The more your network demands from your company due to increasing demands in terms of advanced applications like videoconferencing, high-definition graphics, IP telephony, IPTV, multimedia networks, and e-commerce with both voice and data, the more the bandwidth is required. Particularly when the communication technology leapfrogs to unprecedented levels, the demand for new standards grows. That's how the structured cabling standard has evolved from various levels, with cynicism over the requirement of a particular standard plaguing the industry at every level.

Today, 10 G cabling standard is talked about. In the past, enterprises chose 10 Mbps (10 BASE-T) capable cables and gradually moved to the next level 16 Mbps token ring and fast ethernet (100 BASE-T), which was followed by the 155 Mbps ATM. As the requirement of data transmission rates increased, the cabling standard evolved from Cat 3 to Cat 4, Cat 5 and its enhanced version Cat 5E. And then came Cat 6 and its augmented version, Cat 6A, followed by 10 G, fiber optics, and now Cat 7 and Cat 7A.

Why Next Gen Cabling?
Why one has to go for next generation advanced structured cabling is the question that often arises in the minds of CXOs. At a time when end users are becoming more and more discerning in experiencing various applications from emails to all of those graphic intensive files and multimedia files, end users want speed, continuity, and reliability on the data highway and want the network fast enough to feel that they own the LAN.

While network administrators go for next generation cabling standard, they will have a smoother time. Now, with advanced cabling solution, much faster data rates are achieved. This need has been felt at every stage in the structured cabling history. Data rates on the horizontal cabling system have evolved from 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps and more-up to 1000 Mbps.

Cabling standards employed by various segments and verticals have witnessed quite a change in the last decade. There has always been a need for most enterprises to go for next generation cabling to update the data transfer rates as their growing businesses demand. Most companies see the maximum longevity factor before going for the data cabling installation. Higher data transmission rates require cables with increased bandwidth, defined by frequency ranges.

There is a perception that the 'go wireless' mantra will cause structured cabling to lose its significance. However, experts in the structured cabling industry have a different take on it. They believe that though the mantra is gaining momentum, and it will increase its presence in the commercial premises in the medium term, wireless still needs structured cable to provide power for wireless access points (WAPs).

Copper versus fiber optics medium is another issue. Apart from the copper medium, the fiber optics medium is also emerging in certain areas. Will fiber optics replace copper in certain areas is a much-debated question. Again, industry experts vary. DS Nagendra, GM, Nexans Cabling Solutions, says, “Copper cabling is preferred over fiber due to the latter's ease of installation procedures and the familiarity of use in the installer segment.”

According to Jim Young, regional technical director, CommScope, the use of fiber will continue to be a matter of cost benefit. If we go by history, customers will continue to take advantage of the savings copper-based technologies can offer while still supporting the new emergent 10 G applications.

Dileep Kumar, director, Product Management, Enterprise and Carrier, ADC Krone, says: “The fiber optics medium has certain benefits over the copper medium. In campuses, between buildings (also across floors of buildings), and in data centers, the better electro magnetic interference (EMI) properties of the fiber medium are preferred. Copper does not provide high bandwidth over long distances.” So, the truth is that these two media are not contradictory technologies. As the two media have advantages in different aspects, they are here to coexist.

Choosing the Solution
Before going for the next generation cabling standard, keeping in mind applications that they currently run and may run in the foreseeable future, enterprises nowadays try to find out if the solution is capable of handling future demands in terms of bandwidth.

Enterprises also have to look for stability with VoIP technologies and the capability to support the evolving higher wattage power over ethernet (PoE) requirements. In short, they should be looking for future proofing, scalability, compatibility, quality, reliability, performance, and security. Milind Tamhane, VP, Manufacturing, D-Link India, says that enterprises should have a vision for at least six years in advance for any physical layer installation because data traffic and scalability would grow exponentially and reinstallation costs would be far more than using the right medium the first time.

The structured cabling industry is developing new products to address various aspects of cabling taking into consideration the technology and optimizing costs associated with it. Plastic optical fiber and intelligent infrastructure management solutions are few products that are attracting a lot of attention from the R&D community.

With updated technology, low cost, and application becoming major factors for the success of any structured cabling solution, a lot of activity is taking place on the structured cabling R&D front.

There is also a perception that enterprises don't change cables in advance foreseeing problems in terms of performance levels and other things, and that they go for next generation cabling solution only when the existing cabling standard is not sufficient to provide the required performance. But industry experts have different perception about it. Young says, “Recently, Systimax completed a worldwide survey of over 1,400 IT users around the world. In this survey, we learned that over 80% of these end users considered many different factors in selecting the network cabling systems they implement for their businesses. Stated conversely, less than 20% chose cost as the determining factor for selecting network cabling.”

The selection of cabling is important in ensuring network reliability and minimizing operating cost. The rule 'you get what you pay for' applies even in the structured cabling industry. Investing in quality products and selecting performance levels that offer future compatibility with emerging technologies are sound investment strategies used by a majority of IT professionals around the world.

According to Sathya Narayanan MS, country manager, India, Hubbell Wiring Systems, “Most customers plan for 5-10 year operational period for any cabling plant. As and when they require more bandwidth, they expand to the latest in the market; apart from this, they also decide considering their investments and requirements put together.” Shajan M George, technical manager, India, Reichle & De-Massari India (R&M), recommends that for a long-term functioning of LAN, which supports future demanding applications, the cabling standard has to be chosen according to the new ISO/IEC Class EA standard. Class EA provides consistent, continuous performance across the entire channel and better protection of the signal transmission to 500 MHz, which is used for 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Cat 5E in the Last Phase
Today, cable deployment is seen in the Cat 5E, Cat 6, and Cat 6A segments. Cat 5E deployment started long back and today it is in its last phase of deployment. A 1998 cabling standard, it is capable of network applications primarily designed to support 1000 BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) that utilize bi-directional and full four-pair transmission schemes. Cat 5E is no longer much recommended for new installation by most enterprises, but a substantial number of Cat 5E cabling is supporting 1000 BASE-T applications.

Cat 6: Predominant Solution
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) was prompted by the expense of noise-canceling technology to adopt an operating bandwidth of 250 MHz in order to achieve high-speed, twisted-pair applications. The cabling and application standards have always been developing correlatively.

Today, Cat 6 is the dominant cabling solution across all industry verticals, and its market share is close to 70%. Cat 6 is capable of carrying bandwidths ranging from 1-250 MHz for high-end applications.

Following its ratification by the ISO and the EIA, Cat 6A is expected to gain momentum, as it is capable of carrying bandwidths ranging from 1-500 MHz. At present, the market share of Cat 6A is about 2-5% only. “It is the cabling solution of choice in data centers and in backbone cabling. Its market share in horizontal cabling is also expected to increase,” says Dileep Kumar, director, Product Management, Enterprise & Carrier, ADC Krone.

Cat 6 is becoming most sought after in the regular corporate, ITeS segments, and in large enterprises. Take-off in Cat 6A has been taking place quicker than expected.

Organization using Cat 6A include R&D centers, multimedia content developers, and BFSI companies. According to Nagendra, few SMBs are also becoming early adopters of Cat 6A. It is gaining momentum especially in networks that demand higher bandwidth. For regular horizontal cabling in both large enterprises and the SMB segment, Cat 5E and Cat 6 are the dominant copper medium to transfer data.

For a larger bandwidth requirements, as in backbone cabling and data centers, Cat 6A is considered to be a suitable cabling solution. Originally the Cat 6 cabling standard was designed to support 100 BASE-T and 1000 BASE-T applications, but some installed base categories can support up to 10G BASE-T applications.

Young says, “Cat 6A is emerging in areas where clients are looking for long-term strategies to support emerging data communications applications for the longer term.”

Typically, it is adopted in verticals like health care, government, data centers, and universities. Many end users understand the financial benefits of purchasing a high-quality data communications platform. Cabling, in particular, outlasts all other investments in IT with an expected life of perhaps twenty years.

Like in any other solution, ease of use is a major factor for driving the solution's growth in the market. So, Cat 6A has emerged as a choice of UTP solution.

Inching Toward Cat 7
Cat 7 STP (shielded twisted pair) is a shielded cabling solution for avoiding alien cross talk during the transfer of data from one end to the other. This shielded pair cabling solution has both individual shielding and for the whole wire also. It comes with four individually shielded twisted pairs (STP) inside and an overall shield. It is designed for transmission frequencies up to 600 MHz, which should enable it to carry 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBaseT) and can support higher bandwidth than Cat 6A.

Cat 7 (600 MHz) and Cat 7A (1000 MHz) offer extra bandwidth to support a number of applications like videophones and video-on-demand at the desktop that will emerge in the next few years.

Cat 7 and Cat 7A are developed as a very high bandwidth shielded cable, which could support anything likely to be developed in the near future. Advantages of Cat 7 will push all industry verticals to adopt it in the future.

Along with more speed, its individual pair shielding enables better next isolation allowing different application to run on the same cable. It's also suitable for installing in strong RFI and electro magnetic interference (EMI) environment. Cat 7 STP shielding eliminates EMI.

In Cat 7, there's a drastic reduction in noise level and the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is better because the components are shielded and have a provision for grounding. Entertainment media, biotechnology, BFSI, and pharma segment will be bigger opportunity areas for Cat 7. Triple play, high-definition video that requires around 800+ MHz, etc will drive Cat 7 solutions.

The other driving factor for Cat 7 deployment is the increase of the European outfits in India. Most organizations would have deployed Cat 7 back home and would desire homogeneity in the networks they wish to deploy whenever they expand around the globe.

This completely shielded solution is predominantly used in various segments like data centers, where there is an obvious need for high bandwidth, organizations that require high bandwidth and consider security as main issue, opt for Cat 7 cabling.

At present, Cat 7 is primarily a European phenomenon. Structured cabling industry experts differ on the kind of opportunity Cat 7 has in India. Sathya Narayanan MS, country manager, India, Hubbell Wiring Systems, says, “I don't see any big future for Cat 7 in India. Cat 7 has more negatives like bulky cable and cost going against it. Moreover, Cat 7 does not work with the conventional connectivity type and may not be compatible with current solutions.” Also, Sathya Narayanan will prefer fiber optics to Cat 7 as fiber optics has more capability in terms of network speed, resilience, and data transmission than copper wires.

But, Mylaraiah JN, regional sales manager (South) and product manager, Tyco Electronics, differs. He says, “Cat 7 cable has been around for sometime and its installation has been done in India, but not of Cat 7A.” In fact, it took off in India almost four years back. According to reliable sources in the industry, Shipping Corporation of India (Visakhapatnam) adopted this solution in 2004. Another enterprise that has embraced this solution in India is car manufacturing giant BMW, in Chennai.

Another industry expert, Shajan M George, technical manager, India, Reichle & De-Massari India (R&M), says, “Cat 7 has got a huge market in India. Some years ago, we were talking about 1 Gbps and today we are at tera speed or more. More frequency needed for many applications is driving Cat 7 adoption. R&M has Cat 7 cable up to 1200 MHz frequency.”

Cat 7 is standardized since 2002 and has really become the most secured offering in copper cabling to support customer needs in either the highest bandwidth support, long lifetime and/or cable/sheath sharing of the same cable for multiple applications.

Says James Bundey, marketing manager, Asia Pacific, Molex Premise Networks, “The standards bodies are pushing Cat 7 toward the home market. The reason for this is that the individually shielded pairs on Cat 7 cable enable it to support multiple services/applications such as broadband, video, and data. For enterprises, the biggest hindrance to the acceptance of Cat 7 will be the high cost of the cable.”

Though India is basically a market for UTP (unshielded twisted pair) solutions, as they are easier to be installed, Cat 7 STP has certainly got space to grow across verticals in India.

Kannan K
kannan@cybermedia.co.in