prices in already adverse economic conditions have also made it a daunting task for solution providers to convince customers. As Kumar points out, “Customers would also like to wait and watch a little, before implementing a solution that is GenNext and robust. They would also wait for standards ratification and affordability.” However, one of the key challenges associated with next-generation cabling and connectivity is the lack of awareness of current and new technologies. People often fail to understand that the performance of a network depends, to a great extent, on the cabling infrastructure and poor cabling can adversely affect even the quality of the bandwidth the network delivers. For example in IP cameras, Cat Six cable is used to transmit videos, and Wi- Fi devices and uplinks also run on Cat Six Cables. Also, choosing the right network architecture is critical in ensuring that the data centre can meet its SLAs and service high density deployments without becoming the bottleneck. “It is very difficult to get skilled and qualified structured cabling solution providers, who can support the entire project lifecycle. One also needs to have the right mindset to serve the mid- size to large projects, which usually take a period of at least three to six months to set up the basic infrastructure,” says Ketan Kothari, director, Sigma Byte Computers.

At the end of the day, the success of a structured cabling project strongly depends upon the comprehensive understanding of the technology and core requirement, which again differs from organisation to organisation. Nevertheless, the support from the solution provider also plays an important part for improved efficiencies.