Well-planned cabling has been an ITSC objective from the University’s founding days, given the substantial investment required and the large part cabling plays in overall networking costs. The following network design characteristics are emphasized:
- Long-lasting: A cable plant that is sustainable.
- Flexible: Easy network reconfiguration for changing requirements.
- Extensible: Able to cope with an increase in workload as the population grows.
- Adaptable: Incorporates the latest network technologies to gain competitive advantage.
- Manageable: Keeps track of cabling information for network re-engineering and network trouble-shooting.
Cabling plant
Being the soul of a network, a cabling plant determines a network’s extent and, on the whole, how it works. Due to the substantial investment involved, it is crucially important that the system be extensible for continual growth, as well as adaptable to emerging applications and future technologies. A structured wiring system, based on the EIA/TIA Structured Wiring Standard, has been employed to wire-up the whole campus. ITSC strongly believes that a flexible cabling infrastructure – properly designed, installed and maintained – will take the University well into the 21st century.
Cross-connects
Through the structured wiring scheme, a hierarchical star topology physical configuration has been formed. This wiring topology consists of a main cross-connect (MC) which interconnects a number of intermediate cross-connects (ICs), some of which in turn link up one or more horizontal cross-connects (HCs). These cross-connects are also known as distribution frames.
Wiring closets
With the exception of the MC, located in the Network Center (also ITSC’s Data Center), ICs and HCs are situated in the 170-plus wiring closets. These communication rooms, approximately the size of two public telephone booths, house the networking equipment that serves the local vicinity.
Patching panels
Patching panels are installed in each wiring closet to facilitate network re-configuration. These devices are similar to the old manually operated telephone switch panels. They help to dynamically change the physical data path, or, when data traffic on one path becomes highly congested, to induce another path. Through cable patching, the logical network topology can easily be modified and re-configured.
Backbone wiring
As optical fiber cables are used for backbone wiring purposes, single-mode fibers (SMF) as well as multi-mode fibers (MMF) have been laid within the campus. The single-mode fibers are intended mainly to support high-speed network technologies, such as 10-Gigabit Ethernet.
Horizontal Wiring
Fanning out from individual HCs are horizontal wiring cables that travel along main data trunking (located beneath floors and above ceilings), and enter rooms via small data conduits, forming a floor wiring pattern. In 1994, Category 5 Unshielded Twisted Pair (Cat 5 UTP) cables were first adopted to cater to emerging switching and higher speed technologies. As technology advanced, Enhanced Cat 5 (Cat 5E) UTP cables were used. All new areas are now wired with the latest Cat 6 UTP cables to support gigabit connectivity to desktops.