n Involvement: Remember, you get what you spec and inspect, not what you expect! So remain involved during technical discussions and evaluation. Don’t leave cable selection to chance or to a party that has vested interests different from your objectives.

n Technical Specs: The technical considerations to keep in mind while designing a network and choosing components and vendors include:

Lower bit error rate

• Higher throughput of a system

• Less network downtime

• Future proofing

• Easier installation - "reduced testing time"

• Easier migration to higher data rates

• More attenuation & NEXT available for other components

To achieve the best results keep the following tips in mind:

n Committed Brands: There would be minimal difference between one vendor and the other for Category 5e systems. But going for branded solutions from those vendors who are committed to the Indian market really pays off, as cabling is a very important investment. The point that needs to be kept in mind is to go for the technology leaders and those organizations, which are part of the international standards committees. This would ensure that one is not only getting a quality solution but also future-proofing the investment. Installing a Category 6 compliant network requires much more effort up front to ensure that genuinely compliant systems are short-listed, and provide installed performance as per the recently ratified Category 6 standards

n Standards Compliance: Standard Complaint solutions are a must. This is because these standards are independent of both technologies and the vendors. And they are designed to meet future technology adoptions. With convergence coming to the forefront, and attention moving towards VoIP in the enterprises, wiring shouldn’t be an afterthought. Enterprise can migrate to VoIP even if they have a legacy Categories 3–6 cable with upgrade to 100-Mbps switched Ethernet and above.

The approach to take on standards compliance is "Let The Manufacturer Hide Nothing". Obtain written performance values on Input Impedance and RL; Attenuation; NEXT (including PowerSum); ACR (including PowerSum); Delay Skew; FEXT/ELFEXT; CAP Unbalance.

Obtain all the data for physical, electrical and mathematical equations and make an effort to compare and contrast values along with conducting some actual testing. Some manufacturers publish their products’ best performance as their spec, while the best manufacturers publish their products’ worst performance as their spec. Stick to the latter category and you are unlikely to go wrong.

n Construction: Category 6 cables use 0.59 mm (23AWG) plain annealed copper, polyethylene insulated twisted pairs, laid up around an internal support X-spline within a PVC jacket. The internal support spline ensures crosstalk advantages, while providing support for individual pairs and the cable as a whole.

An ideal pair is comprised of two perfectly balanced insulated conductors that are mirror images of each other. To achieve this balance, the centre-to-centre distance, or centricity between the copper conductors of a pair should remain fixed and constant along the length of the cable. With Category 6 standards pushing the boundaries of performance for UTP, users are relying heavily on installation techniques to maintain good performance from their installed system. Typically, when cables are installed they are pulled on, bent around corners and may kink. Each of these factors changes the physical properties of the cable, which in turn can degrade the cables’ electrical performance. Thus it is important to seek products with construction that is forgiving to varied installation practices such as coiling, pulling around bends, and pulling from the box.

n Consider the Environment: When comparing various types of cables, it must be remembered that the results would be dependent on the implementations, such as the network cards, hubs, and other devices used and depend on the factors like the cabling distance, physical location, and environmental effects. For instance, fiber-optic cable maybe costly on a per-foot basis, but may work out to be cost-effective a cable has to run for several kilometers. All depends on the repeaters needed to run the cable. Today Gigabit Ethernet has been approved for fiber optic cable in 550M and 5 km lengths and for Category 5 copper cable up to 100 meters. It is important to keep in mind the design consideration of a structured cabling system including building entrance, equipment room, backbone cables, intermediate and main cross-connects, mechanical terminations and patch cords or jumpers used for backbone-to-backbone cross-connection.

n Engage Consultants: Have a draft plan of action and check if the proposed network architecture is practical. Engaging consultants will involve expenditure, but may speed the deployment process up by allowing key issues to be quickly identified, and questions to be directly and independently answered.

n Go for Good Integrators: Considering all these parameters, it is advisable to go for solution providers who have good track record of support and assistance with a good list of channel partners, installers, and certified professionals. They could also help in the documentation process. Documentation will help an unfamiliar person to quickly grasp the network topology.

They can also enable the network to grow in a planned and well- structured manner. The final performance of your network is highly dependent upon installation practices. Simple techniques like following the ˝ inch rule ("Never untwist pairs more than half an inch at the point of termination") can go a long way in ensuring superior network performance. So ensure that the SI you choose is known to pay attention to detail.

EXPERTS PANEL Asish Chand, country manager, Belden DS Nagendra, country sales manager, PremisNET, Krone Communications KK Shetty, country manager, NETCONNECT Solutions Division, Tyco Electronics Sreelal Nellary (RCDD), regional sales and technical support manager, Panduit Int’l Corp.