Why We Use Pre-terminated Cabling System in Data Center?

As we all know, field termination has been widely used during the deployment of data center in the past years. However, with the data center increasingly depending on high-density cabling, traditional field termination methods will result in extended deployment time, higher installation costs and increased downtime. To solve these issues, pre-terminated cabling system, which can accelerate the installation process, reduce costs and errors, is introduced to the data center. There are many reasons to consider pre-terminated cabling system in data center solution. The following part will illustrate them one by one.

Benefits from Using Pre-terminated Cabling System

Time Saving

Pre-terminated solutions help to save time in a number of ways. Firstly, as the products are terminated in a factory environment and delivered to site, minimal engineering or assembly work is required on site. Many leading pre-terminated cabling solutions are provided in a cassette format, allowing the installer to plug-and-play multiple connections with one cassette, which contributes toward installation time saving when compared with the traditional method of individual connections. Pre-terminated solution also saves testing time. The pre-terminated solutions can be tested at the factory and the test reports including test results for attenuation, propagation delay, near end and far end crosstalk or more, will be transported to the site with the cable assemblies. Ultimately, only continuity testing is left to perform in the field, saving testing and rework time on site.

Labor Saving

Generally, when using conventional cabling system, groups of engineers should be employed to make connections, testing and troubleshooting during the deployment of cabling in data center. The use of pre-terminated cabling system simplifies the entire manpower planning process. As all the connections are pre-terminated, the need for labor to make terminations on site will be mitigated. And fewer labor means more savings on the labor bill.

Reducing Space and Material Wasting

Traditional cabling installations require loose components and tools to be brought to site. So much space will be needed to store these components and engineers also need work area to make termination. However, with pre-terminated cabling solutions, the wastage of space can be reduced, since the pre-terminated links are “made to measure” and if they are delivered to site at appropriate time, they can be used immediately without being stored. Additionally, some manufacturers have developed recyclable reels for pre-terminated links in the effort to minimize the material wastage.

Choices for Pre-terminated Cabling Assemblies

With all the advantages listed above, there is no doubt that pre-terminated cabling system is an ideal solution for data center and other applications where speed of installation is important. The following part will further introduce some commonly deployed pre-terminated cabling assemblies.

Fiber Patch Cable

Divided by different connector type, core diameter and fiber cable structure, there are a wide range of fiber patch cables, such as LC fiber cables, single-mode patch cables and duplex patch cables and so on. Fiber patch cable helps to ensure a reliable temporary fiber optic interconnection, making it become the most commonly used pre-terminated fiber cable in data center. Here shows a LC LC fiber cable.

MTP/MPO Pre-terminated Cables

Pre-terminated with high-quality and good-performance MTP/MPO connectors, this pre-terminated cable can meet the demand for high speed and high density in the current and future network. Generally, there are MTP/MPO trunk cable and MTP/MPO harness cable in this category. Both these two pre-terminated cables can be used for 40G, or even 100G applications. The following image shows a 12-fiber female to female MTP single-mode trunk cable for 40G network.

Pre-terminated Copper Trunk Cable

Pre-terminated copper trunk cables provide a quick plug-and-play solution for links between switches, servers, patch panels, and zone distribution areas in the data center. With the right upfront planning and coordination, these trunks can offer major benefits over terminating twisted-pair cable in the field. Copper trunks are typically comprised of bundles of 6, 12, or 24 and factory terminated with jacks and plugs. There are various pre-terminated copper trunk cables available in cat5e, cat6 and cat6a UTP and STP cable construction with different termination types, such as jack to jack, jack to plug, plug to plug, etc. on the market. The picture below shows a jack to jack cat5e UTP pre-terminated copper trunk cable.

Summary

Pre-termination cabling system is not a fad, it is an increasingly popular way to deliver a project in a more timely and cost-effective manner. Through the information discussed above, hope you can understand why we use pre-terminated cabling system in data center and know some choices for pre-terminated cable.