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Cabling Special
Cat6a is coming
The structured cabling market is expected to continue growing
at 25-30 percent in 2006. Meanwhile, augmented Cat6 will find more takers, predicts
Abhinav Singh.
Investment in Indian infrastructure is being fuelled by MNCs, IT companies
and BPOs that are setting up or expanding operations in the country. This has
a multiplier effect on the wired LAN market, and, in turn, on the structured
cabling segment. Industry experts estimate that the structured cabling market
has grown 25 percent in 2005, up from Rs 326 crore in 2004. IT companies are
willing to adopt the latest cabling technology to ensure that they have the
bandwidth they will need in the future.
Nowadays, IT managers in these companies view high quality cabling as a business
enabler and not as a cost. Augmented Cat6—Cat6a—has emerged as a key
technology and is much talked about these days. Some deployments of Cat7 have
also taken place. The industry has seen the launch of 10G over copper solutions
by vendors such as ADC KRONE and Systimax Solutions. Even the growing popularity
of wireless technology has only served to boost the demand for a wired infrastructure
to underpin it.
IT/BPO to the fore
"Besides the BPO segment,large deployments in the
banking vertical also buoyed the structured cabling market"
-Bala Chandran
Managing Director
ADC KRONE, India and SAARC |
Looking at the manner in which companies are expanding in
India, there has to be a corresponding rise in the deployment and utilisation
of networking—and thereby cabling—across cities. Deepak Jagtiani,
National Sales Manager, Molex India says, “BPO and IT companies are expected
to put up new buildings to house thousands of employees to carry out their projects.
Even if they have just four ports a table per user, it would mean a huge increase
in the number of ports sold to these companies in India. PC penetration is improving
in the manufacturing segment too.”
Other sectors such as banking have also contributed significantly.
Adds Bala Chandran, Managing Director, ADC KRONE, India and SAARC, “Besides
the BPO segment, large deployments in the banking vertical also buoyed the structured
cabling market. These along with government-driven deployments form around 60-65
percent of the market. The rest is accounted for by the financial sector, telecom,
defence and manufacturing.”
Moreover, PC sales that are already robust are expected to soar with the introduction
of sub-Rs 10,000 models which are expected to be popular in the SOHO segment.
Growth is also expected from tier-two cities. Comments Chandran, “Second
tier cities such as Coimbatore, Noida, Pune, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad
and Gurgaon are seeing a lot of growth as large software companies have established
development centres in these regions.”
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New guidelines in the telecom
world are being issued to promote more environment-friendly cable product
designs, and restrict the use of certain hazardous substances [as per
the RoHS Directive explained below]. The European Union (EU) has implemented
programmes to ensure compliance by July 1, 2006. China, Japan and several
states in the US are also expected to implement similar initiatives. While
these guidelines have not yet been fully implemented, companies globally
are looking to manufacturers for compliant products.
The Restriction of certain
Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in the Electrical and Electronic Equipment
Directive 2002/95/EC was adopted in January 2003 by the EU. It restricts
the use of six hazardous materials in the manufacture of various types
of electronic and electrical equipment, including cable and components.
RoHS restricts the use of lead, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, mercury
and two brominated flame-retardants— polybrominated biphenyls (PBB)
and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE). The directive within the EU
for the maximum concentration of these ingredients in any cable component,
such as an insulation or jacket, is 0.1 percent or 1,000 parts per million
(ppm), except for cadmium, which is 0.01percent, or 100 ppm.
Companies that fail to comply
with the directive could have their products removed from the marketplace,
resulting in lost sales. Failure to follow these guidelines could also
make accessing other markets more difficult, putting manufacturers at
a competitive disadvantage. Many countries around the world have either
already adopted or are considering the implementation of similar regulations
or initiatives.
Lead, cadmium and the brominated
plasticisers have been used in the cable industry for many years. More
specifically, lead in the form of lead-based compounds is the material
that is of critical importance. It provides thermal stability in PVC so
that the plastic does not degrade during the extrusion process.
Lead-based compounds such
as lead sulfate have typically been used in PVC compounds at a 2-3 percent
loading. Today, zinc-based compounds are usually replacing those that
are lead-based. More than a decade of research has been conducted to make
this replacement technically and economically feasible. Early versions
of these non-lead stabilisers were not effective in performance and were
rather expensive. Lead- and cadmium-based compounds have also been used
as pigments for colours. These compounds maintain their colour at high
temperatures and throughout the life of the product. Research has been
conducted to find suitable alternatives as earlier versions were not vibrant
in colour and were rather expensive.
The environment concern
is that lead may leak from the plastic when the cable is exposed to chemicals
(such as acids) that decompose the plastic jacket. Since standard cable
is not installed or used in harsh chemical environments, the main concern
is what happens when the cable is disposed.
Source: Systimax
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Industry may standardise on Cat6a
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Cat6 continues to be the dominant
standard with an estimated 48 percent share of the cabling market. Cat7
is still a niche product
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Vendors are seeing a trend of both Cat5 and Cat6 deployments
taking place, and, to a lesser extent, Cat7. States Chandran, “Cat6 continues
to be the dominant standard with an estimated 48 percent share; Cat7 is still
a niche product.” Some vendors are bullish about the growth of Cat6a in
the Indian market on account of its higher capacity. Explains Rajesh Shenoy,
Key Account Manager, India, Belden CDT, “In the next few years, Cat6 will
be overshadowed by Cat6a which is rated for 500-600 MHz frequency whereas Cat6
is rated for 200 MHz. Higher data capacities and data centre applications that
demand greater bandwidth will lead to this.”
"In the next few years, Cat6 will be overshadowed by Cat6a which
is rated for 500-600 MHz frequency whereas Cat6 is rated for 200 MHz"
-Rajesh Shenoy
Key Account Manager, India
Belden CDT |
D-Link has a different take on the situation. According to
Milind Tamhane, the company’s Vice-president for Passive Products, “The
next two years will see a clear shift from Cat5e to Cat6 in the enterprise segment.
However, Cat5e will continue to dominate the upcoming SOHO and residential cabling
infrastructure. Enterprise customers will standardise on Cat6a, whereas SOHO
and residential will be happy with Cat6 as a horizontal option with fibre at
the service provider’s backbone.”
Adds K K Shetty, Country Manager, Tyco Electronics, “Cat5
usage will continue to be popular in the low-end segment up to a 150-node network.
Cat6 will be popular with high-end segments like BPO companies and R&D centres
that have around 400-500 nodes on the network.”
Cat7: maybe tomorrow
Industry pundits expect Cat7 to capture 0.4 percent of the global market by
2006, the low figure due to the fact that it is yet to be ratified as an international
standard. It will take a while before Cat7 catches on as the cable is bulky
and the connectors require individually-shielded pairs which are not installer-friendly.
If you have not provisioned for laying Cat7, you will need a larger groove to
accommodate it. Shetty says, “We have deployed Cat7 at the Shipping Corporation
of India. Typically, we see the deployment of Cat7 in industrial environments
where electrical interference is very high.”
10G on copper: ringing no bells—yet
Presently, only those companies that have their own data centres or SANs need
the kind of speed that 10G on copper brings to the table as there are no applications
today that demand this kind of investment. This infrastructure, especially the
cable installations and termination, needs higher skills and attention, hence
professionals doing this work demand a premium. Observes Tamhane, “We don’t
expect any phenomenal growth in this segment in 2006. The 10 Gigabyte Ethernet
(10GBASE-T) over copper UTP and Cat7 are only about offering the customers a
more efficient option than they already have.”
Although there have been a number of deployments of 10G over fibre in data centres,
there are few of 10G over copper UTP—i2Technologies being the only company
using ADC KRONE’s solution that employs this technology. Other vendors
such as Tyco have 10G over fibre for customers such as Cognizant Technology
Solutions, SAP Labs, Veritas’ R&D centre (in Pune) and Dell. Similarly,
Molex India has done 10G over fibre for customers such as Cisco Systems, HCL
Technologies and HSBC.
With no end to the current bandwidth explosion in sight, and given the current
rate of growth, Gigabit LANs are the norm at many organisations. Details Prasanna
Kumar, Director, India & SAARC, Systimax Solutions, “With a 10 Gigabit
capacity in the backbone, companies are pushing Gigabit to the desktop, which
has become the common requirement for many organisations in India. 10G UTP connections
will initially be implemented in data centres for mission-critical applications.
Although the exact timing of the migration to higher speeds for a given organisation
is not easily predicted, the selection of a suitable infrastructure today can
determine the ability to react in a speedy and cost-effective manner whenever
the need arises.”
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Individual pair shielding
has been adopted for Cat7, slowing down termination time. This cabling
requires close attention to grounding and bonding. Proposed Cat7 solutions
have two connector alternatives, neither of which is widely-accepted or
user-friendly. This could lead to problems vis-à-vis backward compatibility.
The connectors are large, leading to issues of space in desks, walls and
pathways. Cat7 plugs are not compatible with existing network equipment—something
that can translate into additional investments.
That said, Cat7 cables provide
a 600 MHz channel and offer 10G on STP (Shielded Twisted Pair)
which solves issues such as alien crosstalk. It utilises PiMF
(Pairs in Metal Foil) cables where each individual pair is
wrapped with a foil shield along with an overall shield braid
around all four pairs. The individually shielded pairs virtually
eliminate crosstalk between pairs in the same cable. This
heavy shielding of cables makes Cat7 cabling bulky, heavier,
and increases the overall circumference. But Cat7 is proving
popular in set-ups where electrical interference is considerable.
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Optical fibre: king of the backbone
For high-speed applications in cabling backbone over extended distances, optical
fibre is the preferred option, and most businesses have standardised on Optical
Multimode 3 (OM3) fibre, a 10G standard that supports extended Gigabit distances
of up to 550 metres. Since 80 percent of mission-critical data travels over
backbones, network architects should develop vertical networks capable of supporting
terabits, petabits and beyond.
 OM3
fibre occupies little space and is robust, but remains more expensive to install
than other cable types. Elaborates Kumar: “Most optical fibre cables used
in LANs within a building are of the multimedia type. Compared to the higher-performance
single-mode fibre used in campus deployments, multi-mode allows for the use
of less expensive electronic equipment, and is easier and less expensive to
install. As optical fibre transmission equipment carries a significant pricing
premium vis-a-vis copper, optical fibre is mostly used in the backbone in most
networks while balanced UTP provides the link to the desktop. Because optical
fibre transmits signals via light waves, it is inherently resistant to virtually
all forms of electronic interference.”
It is also worth considering the fact that as the bandwidth
of pipes are enlarged for end-users, more bandwidth is going to be needed in
the backbone to handle the increasing load and to accommodate the growing desktop
traffic—at least ten times more is needed to ensure higher performance
and solid backbone bandwidth reliability. While the network is key, the foundation
for network performance and reliability is the cabling infrastructure. Tamhane
concludes, “Optical fibre usage is growing thanks to lower fibre prices.
We have bright days ahead for fibre-to-desk applications.”
abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com
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