The wiring, in electrical engineering, telecommunications and information technology, is the set of connections and physical systems (cables, connectors, distribution frames, support infrastructures) that allow interconnection typically within a building or group of buildings for the creation of a network (e.g. electrical network, telephone network, telecommunications network, local area network, last mile, MAN, WAN, etc.).
Description
Among the first examples of cabling we can mention the first Ethernet networks (called 10Base5, thick cable), consisting of large copper coaxial cables, to which the computers had to be connected by piercing the outer sheath until reaching the internal connector. These cables had a bus topology.
It is used in the connection of:
- electrical equipment connected, through an electrical system, to the external electrical network;
- telephone terminals, i.e. telephones via telephone lines leading to a switchboard in the building and from there to the public telephone network;
- network terminals (hosts) in the form of an internal computer network (LAN) possibly interconnected externally to the Internet via routers or gateways.
Each of these local network infrastructures has technical and technological differences in interconnection. The electrical characteristics, cable lengths, and connectors used influence the types of local networks that can be created.
Structured cabling
In modern office buildings, systems are installed structured cabling, designed to support the creation of different types of local networks, including, for example, the telephone network or a local area network (LAN). The systems are based on twisted pair cables and RJ-11 connectors for telephone connections (Category 5 or higher cables and RJ-45 connectors for LAN networks).
Cables have a maximum length of 90 m, plus 10 m for patch cables (device side: EC Equipment Cable, and terminal side: WAC Work Area Cable). This constraint is dictated by the characteristics of the Ethernet network.
For each station to be served, one or more cables are laid in special ducts in the walls, false ceilings or floors of the building, until they reach a floor distribution cabinet (in the jargon of structured cabling, Floor Distributor or FD or horizontal plane wiring), this is usually a standard 19-inch rack, which can accommodate both patch panels and active equipment.
These cables are connected on one side to a patch panel in the cabinet, and on the other to a wall or floor plate near the user's workstation. By connecting a patch cable from the computer to the wall outlet, and another from the patch panel to a switch, an electrical connection is created that connects the computer to the network.
If the size of the building does not allow all the users to be served by a single FD, the various FDs are connected to a building cabinet (Building Distributor, BD), via copper and/or fiber optic cables (vertical wiring), these too are certified in permutators. Similarly, the different buildings of a campus are connected to a campus permutation cabinet, or Campus Distributor, CD.
The rooms housing the distribution cabinets should have adequate features for power supply (preferably protected by a UPS), air conditioning, and access control (they are prime locations for intrusions or network malfunctions).