Key Components of Structured Cabling Solutions

Key Components of Structured Cabling Solutions

  1. Horizontal Cabling: Connects telecommunications rooms to individual outlets or work areas on the same floor. It usually includes twisted-pair cables (Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, etc.) or fiber optic cables.
  2. Vertical (Backbone) Cabling: Interconnects different telecommunication rooms, equipment rooms, and sometimes entrance facilities within a building or between buildings. Backbone cabling supports inter- and intra-building communications.
  3. Telecommunications Rooms (TR): Also known as wiring closets, these spaces house networking equipment and cross-connects that link the backbone and horizontal cabling.
  4. Work Area Components: The end-user devices (computers, phones, etc.) and the cables that connect them to the network, including wall plates, patch cables, and outlet boxes.
  5. Equipment Rooms (ER): Centralized locations for more extensive equipment that serves the entire building or campus, like servers, switches, and patch panels.
  6. Entrance Facilities (EF): The physical point where the external cabling enters a building, including cables, connecting hardware, protection devices, and any required grounding and bonding.
  7. Consolidation Points (CP): Intermediary points in the horizontal cabling, providing flexibility for future moves, adds, and changes (MACs).