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 Convergence and the Cabling Infrastructure |
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Until recently, most IT organizations have been adding capacity to their data-only networks by upgrading network electronic equipment as newer, faster devices became available, and by adding additional cabling for new stations in the office area as needed. The original Cat5 standard allowed the higher speed 100Mbps hubs, switches and routers to be deployed, providing a true100BaseT network design. In the past few years, technologies such as IP Telephony, VoIP, power over ethernet, and streaming video have increased bandwidth requirments and the demands on the network infrastructure and associated high-performance connectivity. |
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These new demands are clearly illustrated by the growing number of wireless access points being deployed, and the bandwidth-hungry, and now power-demanding, applications that are making their way into the work space. With the recent ratification of the Cat6 standard, that more than doubles the bandwidth to 250MHz, IT managers are breathing a sigh of relief.
Looking closely at some of the bandwidth hungry applications, it becomes clear that a critical factor to delivery of these services will be the cabling infrastrucuture. Gigabit Ethernet to the desk, streaming video and broadband video will continue to push the bandwidth capabilities of the network infrastructure. In addition to the expanding bandwidth requirements, the addition of power delivery over the same cable plant is becoming increasingly important as VoIP and emerging IP-based security applications demand the cabling infrastructure support power in addition to data.
Due to the rapid pace of convergence, there is a new and greater dependency on the supporting infrastructure to perform adequately, and with a very high degree of reliability. For example, in financial institutions a few minutes of downtime can mean thousands of dollars of lost revenue. The need for a way to manage and monitor the cabling infrastructure will become as important as network equipment and power monitoring have traditionally been. The integration of voice alone will add a dimension that has never been a problem in data networks before – E911 calling capability and the reliability of the network to not only be available when the call is made; but also to have the intelligence to be able to support a real-time location of the caller.
Convergence will play a large part in the continued refinement of existing high-performance infrastructure standards in support of emerging high-speed, high-bandwidth applications. These factors will place additional importance on the management of the cabling infrastructure and the reliability of the end-to-end connectivity. With the proliferation of converged networks, the supporting infrastructure is required to reliably provide five-9's service (99.999%) or more. This expectation can only be reliably met with solutions that have been pre-tested to deliver such performance. There is little use in deploying new applications in environments that utilize an infrastructure scheme that yields two-9's (or worse) performance |
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The PANDUIT® Architecture for Converged Technologies (PACT™) program fulfills industry needs for a highly reliable, stable, scalable, and easily managed converged network. This unified infrastructure solution from PANDUIT, Cisco Systems and APC addresses the network, power services and cabling infrastructure considerations surrounding IP telephony and other critical voice, video and data applications — for maximum up-time and performance levels. PACT Unified Infrastructure solution components have been tested by Cisco Systems to prove all elements of the network are fully interoperable with Cisco Systems supplied technology. |
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| This interoperability, as signified by the Cisco Compatible logo, helps ensure that the integration and deployment of your network will be completed smoothly, cost effectively and without surprises. Pre-tested solutions provide the peace of mind that is hard to find in unproven 'mix and match' configurations and helps to prevent costly delays due to interoperability conflicts |
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