Monday, July 23, 2018

K12 campus cabling standards

Revising our cabling standards. What I have so far:

APs

  • One location of 2x Cat6 to center of ceiling in all instructional and office rooms with occupancy <30
  • Higher capacity rooms (>30 persons, e.g. cafeteria, MP, gyms): between 2 and 6 locations of 2x Cat6 staggered on ceiling or on walls, depending on ceiling height and building material
  • 2x Cat6 to various exterior locations providing WiFi to outdoor areas

Data

  • Generally one location of 2x Cat6 to each workstation area. Most new devices are WiFi, no need for 4x except occasionally

Fiber

  • 12 strand SMF to all IDF locations with 6 strands terminated (to save labor cost)
  • 24 strand SMF between major aggregation points
  • Terminated to LC at the panel with A/B termination at the MDF side (so straight-through LC-LC patch cables can be used at either end)

Thoughts/rationales

  • Cat6 can do NBASE-T up to 5Gbps @ 100m source. Very unlikely to need >5Gbps to the endpoint any time soon. Cat6a is significantly more expensive.
  • Run AP cabling to every classroom/office area to allow for future growth and rearranging, but plan to deploy APs in approx. every-other room
  • 2x Cat6 is not much more expensive than 1x Cat6, and allows using the second run for future upgrades, or other devices such as IPcams, IP-based whiteboards/TVs, etc.
  • Use LC at the patch panel to reduce the permutations of fiber jumpers kept on-hand.

Interested in any input.



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