Structured cabling in combination with bandwidth

In my previous blog post I discussed both the fact, and implications, of the increasingly vociferous demand for bandwidth as Ashton’s ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) moves from theory to reality. But it’s not the only pillar of the data centre world under pressure. Core components, including the physical ‘centre’ itself, must evolve if they are to continue to meet the demands we place upon them.

The migration from 100MbE to 1GbE started in 2000; with the final phase-out arriving in 2003. Yet by 2008, 1GbE was out of date and the move to 10GbE began. However, by 2016 this level – unimaginable only eight years before its inception – will likewise fall by the wayside under the pressure of ever increasing demands.
Innovative data centre planners have already started the move towards 40GbE. Indeed the best are a year into the process. But it’s not enough. Nearly a decade divided generation one from two. Yet less than four years separates the second from the third. Logically then, generation four (an astonishing 100 GbE capability) is only two years away from full implementation! Indeed some high end users are already contemplating this exact move for 2015/16.

Conclusion? We need to start planning for the arrival of 400 GbE today. The cost of failing to prepare will be prohibitive.

The laying, connecting and securing of cabling accounts for a large proportion of data centre installation time. This is particularly the case where cables are located in ducts above or below the racks; simply put they’re hard to get at! As such having the foresight to invest in future proofing at the point of installation saves time and money as well as offering serious benefits to end users.

At its most basic each upgrade represents an increase in the number of fibres per cable. There is a certain degree of flexibility in increasing the density of those fibres – which can help with space management – but beyond a certain point (certainly beyond 100GbE) each generation requires four times the fibres. This rapidly adds up and can necessitate extensive, invasive and worst of all,from a client’s perspective, costly upgrading of basic hardware. As such, making use of new 24 fibre cables and connectors is imperative in any sensible migration since doing so offers the greatest possible scope for expansion. Moreover there are new techniques which,used in conjunction with the 24 fiber cables ,can offer three generations worth of capacity.

How does this work? It’s a question of configuration. By using 24 fibre cables and interconnects for the ‘trunks’ in combination with the right ‘cassettes’ and ‘patch cords’, while concurrently moving from single fibre interconnects to multi-fibre versions, installation times can be slashed dramatically. This occurs as most upgrades can then take place in easily accessible ‘rack’ areas rather than necessitating invasive work in the ‘ducts’.

Demands on data hardware are are growing (quite literally exponentially) – and hardware engineers need to adapt.