Installing a Physical Network

Recognize and describe the function of basic components in a structured cabling system

Explain the process of installing structured cable

Install a network interface card

Perform basic troubleshooting on a structured cable network

Structured Cabling

Structured cabling is a set of standards for cable installers to follow, defined by EIA/TIA, used all over the world to install physical cabling and networks in a safe and orderly fashion!

Successful Cabling

Successful networks require three main ingredients:

• Telecommunications Room (Central Room)

• Horizontal Cabling runs from central room to all rooms in your organization and eventually to all PCs

• Work Area is where your offices and clients are located and where PC’s often connect to wall-jack or to a switch that connects to wall-jack

Telecommunications Room

Telecommunications Room

• Central room where all horizontal cabling runs to

• Each of your rooms throughout your organization connect to this room

• These rooms are also known as IDF-intermediate distribution frame

Telecommunications Room

• Telecommunications Room (Central Room)

Equipment Room

Equipment Racks

Telecommunication Room Requirements

• EIA/TIA’s structured cabling standards define special components you need in the telecommunications room including: Equipment Rack, Patch Panel, Hub/Switch, Servers

• Equipment is mounted into equipment racks…a central component

– 19 inches wide but vary in height

Equipment Racks

• Equipment racks– Most equipment rooms use a floor-mounted equipment

rack

– A smaller network may be able to use a wall-mounted short rack or just a wall-mounted patch panel

Rack Mountable Equipment

Equipment Rack Devices

• Hubs

• Switches

• Servers

• Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs)

Rack mounted

UPS

Horizontal Cabling

• Horizontal cabling is used to connect the Telecommunications room (central room) to all of the other work areas throughout your orgnaization

• A single piece of horizontal cabling is called run

Horizontal cabling

Horizontal Cabling Details

• Usually CAT 5e or better UTP cable

• UTP cable has either a solid or stranded core– Solid core conducts better but is stiffer and breaks easier

– Stranded core is easier to work with (used in work areas)

Stranded core

Solid core

Horizontal Cabling Details

Horizontal Cabling (Equipment Room to Work Area)

• EIA/TIA specifies horizontal cabling use a solid core because it is a better conductor than stranded core cabling. Solid Core is more stiff and breaks easier, but again, it is a better conductor than stranded core

Patch Cables (Work Area Cables)

• Stranded Core cabling will be used for ‘Patch Cables’ that you use in your Work Area (whereas Solid Core is better for horizontal cabling that you run through your walls & ceiling to the equipment room)

Stranded core Solid

core

Fire Ratings

• When a building catches on fire the insulation on cables that burns could cause noxious fumes and smoke

• Underwriter’s Laboratories and the National Electrical Code have developed fire ratings– Poly-Vinyl Chloride (PVC) creates

smoke and noxious fumes when burned

– Plenum-rated cable creates much less smoke and fumes

• Most city ordinances require the use of plenum-rated cable

Patch Panels and Cables

• All Horizontal cabling runs to the Equipment room where it get’s punched down into the Patch Panel/Punch Down Block

Patch Panels and Cables

• A patch panel is the box where you run all horizontal cabling to & punch down all cabling into the back of the patch panel (the punch down block side)!

• Horizontal cabling is punched down to the back of the Patch Panel, & then you run a Patch Cable from the front ports to the Hub or Switch

Patch Cables

• Once the horizontal cabling is run and connected to the back of the patch panel (punched down) then you can use patch cables to connect the Patch Panel to the central hub/switch in the main Equipment Room

• Patch cables are short 2 to 5 foot straight-through UTP cables using a stranded wire core (not solid core)

Patch Panels

• Patch Panels can get messy over time, so Label your patch panels (so your Equipment Room doesn’t get too messy)

• You might have a variety of different type of ports such as UTP, STP, or fiber ports

Work Area

• The work area is simply the office where the PC is located

Work area

Work Area

• The work area is where your PCs are!

• In the old days, your PCs would connect directly to the Wall Jack (straight into the wall)

• You would use a Patch Cable (UTP Stranded Core) to connect your PC to the Wall Jack which required a RJ-45 connector

• Most network failures occur in the work area

Wall Outlet

• It is a good idea to label your wall outlet to identify the position on the patch panel in the closet where the cable goes

• In this picture A320 would match up to the A320 patch panel connection in the Equipment Room

Limitations to Network Design

• The horizontal cable (solid core) may be at most 90 meters in length according to the EIA/TIA 568 specification, so that means you have 90 meters between your telecommunications room to the wall-jack of each work area room

• The patch cables (stranded core) in the work area may be up to 10 meters (maximum) in length

• The patch cables used in the telecommunications room to connect the Patch Panel to the the Switch (stranded core) can be up to 6 meters in length

Floor Plan

• Installers should always begin with a floor plan– Shows the locations of potential closets, firewalls, and so

forth

Floor Plan – Cable Drops

• A cable drop is the location where the cable comes out of the wall (usually at the wall-jack location, which generally is around the bottom of the wall)

• Map out where the cable drops will be run to

• Talk to users and management about current and future needs

• The typical price for a network installation is around $150 per drop

Inside or Outside the Walls

• Do you want to run your cables inside or outside the walls

• Raceways adhere to the outside of the walls and make sense in some older buildings

Telecommunication Room

• Distance– Choose an equipment room location that is centrally

located to keep maximum runs to 90 meters

• Power– Generally put your equipment room outlets on their own

dedicated circuit

• Dryness– Choose a dry room with low humidity

Telecommunication Room

• Coolness– Telecommunication Rooms get warm; make sure there is

an air conditioning duct in the room

Telecommunication Room

• Access– Prevent unauthorized access – the room should be locked

– Make it easy to get to the equipment to maintain and troubleshoot it

An equipment room that has

become a broom closet –

not good!

A server wedged in the

back of a closet and hard to get to – not good!

Installing the Cable

• Pulling cable requires two people to get the job done quickly

• Most pullers start from the equipment room and run the cable to the work area locations (specifically the wall outlets/jacks or cable drop locations)

Pulling Cable

• Good cable management is important and must adhere today to local codes, EIA/TIA, and the National Electrical Code (NEC) rules

• Proper hooks and cable trays should be used

Pulling Cable

• Running the cable down through the wall to an outlet on the wall takes skill– A hole is cut in the drywall using a stud finder

– A weight on the end of a nylon string is dropped through the wall down to the opening

– The network cable is tied to the nylon rope and then pulled down

Pulling Cable through the Wall

– An outlet box or low-voltage mounting bracket is then installed in the wall

– The cable is then terminated on the back of the jack

– A faceplate covers the front of the mounting bracket

Equipment Room Cables

• Many cables coming from work areas must be consolidated in the equipment room

• Special cable guides will help to bring the cables down to the equipment rack

Making Connections

• The cable then needs to be connected at both ends– On the jack in the work area

– On the back of the patch panel in the closet

– The cables should be documented and labeled

– Every connection should be tested

Connecting the Work Area

Attaching a jack to a

wire

Fitting the jack into a faceplate

Tool used to make a

110-punchdown - the most common

Connecting the Patch Panels

Poor cable manage-

ment

Good cable

manage-ment

Labeling the Cable

• Organize the patch panel based on your network– Either based on the physical layout of the network

– Or based on user groups

• EIA/TIA defined the 606 labeling scheme

• Design a labeling scheme that matches your network’s organization

• Label the outlet in the work area and the jack on the patch panel with the same number

• Color coding may be desirable

Labeling

Well organized patch panels

Labels on the patch panel and

outlet match

Simple Cable Testers

Continuity Testers

• Simple cable testers cost under $100 and only test for breaks in the wire by testing continuity (they are called Continuity testers)

Time Domain Reflectometer

TDR Testers

• A medium priced cable tester (around $400+) can determine the length of the cable and where a break is located

• Called a Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR)

Fox and Hound (Tone Generator)

Tone Generator

The Fox and Hound is a Tone Generator (Attach one end to cable to generate a tone, then fund the Hound finder up the

cable until it beeps)

Advanced Cable Testers

• Advanced cable testers cost over $1000– Tests the electrical

characteristics of the cable

– May generate a printed report

– May draw a diagram of the network including MAC addresses, IP addresses, and even operating systems for each computer

– Called media certifier tools

There are ‘Fiber Optic’ cable testers as well known as OTDR-Optical time domain reflectometer

NICs

Network Interface Cards• Network Interface Cards (NICs) are a common

component in PCs today

• They are used to connect to a network

• A NIC needs to meet three criteria– TECHNOLOGY: Technology such as Ethernet, Token Ring,

or FDDI (which also determines connector type like RJ-45, ST/SC)

– SPEED: Speed such as 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1000 Mbps

– SLOT/BUS: Type of bus such as ISA or PCI or newer PCIe

Ethernet NICs – 10Base5

Ethernet NIC (OLD DAYS)• 10Base5, or Thicknet,

NICs use a female, 15-pin DB connector – Called Digital-Intel-Xerox

(DIX) connector

• Drop cable runs from the DIX connector on the NIC to the Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) or transceiver

Ethernet NICs – 10Base2

Ethernet NIC (OLD DAYS)• 10Base2 or Thinnet NICs

use a BNC connector that attaches via a T-connector

Ethernet NICs – 10BaseT

ETHERNET NIC

• 10BaseT, 100BaseT, and Gigabit Ethernet NICs all use RJ-45 connectors

Ethernet NICs – Fiber Optic

FIBER-OPTIC NIC

• Fiber optic NICs use either SC or ST connections– An ST connector is

shown in the

– Modern-day NICs might come with MTRJ or LC connectors (but ST & SC are more common)

Token Ring NICs

• Token Ring NICs use either the older and rarer female DB-9 connector or the newer RJ-45 connector

• Newer RJ-45 Token-Ring NICs are hard to distinguish between Ethern NICs

Installing NICs

• Installing a NIC involves 3 steps1. Physically install the card in the PC

2. Assign unused system resources to the NIC using Plug and Play or manually

3. Install the proper drivers

Buying NICs

Purchasing a New NIC:

• Use name brands like 3Com or Intel

• Multispeed cards are usually better (Example: 10/100/1000 cards)

• Get the connectors you need (RJ-45, etc..)

• Try to stick with the same model– Many companies standardize on which NICs to buy

Physical Connections

• Physically inserting the NIC into the PC is straight forward

• Make sure the NIC is for the proper expansion slot type– The most common is

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)

– PCI-Express– PCMCIA or PC Card

connections are seen on laptops

PCI

USB

Drivers

• Most NICs are plug and play and install easier in Windows systems

• However, Windows will most likely choose its own driver that is outdated

• It is better to install the driver that came with the NIC, and even better to download and install the latest driver off the Internet

Link Lights

• Most NICs have lights (really Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs)

• A link light tells you the NIC is connected to a hub or switch

– There’s also a light on the hu

– b or switch

Activity Lights and More

• The activity light on a NIC will flicker when there is network activity

• Multispeed NICS may also contain speed lights• Older NICs may contain collision lights

Fiber Optic NICs

• Fiber optic NICS rarely have lights

• Most problems are traced to the ST or SC connection on the NIC

• An optical tester will allow you to test the connections

Direct Cable Connections

• Recent versions of Windows include software that enables direct serial-to-serial, parallel-to-parallel, or infrared-to-infrared port connections– Serial port connections require a null-modem cable

– Parallel port connections use a IEEE 1284-rated bi-directional parallel cable

• These connections are only good to connect two PCs together

Diagnostics and Repair of Physical Cabling

Diagnosing Physical Problems

• Most network problems are layer 1, or Physical layer, issues (Cable not plugged in, NIC not plugged in properly, Computer not plugged in, etc…)

• These manifest themselves as a device not showing up in My Network Places or “server not found” errors

• However, if you can do one network task (such as browse the Internet) but can’t do another (like check e-mail), then it is a software issue

Check Your Lights

• Check your link lights – if they are not on then you have a cable issue

– A bad connection or maybe the wall outlet is bad or turned off at the closet

– The System Tray icon may indicate “Network cable unplugged”

– The horizontal cabling may be at fault

– If other users in the area also have a problem, then the issue may be the switch or hub

Check the NIC

• A bad NIC could also cause a problem with network connection– Verify the NIC is working in

Device Manager

– Run the NIC’s diagnostic software if available

– A loopback test sends data out of the NIC to see if it comes back

Cable Testing

• Horizontal cable may be tested with a mid-range tester with TDR

• If the horizontal cable is bad, then it is best to replace the entire cable

Toner

• If cables aren’t properly labeled, then they may need to be traced

• Use a toner to trace cables– Uses a tone generator that connects to the cable and

sends an electrical signal along the wire

– A tone probe makes a sound when placed near the right cable at the other end

– Toners are rather inexpensive

– Sometimes called by the brand name Fox and Hound

Switches

• A network with three switches installed instead of hubs

Multispeed Switches

• Segments with servers attached or segments that connect with other parts of the network (called the backbone) may need higher speeds than other segments

High-speed ports

Multispeed ports lit up on a switch