Cabling: The Complete Guide to Copper and Fiber-Optic Networking 5th Edition

Book Preface

Introduction

Welcome to the incredibly interesting world of local area networks and premises data communications cabling systems. This introduction will tell you a little about how this book came about and how you can use it to your best advantage.

Not only does cabling carry the data across your network, it can also carry voice, serial communications, alarm signals, video, and audio transmissions. You may take this for granted, but communications networks have created a new way of living. We can learn remotely, chat with anyone in the world who is connected to the Internet, and conduct commerce all over the world in a way that has never been done before. Consider yourself lucky to be part of this “communications revolution.”

One thing that continues to be certain is the increasing demand for more bandwidth. In the past, people took their cabling systems for granted. However, over the last decade the information technology world has continued to understand the importance of a reliable and welldesigned structured cabling system to efficiently support this explosion in bandwidth demand. This period also resulted in an explosion in the number of registered structured-cabling installers. The number of people who need to know the basics of cabling has increased dramatically.

We had a great time writing this book. A significant amount of research, writing, and editing has gone into bringing this book into its current edition. Many distributors, manufacturers, and cabling contractors have provided feedback, tips, and in-the-field experiences along the way and made this book both technically rigorous and practical at the same time.

During the research phase of the book, newsgroups, cabling FAQs, and other Internet resources were continually reviewed to find out what people want to know about their cabling system. In addition, we polled technology managers, help desk staff, network designers, cable installers, and system managers to learn what was uppermost on their minds. The answers we received helped create this book. Most importantly, the five major standards organizations— the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and SAE International—updated many different standards on optical fiber, fiber-optic cable, and testing since the 4th edition was published; these updates have been captured in this book.