The Concept of Structured Cabling
Back in the early 1980s there was great variety in the types of cabling used for
data networking in the commercial arena: various coaxial cables for various IBM
mainframe systems, different coaxial cables for Ethernet, and other cable types
for other data networking technologies. For voice, Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
cable was used. This excess of competing cabling technologies caused great
aggravation, as new and different cables were constantly being pulled through
the office to support new computing and networking equipment (which was changing
rapidly). And, of course, each cable type had its own unique connector. IBM was
first to use the term "Structured Cabling" in 1984 as they introduced their
150-ohm Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) cable and promised that it would support
their IBM mainframe-to-terminal network connections, even as their mainframes
evolved in the future, as well as Token Ring LAN connectivity. But they applied
the term to their new, proprietary STP cable which merely addressed IBM
networking requirements.
Into this chaos, AT&T Network Systems proposed a new philosophy around
the end of 1984. Instead of pulling a different proprietary cable type for each
networking technology use one cable type, 100-ohm UTP, for every networking
technology Then use various adapters, as needed, to connect the 4-pair UTP to
networking devices, whether they be Ethernet, Token Ring, IBM 3270, plain old
telephone service, or whatever. This is the basis for the concept of
Structured Cabling.
The concept of Structured Cabling is all about proofing the cabling for future
technologies by implementing flexibility and standardization in the cabling. The
initiative was a great success, and today it is generally accepted practice to
cable commercial office buildings in the Canada and the US with UTP. The need to
re-cable every few years has been greatly reduced, thanks to this structured
cabling approach.
Alberta Canada
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