Network & Data Infrastructure

A building's data scheme is settled on the floor plan before a cable is pulled. In horizontal cabling the distance copper carries is limited, and that limit decides where and how many floor distribution rooms are opened. Since a room cannot move later, outlet layout answers to that constraint as much as to the architecture.

A cable carries more than data. As the IP cameras, access points and desk telephones fed over PoE multiply, the bundle in one containment heats up; heated copper attenuates more, so a full containment carries a shorter distance. Cat 6A is chosen for that heat allowance as much as for future speed.

Between floors and between buildings, fibre takes over. Fibre is untouched by electrical noise and carries no earth potential difference between two buildings — the work copper cannot do near a generator, a welding machine or large motors. Backbone capacity follows not the device count at the edge but the sum of live video and overnight backup traffic.

A backup path is a separate path

Pulling a second run is not redundancy. Two fibres through the same shaft break with one blow of a digger; two switches fed from one board fall with one fuse. A backup path shares neither route, nor power source, nor if possible building entry point with the first. Ring topology sets that separation up: a broken leg turns traffic the other way and the network holds.

Wi-Fi coverage is built from survey, not from access point count. Concrete walls, lift shafts and metal racking interrupt the signal; neighbouring access points on one channel do not widen coverage, they slow both. A conference hall and a high-racked warehouse pose different problems: in one, many devices talking at once; in the other, distance and shadowing. Cooling for the room holding active equipment, and its UPS, belong to the network as much as cabling.