Enterprise network cabling will be affected by five major technology trends

It is estimated that by 2022, the number of fixed and mobile personal devices and connections will reach 28.5 billion worldwide, increasing global IP traffic to 4.7 zetta bytes per year. At the same time, edge computing applications with higher processing power, larger storage capacity and other advanced features will continue to expand to enable reliable communication with centralized services.

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The above developments are inseparable from the support of broadband fiber, copper cables, wireless and power connections. The five major trends that will affect enterprise network cabling infrastructure strategies in the future are as follows:

Trend 1: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) will be deployed and installed

Wi-Fi 6, the next-generation Wi-Fi technology, supports wireless data transmission rates of up to 10 Gbps and can achieve stable and smooth operation in today's increasingly crowded wireless environments (such as airports, stadiums, hotels, apartments, commercial buildings and entertainment venues).

With Wi-Fi 6 supporting Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO) technology, any compatible access point can handle traffic for up to eight users at the same speed simultaneously. However, enterprises can only realize the true benefits of Wi-Fi 6 if they have the right cabling infrastructure connected to the WAPs. To meet the bandwidth requirements, the TSB-162-A standard recommends that each service point supporting a WAP be able to connect two Cat 6A cables.

Trend 2: High-density fiber connections continue to support the development of 200/400G backbone networks

400G uplink and backbone network construction may be initially implemented in 2020. As server density increases and processor power improves, enterprises will adopt network densification strategies that support 400GbE to put more capacity into a smaller space. Technologies that support smaller and more flexible cabling designs and centralized cross-connections make cable connections in high-density environments more convenient and solve installation and testing challenges while improving channel efficiency.

With the continuous advancement of technology, the physical layer that supports the 400Gbps specification has increased the capacity of multimode optical fiber. Taking broadband multimode solutions as an example, due to the use of four short wavelengths, the multimode optical fiber capacity of each optical fiber has increased fourfold from 50 Gbps to 200Gbps. The continuous improvement of OM5 cabling technology provides more support for such SWDM wavelength division multiplexing solutions while retaining compatibility with traditional applications.

Trend 3: Edge computing, fog computing, and serverless computing will redefine cloud computing and increase the importance of “always online”

As more computing functions and data move to the edge of the network, enterprise businesses will expand through cloud and hosting services, and the rising cost of land in urban centers has made this trend more obvious. To this end, enterprises need to adopt efficient structured cabling solutions consisting of high-performance copper cables and fiber optic connections to cope with edge computing.

Trend 4: Power over Ethernet becomes the power supply option for more high-power devices and IoT applications

According to Grand View Research, the global PoE market size is expected to reach US$3.77 billion by 2025 as more and more 4PPoE technology applications and devices compatible with data rates up to 10GBASE-T are adopted.

Appropriate cabling and network design can support faster network speeds or higher power devices. Given that 4PPoE technology has higher power, its potential overheating problem will affect the transmission performance and security of the structured cabling system, which is also a key factor to consider when applying the new generation of PoE under different actual installation conditions and sustainable green initiatives.

Cat 6A cabling offers lower DC resistance and better heat dissipation than Cat 5e cabling, so industry standards organizations such as TIA recommend using Cat 6A cabling for 4PPoE deployments. Since the amount of current is proportional to the heat generated, the number of cables allowed to run in a single bundle becomes another important consideration.

Trend 5: Single-pair Ethernet business use cases continue to emerge

In addition to use cases in the automotive industry and some industrial fields, single-pair Ethernet also provides a cost-effective power, connection and secure transmission solution for the billions of IoT edge devices that will be deployed in the next decade. Compared with the typical use case of traditional 4-pair twisted pair cabling, most IoT devices being deployed require relatively less bandwidth and power, so single-pair Ethernet is expected to become a more compact and economical solution. The application trend of single-pair Ethernet has enriched the application scenarios of copper cabling, such as the copper cable LC-based solution that CommScope is actively promoting.

Looking at the above five trends, "power" will be one of the keywords that will affect cabling strategies in 2019 and beyond. With the move towards 90W power transmission over twisted pair PoE cables, heat and safety issues will become more of a consideration in the future. At the same time, we will also see more hybrid fiber solutions to handle longer distance power supply and data transmission.