Network Infrastructure Blog

July 5, 2016. Watertown, CT — Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, today announced the release of a new Zone Cabling and Coverage Area Planning Guide developed to assist infrastructure designers and architects ensure flexible zone cabling designs that provide significant benefits within intelligent buildings.

By 2020, it’s estimated that there will be 26 times as many connected devices and connected people! The growing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) will be optimally supported by a cabling design where low-voltage building, network and security systems are converged on a single IP network infrastructure and powered by advanced power over Ethernet (PoE) technology. Ideally suited for these converged infrastructures, zone cabling consists of horizontal cables run from telecommunications rooms to intermediate connection points housed in zone enclosures typically placed in the ceiling space. Cables from zone unit enclosures connect directly to building devices such as sensors, wireless access points, cameras and digital signage or to outlets serving any such device. Combining these connections within zone enclosures supports rapid, less disruptive changes and reorganization of work areas while simplifying deployment of new devices and applications.

“Deploying a zone cabling approach that facilitates building device connections within zone enclosures saves significant cost for automated buildings where a variety of low-voltage systems are converging on a single unified physical infrastructure,” says Valerie Maguire, global sales engineer for Siemon. “It’s important for those designing these converged infrastructures to realize the benefits of this highly economical and functional standards-based design and to understand how best to deploy it.”

Siemon’s new Zone Cabling and Coverage Area Planning Guide explains the various patterns that designers and architects can use for effective arrangements of coverage areas and their associated zone enclosures. The guide also highlights best practices for optimizing device density, scalability, and flexibility, and it covers considerations for selecting cable media and complying with industry standards.

As designers and architects strive to leverage IoT and deploy a converged cabling approach that allows connected systems to collect and analyze data for new levels of building intelligence, Siemon’s Zone Cabling and Coverage Area Planning Guide will serve as a critical reference to ensuring that cabling infrastructures are optimized to support these new trends in building design.

Data has become the most valuable corporate asset. How to effectively transmit, store, access, protect and manage critical data is a challenge Siemon has conquered. For more than 112 years, we’ve remained focused on quality, service, innovation and value; providing our customers a connection they can count on.

Ranging from 10 Mbps to 100 Gbps, Siemon has the copper and fiber solutions to support all of today’s standard-based application speeds. Our broad range of cable jacket types and construction support installation in a wide variety of environments, including high flex cycling of robotics to noisy EMI of high voltage motors.

Before implementing, it is important to understand the most common cable construction types and their applications. Siemon’s preferred cable terminology is outlined below and is based on IEC 61156-5: Multicore and symmetrical pair/quad cables for digital communications.

The standard abbreviations are as follows:

U = Unshielded

F = Foil shielded

S = Braided shield

TP = Twisted pair

U/UTP: Often referred to as simply UTP cable, this is the most common unshielded balanced twisted-pair cable. UTP cable constructions feature unshielded twisted-pairs enclosed within an overall thermoplastic jacket.

F/UTP: F/UTP cable constructions feature unshielded balanced twisted-pairs surrounded by an overall conductive mylar-backed aluminum foil shield and enclosed within an overall thermoplastic jacket. The foil shield protects the cable from external EMI and alien crosstalk. The category 6A/Class E variety of this cable type is commonly used in 10GBASE-T applications requiring additional headroom.

U/FTP: Category 6A/Class EA versions of this cable are commonly used in 10GBASE-T applications. This cable is constructed with no overall shielding or braiding, but each twisted-pair is foil screened.

S/FTP: This cabling type used primariy for category 7A/Class FA features individually foil-shielded twisted-pairs surrounded by an overall braid and enclosed within an overall thermoplastic jacket. Commonly used throughout much of Europe, this type of cable construction is the highest performing cable that significantly limits the amount of crosstalk between pairs and offers the greatest protection against EMI and external noise sources. Due to the pair-to-pair isolation of this cable, it lends itself well to cable sharing which is a practice of sharing one 4-pair cable to support multiple lower speed 1 and 2-pair applications.