Network Infrastructure Blog

Cabling system performance can be adversely affected by heat and should be derated accordingly. Shielded systems are more tem­perature resistant than UTP, re­quiring as little as half the temperature derating of UTP. This means that shielded systems are better suited to higher temperature data center environments.  Learn more about the advantages of shielded cabling in the Shielded Copper Cabling Resource Center.

With Siemon VersaPOD data center cabinets, cabling is routed in the Zero­-U vertical spaces between bayed cabinets and out of the hot zone at the top of the cabinet, further protecting cabling from the potential effects of hotter data centers.

Here’s a good video from a Siemon Emerging Technology Forum event where Aquantia, Cisco, Intel and Siemon teamed up to discuss 10GBASE-T adoption in the data center.  While the video is a little over a year old, I mention it because the message is still valid:  10GBASE-T makes a lot of sense for data centers.  The continued adoption of 10GBASE-T over the last year proves it.

Panel contributors included:

• Sudeep Goswami, Product Line Manager of Cisco’s Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit and group chair for the Ethernet Alliance 10GBASE-T committee
• Dave Chalupsky, Intel Network Architect
• Carl Hansen, Senior Product Manager with Intel’s Data Center Standards group
• Carrie Higbie, Siemon’s Global Director of Data Center Solutions & Services
• Sean Lundy, Director of Technical Marketing at Aquantia.

Among the event highlights were Aquantia and Intel experts providing insight on how chip innovations from their respective companies were expected to significantly drive down 10GBASE-T power requirements for more energy-efficient green 10GbE networks.

Regarding widespread commercial availability of 10GBASE-T equipment, Cisco’s Sudeep Goswami stated that Cisco is serious about 10GBASE-T and discussed the company’s support for 10GBASE-T with their Nexus and Catalyst product lines.

According to Siemon’s Carrie Higbie, category 6A and higher connectivity is being planned in new data centers, “85% of the new data center designs I see are cabling for 10GBASE-T.” Higbie also noted a continuing upswing in the global use of shielded cabling for 10GBASE-T, including the traditional UTP dominant markets such as the US.

Siemon has been marketing and selling 10GBASE-T ready cabling since 2004 and now that 10GBASE-T equipment and power consumption is becoming more economical, the time has come for customers to take full advantage of their category 6A and higher cabling investment.

Brady has recently collaborated with Siemon to release the latest version of LabelMark™ Label Design Software.

Pre-made label templates for Siemon’s most common network connectivity are now included in the new time-saving datacomm wizard in LabelMark 5.4.

“Before, network technicians were using Microsoft Word and Excel to set up page sizes and label formats in order to label their network hardware,” said Marlon Davis, Brady’s software product manager. “The process was oftentimes tedious and very time-consuming, because they’d need to make numerous adjustments and format modifications before they could even add the data to the labels to start printing,” said Davis.

Save time: With the new datacomm wizard in LabelMark™ 5.4 Software, technicians can simply select Siemon as their network hardware manufacturer and hardware model, and the appropriate label template will be automatically generated.

After selecting their label template, users are guided to apply labeling legend data and save the cable markers and label files they’ve created for patch panels, jacks, and other hardware. It allows technicians to save a complete job, which can be used for quick label kitting at future on-site cable drops and rack installations.

For more information on LabelMark™ Label Design Software, visit www.BradyID.com/labelmark.

This video provides an overview of Intelligent Infrastructure Management (IIM) with Siemon’s MapIT G2 solution.   Alberto Zucchinali discusses how MapIT G2 integrates smart patch panels, control panels and software to provide a way to manage the physical-layer network in real-time from a central location.