Smart buildings are no longer far away. See how CommScope connects everything with a twisted pair cable!

[51CTO.com original article] On June 5, 2018, the first stop of the "2018 CommScope Greater China Smart Building Tour" was successfully held in Beijing. At the event, Chen Lan, Vice President of Enterprise Networks of CommScope North Asia, discussed with the guests the evolution trend of buildings from "intelligent" to "smart", while Wu Jian, Technical Director of CommScope North Asia, shared what value CommScope can give to "smart buildings" in this evolution process.

It is understood that in the next two months, the "2018 CommScope Greater China Smart Building Tour" will continue to visit four cities in China, namely Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Taipei. CommScope and its important partners Cisco and Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) will also focus on structured cabling and Power over Ethernet (PoE), and demonstrate at the tour site in each city how they can help buildings achieve bandwidth and power supply capabilities that evolve towards intelligence.

From "intelligent buildings" to "smart buildings"

Just after finishing their keynote speeches, Chen Lan and Wu Jian accepted interviews from the media.

Chen Lan first answered the reporter's question about the difference between "smart buildings" and "intelligent buildings". She said that "intelligence" and "wisdom" both mean "relatively smart", but "wisdom" is more similar to the thinking of the human brain and has higher comprehensive ability.

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She introduced that in terms of the degree of informatization of buildings, the security, wireless network, building control and other systems of "smart buildings" are mainly deployed with hardware. Although these systems are intelligent, they are independent of each other. However, "smart buildings" are very different. The deployment method is a combination of software and hardware. The software plays the role of network integration, integrating the previous subsystems such as security, wireless network, building control, etc. The data between different systems can communicate with each other. After collecting and analyzing these data, the building's operation and maintenance personnel can use software to define the network, or use APP to call the functions required by customers. "This is one direction of future intelligence."

How can we have a “smart” connection?

After Chen Lan explained the definition and trend of "smart buildings", Wu Jian gave a richer interpretation of the connotation of "smart" in architecture. In his keynote speech titled "Smart Buildings Connect Smartly", Wu Jian talked about how to talk about the "smart" of buildings when connections are already ubiquitous. He believes that there are two very important points: wisdom comes from integration and wisdom comes from speed.

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Wu Jian explained that wisdom comes from integration, which actually has four meanings:

First, the integration of infrastructure. In the past, in smart buildings, systems such as security, audio and video, HVAC control, lighting, building management system, and indoor wireless all used different network infrastructures, and the installation process was also deployed separately by different manufacturers, each independently. But now it is different. A Cat 6A cable can connect all the above systems, which not only saves space but also simplifies operation and maintenance. For example, wireless APs can be connected through Cat 6A cables, and wireless networks can be deployed more optimally and "freely".

The second is the integration of power supply and data. In Wu Jian's view, Power over Ethernet (POE) may mean a disruptive change for existing smart buildings. Taking the 6A cable as an example, it combines sensors, ventilation, lighting, voice exchange, power supply, and network connection. People only need to lay this cable to achieve multiple functions. For example, surveillance cameras do not need to be equipped with a separate power cord. With 6A cables supporting POE, they can both supply power and achieve network transmission. Wu Jian also gave a very interesting example. When 6A cables are deployed in smart buildings, the lighting system can become smarter through POE switches. First, the lights can be automatically adjusted intelligently through sensors, and the power will be automatically turned off when there is no one in the meeting, saving lighting costs; secondly, the company can use lighting data to see which workstations are idle and reduce unnecessary expenses. "These are all smart applications brought about by CommScope's converged cabling solutions."

The third is the integration of copper and light. This part mainly involves the hybrid application of optical cables and copper cables. Taking airport applications as an example, the power distribution module in the optoelectronic hybrid cable system is located in the junction box or data center computer room. The indoor/outdoor optoelectronic hybrid cable provides high-definition video surveillance, WiFi hotspot coverage, data collection and other functions for scenes such as airports, campuses, and amusement parks.

Fourth, the integration of 5G and Wifi. With the commercialization of 5G in the future, operators need to deploy denser antenna systems to enable people to enjoy higher bandwidth and faster speeds. Telecom operators can deploy Wi-Fi and 5G simultaneously in a building through the distributed antenna system DAS, truly eliminating the blind spots of wireless access.

In fact, it is easier said than done. It is not an easy task to replace the previous low-level twisted pair cables, audio transmission lines, coaxial cables and other cables with 6A cables. Wu Jian gave an example. For example, 6A cables need to achieve POE power supply, which means that under the influence of continuous transmission current, the more cables are bundled, the higher the cable temperature, which will inevitably lead to channel attenuation or insertion loss in the cable, thereby reducing performance. Moreover, 6A cables can achieve high-speed transmission, and can still resist external interference when bundled over long distances. In the past, Cat.5e and Cat.6 cables did not test external interference parameters. Only 6A cables took into account the anti-interference ability of high-frequency, high-speed transmission at the beginning of their design.

Wu Jian's explanation of "wisdom comes from speed" is also very easy to understand. With the enrichment of applications, new businesses in the future will have higher and higher requirements for latency. For example, for autonomous driving, the access bandwidth must not be less than 100M, and the latency must not exceed 10 milliseconds; AR/VR applications have higher requirements, with bandwidths between 1G and 4G, and latency must not exceed 7 milliseconds. These applications bring a common test to the network: how to achieve faster network transmission? Wu Jian gave three methods: one is to increase the channel rate, such as increasing the baud rate or using more advanced encoding methods; the second is to increase the number of optical fiber cores, such as using MPO connectors; the third is to increase the number of wavelengths using wavelength division multiplexing, or use better optical fibers such as broadband multimode OM5.

The OM5 he mentioned can adapt to longer distances and more jumpers. Considering that the application of 100G/400G is the general trend in the future, network connections need to be able to match more complex connection channels and lower losses. OM5 is a very good choice.

The future of intelligence will inevitably experience the pain of products, technologies, concepts, and standards.

Many people may have a common feeling that when they walk into an office building or stay in a hotel, the WiFi signal is very poor, sometimes not as good as the 4G signal. This may not be because the wireless router in this occasion is not good. Especially in hotels, they may install very good routers that support 1G or even 5G transmission rates. Unfortunately, the wired system behind it is too old and the transmission rate is slow. Coupled with multiple connections, the user experience will become very poor. This is a typical negative example of ignoring the physical basic network connection, resulting in the inability of network equipment to play its due value.

Chen Lan said that many customers have a relatively conservative and traditional understanding of cabling. On the one hand, cabling is often done within the walls of buildings, and users often think that "saving as much as possible is necessary" for "invisible expenses". CommScope launched the 6A product in 2007, and the 6A product has been popular in developed countries around the world for 11 years, but it has not been fully applied in the Chinese market. On the other hand, cabling products require a forward-looking approach, because it is necessary to consider the development in the next 15 to 20 years, and customers need to have a longer-term strategic vision, rather than just focusing on the current expenses.

In an interview with ***, Wu Jian mentioned that in the process of evolution from intelligent buildings to smart buildings, the maturity of technology and the renewal of concepts are very important. In fact, there is another link that cannot be ignored, that is, the standardization of different system industries. "Standards cannot be achieved by a single company. We must make everyone aware of the importance of 'standard tracks and books.'" Wu Jian emphasized that CommScope is willing to provide a very strong, broad, and universal infrastructure, but in the end, the protocols transmitted on the infrastructure and the types of terminal interfaces connected need to be taken seriously by all manufacturers to jointly promote the establishment of a standard. "This is an inevitable step in the process of intelligence."

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