Week 6: Day 018 - Installing a Physical Network #2

Welcome back. I had a good, well deserved, three day weekend. I didn't celebrate that savage Columbus though! Anyways, let's continue in my study of installing networks at the physical layer.

Last time I said I would talk about "patch panels and cables", so I will do it now. When you set up horizontal cabling, you shouldn't move it because the UTP solid core cables (remember, you should only use solid core for horizontal cabling) are stiff. The reason for trying to make sure you don't mess around it, is because it's delicate and if you try to move the cables after installation, you'll have to fight with the cable. As we know apply pressure to the cable, will break one of the copper wires inside of it. To prevent that issue, there is something called a "patch panel" which is a box with a row of ports and permanent connections in the back. Most patch panels nowadays use connectors called "110 block" which is connected to a UTP cable through a punchdown tool. Basically that tool forces individual wires into the grooves of a punchdown block. In the picture shown in the textbook, it looks extremely tedious, and it would probably make me jump out a window. Back in the day 66-block patch panels were sometimes used in PC networks, but they're mainly used for other things. So the positives given from patch panels are great, as they make it so the horizontal cabling doesn't need to be moved. Some good advice the book gives is to tag each panel with stickers to be able to identify the cables. As with most network products, these patch panels come in great variety, accommodating for UTP, STP, and fiber ports, and they come with different amounts of ports. Also, when it comes to the CAT levels of the panels, getting CAT 6 is a great idea. So once the patch panel is installed, you connect the ports to the switch using patch cables. These cables are short UTP cables. Most people buy these cables, and they come in several different colors for organizational purposes. Also as a note, you could also set up racks in storage rooms, it doesn't have to be uniquely placed in a telecommunications room. Additionally, to the average worker, the wall outlet is easy Internet. But what's really behind that wall outlet? Well the RJ-45 jacks in the wall outlets have CAT ratings. The CAT rating in that cable must match the one being used in the network. The ideal outlet has a label that identifies where it is in the patch panel. You should get good documentation on the outlets around the office. The last part of the process is just connecting the PC to the outlet, which is extremely simple! And that's about it on that front.

What I've covered so far is the structured cabling of a single-star topology on one floor of an office building. Now, according to my textbook, when you expand to an entire building, we must learn the terms such as "demarc" and "NIU", to describe what's happening in the setup. Typically the high-speed backbone of a building wide network runs vertically, alongside the telephone cabling backbone. Anyways, the "demarc" stands for "demarcation point" which according to my textbooks is: "the physical location of the connection and marks the dividing line of responsibility for the functioning of the network. You take care of the internal functioning; the person or company that supplies the upstream service to you must support connectivity and function on the far side of the demarc". So in my words, I'd say it's the divider between what a network tech would deal with, and what the ISP would have to deal with. In someone's house, the cable company provides the modem for your internet. This is called an NIU (network interface unit)  I'll delve more into that next class, cause I can't be bothered to finish this. On that bombshell, thanks for reading, and goodbye!