Week 5: Day 017 - Installing a Physical Network #1

I have finally made it to the extremely long chapter that covers how to install a Physical Network! Now, before I may have covered what the cables are, and the theories behind all this, but now I will learn how to put it into practice! But, be wary, this is probably the longest chapter so far.

First we should understand how structured cabling works. If we want a network that works well there needs to be a set of standards, as we have established. As a collective this is known as "structured cabling". The standards were made by the TIA/EIA (Telecommunications Industry Association/Electronic Industries Alliance.) Now in terms of the Network+ exam, you are required to know the basic concepts of a designing and installing a network. Besides this, learning about Cable basics is important to know because it gives you an image on the actual components of a network.

Now, to start off the actual learning part, we'll go straight into Cable Basics. To connect a basic network, all you need is a switch, UTP cables, and some PCs. This is like what I learned a couple chapters ago, it's just like a physical star network. On paper nothing prevents you form creating such a network; however things get complicated when you do this in the real world. For example, in an office building, if you don't put the cables in the ceiling or under the floor, people may trip over it. Or maybe, say people do step on the cables, it will deteriorate over time. Then, you have to figure out which of the cables is responsible for the problem, in the tangled nest of them! The best way of avoiding this, is to install the cables in a way which is fool proof. But how do you do this? Well, the best way of doing this is by having a "telecommunications room" which is the source of all the cabling; basically where all the switches are. All of the cables run horizontally from the telecommunications room, also known as "horizontal cabling". As a singular installed horizontal cabling, this is known as a "run". These runs go to the "work area" which are offices and cubicles. Usually the horizontal cabling is made up of CAT 5e+ UTP cables. However there is more diversity within the cabling than meets the eye. The TIA/EIA standards will tell us this.

Here we have the UTP cables that is involved in horizontal cabling. There are differences within these UTP cables, such as "Solid Core" and "Stranded Core". For example, the solid core uses a "single solid wire" while the stranded core uses a bunch of wire strands. So which one should you use? Well there are advantages and disadvantages to each one. the solid core is actually a better conductor, but is stiff and can be broken after a lot of use or roughness when installing. Stranded core may not be as good of a conductor, but it is very durable and resilient, and will not break very easily. But there is a catch to all of this, you should not use stranded core, despite durability, when doing horizontal cabling. This is because you are meant to install these cables in the ceiling so there is no danger of cable damage. However, there are still important uses for stranded core cables when installing a network, but we'll talk about that another time.

Installing the cables in the ceiling is extremely annoying, and you'll probably never want to do it again because it's such a tedious and lengthy task. It's because of that, that many people suggest getting the best CAT you can! Furthermore, with UTP cables, it's gotta be four-pair every day of the week, but that's not a problem since two pairs are almost non-existent now. Realistically speaking though, most people buy lower-grade CAT cables because they're inexpensive and they work with everything. Now, going back to the topic of Telecommunications Room, it's really called an IDF (Intermediate Distribution Frame) which is like I said, where everything (the cables) come together with the switches. You need this room to keep such a type of organisation, because technology changes, and when it comes time to install that new computer or cable, well you'll be needing to be organised or it will just be a hot mess. But you gotta remember, there are lots of ways of organising things! My textbook promises that it's covering the common ways thankfully. Inside each one of these IDF's there are usually "equipment racks" which is basically the center of the room, as it provides a safe place to put your network hardware in. For example, sometimes you mount switches on the rack. The rack-mounted items are given a height measurement known as "U". We will talk about patch panels and cables... next time, as that ends today's entry. Yes, once again it isn't the longest, but I needed a short break after that enormous entry of before. Thanks for reading and tschuss!