Okay, so before we do anything else, let's have a quick look at structured cabling and exactly what
structured cabling is.
Now, if you've done any of our other cabling courses, these slides will actually look a little bit
familiar because we use them in other courses as well.
But this is something that we need to discuss so that you can know exactly what structured cabling is
and more specifically, where fibre optic cable fits into the structured cabling system.
So let's look at a brief definition of structured cabling.
So structured cabling is defined as building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that
consists of a number of standardized, smaller elements or components called subsystems.
A structured cabling system is a complete system of cabling and associated hardware, which provides
a comprehensive telecommunications infrastructure.
Now, this infrastructure serves a wide range of uses, such as to provide telephone service or transmit
data through a computer network.
I.
So this is basically the main difference in definition with regards to structured cabling and a structured
cabling system.
Okay.
So.
In plain language, structured cabling is defined as building a campus telecommunication cabling infrastructure
that consists of a number of standardized, smaller elements, hence structured.
Now this is very important.
A properly designed and installed structured cabling system provides a cabling infrastructure that delivers
predictable performance, and that is the holy grail of cabling, by the way, as well as the flexibility
to accommodate moves, additions and changes maximize the system.
Availability provides redundancy and future proofs, the usability of the cabling system.
So let's have a look at the different components of a structured cabling system.
And here we have six components in this illustration.
So first off, we have your entrance facilities where your data will come in.
You will have a equipment room, you will have backbone cabling, you will have telecommunications rooms
and enclosures.
You will have your horizontal cabling and you will have a work area.
And so we have a closer look at the different components of the structured cabling system.
You will have your entrance facility points in building facility where the cabling from the telephone
network company connects with cabling at the building premises.
Then you will have your equipment room or what we call the core.
Now, this is not to be confused with the telecommunications rooms or closets.
The equipment rooms contain the major tools such as servers, cross-connects and the telecommunications
equipment for occupants of a building.
The nature of this equipment is typically much more complex than the then stored in the telecommunications
room.
And just for interest's sake, a horizontal cross connect is where the horizontal cabling connects to
a patch panel or punch up block, which is connected by backbone cabling to the main distribution facility.
And although this is mainly used in a copper environment, we do have patch panels for copper as well.
And we're going to have a look at a typical fibre panel.
So the next component is backbone cabling.
Now the backbone cabling consists of all the main cables that interconnect the entrance facility, the
equipment room and the telecoms closets.
Now, these three components are the back end of the structured cabling system that are not visible
to most occupants of your building.
And so the cabling that connects them is aptly named.
Next up is a telecommunications closet.
Now, the telecoms closet is usually designed for a specific floor of your building housing the less
complex equipment needed for that floor.
It is much smaller than the equipment room and can be thought of as a satellite location of the equipment
room.
These closets usually store things like panels and switches.
So typically you will have a fiber coming in from a different floor or from your equipment room.
Most specifically comes into your telecoms closet.
That can be a network cabinet as well.
And that fiber will be spliced into your fiber switch.
And from there on it will be distributed via copper.
And this is where the horizontal cabling comes in.
Horizontal cabling runs between a telecoms closet and the work area.
Now, resolvable cabling includes cabling that runs in through the ceiling, parallel to the floor and
in the walls to the outlets present in the workspace.
And as mentioned, this will typically be copper cables.
And last but not least, your work area.
Now, finally, with all matters, or so they say, the work area.
This is probably what you are sitting at right now.
A work area can be a desk, a cubicle or office, etcetera, where connection to the structured cabling
system is needed via a computer, a phone or other device.
This is the final stop in the structured cabling path.
And before I continue, remember that we do actually provide all of these slides in a PDF format for
you to download in each lesson.
But if there's any questions, ladies and gentlemen, please do not hesitate to ask.
We are there for you guys.
Okay, so if we have a different look at the components of a structured cabling system, we've divided
into three areas over here.
So first off is your equipment room.
That's got your ISP connection coming in typically via our cloud into your entrance facility.
Then you have your main router, your gateway router that goes to sub routers to call switches or to
a core switch.
Depends on how big your facility is.
From there on, there's a backbone cabling to a sub switch and a patch panel that is in your telecoms
enclosure and from there, horizontal cabling to your work area.
That is, there can be a computer or laptop or a Wi-Fi access point or anything like that.
Okay.
So that is it for the different components of a structured cabling system.
So if we can run through that again, and I'm just going to use a different illustration here.
You've got your entrance facility with your gateway and you have your telecoms closet on each floor
of this building.
You've got your vertical cabling that runs up over here.
You've got your horizontal cabling that connects your work area with your telecoms closets, and that
is basically it for structured cabling.