Choosing the Right Office Cabling System
Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009
by John D Jones
http://www.onlinelawyersource.com
When its time to choose a cabling system, there are several factors you must take into consideration before making a decision. Cabling systems range from category 5e to category 7a. Although a cat5e system has the lowest initial installation cost compared to cat6a or cat7a, you must consider the total cost of ownership. Initial installation costs include cost of components, cost of labor, and cost of testing. The lower performing cabling systems have lower initial cost, and the higher performing systems have higher initial costs. Depending on how long you plan to use the cabling system for, the total cost of ownership for a lower performing cabling system could end up being more in the long run than spending more initially for a category 6a or 7a system.
- A category 5e system cannot support 10g Base-T, and is limited to a 5 year maximum life cycle. This cabling system will require replacement as 10 gig electronics become more readily offered. Replacing a cabling system is expensive and includes cost of removal of your existing system, cost of the new cabling system, cost of installation, and cost of network downtime you will incur.
- Legacy category 6 systems are being considered for 10gig applications over a limited distance, giving category6 only a 2 year life cycle advantage over category5e, with a lifecycle of 7 years. That being the case, you must take into consideration how far your structured cabling needs extend. If they exceed the distance restrictions of legacy cat6, you will need to choose an alternate cabling system.
- Category6a cabling systems can support 10g Base-T with a 10 year life cycle. This cabling system will support 10gig applications without the length restrictions of legacy cat6.
- Category 7a is expected to support applications beyond 10gig Ethernet extending its life cycle to 15 years. This is currently the most advanced structured cabling system available. However, it is also the most costly at the initial time of purchase.
Factors to consider are:
- Installation cost
- Lifecycle of system
- Annualized cost of ownership
- Incremental Testing cost
- Cost to upgrade
- Downtime cost
Based strictly on annualized cost, most if not all of the savings collected from installing a lower performing cabling system with a lower installation cost up front are lost over the life cycle of that cabling system. This is true even prior to taking into account the incremental cost to upgrade, going from 10 /100 to 1 gigabit. Invest in a cabling system that's lifecycle matches your needs as far as how long you will be using it for.
A structured cabling system is potentially the most costly and difficult element of your network to replace, so choosing the right one for you is critical. It is better to spend the extra money in the beginning than to have recurring costs to upgrade and test your system, costing you much more in the long run.
Installation can be a arduous task, so choosing the right structured cabling company that won't cut corners and will get the job done right the first time is important as well. You dont want to take the risk of shotty craftsmanship when it comes to something as important as structured cabling
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Hi,Thanks for this comprehensive guide. Now I can get down to doing some proper costing.
I do not know anything about cable systems, but it sounds like the writer has great technical knowledge. However, I would have found a more elaborate introduction helpful. For example, who is your target audience? It seems that this article was written for computer systems analysts, but maybe it applies to individual home entertainment or PCs. Set the scene a bit more in the beginning, and you will hook the reader.Deana, thank you very much for your constructive feedback. I have a bit more experience working with computers than I do with writing, so I'm still a newbie when it comes to writing articles. I appreciate and agree with your advice, and will be applying it in my articles to come!
Hi Xetra,This is all great information for the cable buyer, but I think you need to make it a bit more reader-friendly to people who are not in the business. Also, you are telling us how certain things save money over the long run, but you need to include some actual examples, i.e show some figures.I also think you should use your last paragraph as your first.Thank you for your feedback Debi, I appreciate as much constructive crititicism as I can get as I am still a bit new to the writer's community.
but,what if you trust your cable company to make all those decisions;do we have options?Paul, are you asking about your cable provider like cox or the company that installs the physical cable within the walls/ceilings of your building?
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