Intelligent Cabling: The Genius Is Inside

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“Oh no! The network is down again.”
“Can't figure out which cable has come unstuck”
“Umm, where does this patch cord go?”

Welcome to the world of an average system administrator who faces a spaghetti mesh of cables, cables and more cables, running back and forth in a wiring closet. Managing your constantly growing network the old fashioned way is indeed becoming increasingly costly, risky, and in fact impossible.

The solution lies in intelligent cable management system (ICMS) or simply intelligent cabling. In an intelligent network environment, the system automatically detects items connected to the physical network, and correlates them with a log of connectivity changes and record of device locations. The ICMS is described as software-based systems where ports, patch panels and outlets are managed via a computer interface. This makes the life of a network administrator extremely simple and manageable.

“One of the major complaints of the IT manager is not being able to accurately identify the unused network capacity,” says KK Shetty, director Sales, Tyco Electronics. “Now this is easily resolved by intelligent cabling, as the person can view the logical virtual view of the entire network and an updated automated database to ascertain which way can the existing network be expanded.”

Intelligent cabling guarantees documentation accuracy, improves response time, serves as an online tool for troubleshooting, provide mobility, improve the performance and service levels and provide added security by identifying unauthorized changes and immediate notification of alarms.

When to consider intelligent cabling for your business?

When there are more nodes to manage like centrally managing several branch offices
When faced with the real-time security challenge of a large network
When you want to simplify the task of documentation and upgrading the network
When you need to accurately locate equipment and users and save considerable time
When you wish to save cost in long-term network management

In other words intelligent infrastructure management puts the structure back in structured cabling.

The Gray Matter
Intelligent cabling is based on sensors, which are rooted in the structured cabling system. The sensors monitor the status and associated connectivity on every infrastructure port. These sensors push the information into a centralized database, real time. This alignment to a comprehensive database and tools allows network managers to detect and troubleshoot problems. Any change taking place is recorded and the database collects and analyzes the information resulting in a suitable action.

The intelligence is attributed to the strong software built-in. The software is capable of isolating user problems and suggesting a possible solution while alerting the manager of an undesirable incident.

Traditionally, if a cable was unplugged from a patch panel, the administrator would have to refer to the logs or documentation prepared and follows the logical view of the network to identify the problem and fix it.

But ICMS contradicts and lets the manager identify the exact location of the cable in seconds and even instructs how to make the right connection. It generates alerts and traps caused by unauthorized events; these are forwarded to the appropriate individual or incident management system where input from the physical layer IMCS system can be used to quickly analyze the root cause of network problems.

Intelligent vs Traditional
Parameters	Intelligent Cabling Management	Traditional Networking Management
Security Features	System quickly identifies unauthorized changes and alerts the network manager.	Cannot detect authorized and unauthorized changes. Does not generate any alerts.
Work process flow	After identifying a problem, the system can suggest possible changes to rectify the problem through e-mail or text alerts. The user can revise suggested changes.	Third-party software needs to be procured to automate the process; however, it provides no interlink between the physical layer and other network layers.
Documentation support	Software automates documentation process and generates detailed reports for cable, port and asset utilization. develop disaster-recovery plans; and document physical-layer activity.	Manual documentation has to be maintained. Reports cannot be generated for passive devices such as patch panels, patch cords and the utilization of the same in the network.
Database maintenance	Automatically updates the database of any changes made to the network.	Manual spreadsheet databases need to be updated.
Re-Synchronization	When a network outage occurs, the system database automatically re-synchronizes upon the restoration of power, showing network asset connectivity changes.	No automated re-synchronization takes place. All updates have to be documented manually.

The intelligent structured cabling is able to track IP-based devices such that the network manager can access, control, and manage them from one central location. This is more critical considering the today's distributed computing environments and the acute need to troubleshoot them remotely.

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