New Hanover County Information Technology Department	Issued:  2/1/02
	Policy Number:  9-03
Subject:  Cabling, Cat 5e Universal Specification

PURPOSE AND SCOPE:

This document describes the standard installation for New Hanover County communications cabling. These specifications provide for common cabling to be used both for data and telephone communications in preparation for VOIP telephone systems and to decrease support costs for maintenance of conventional voice circuits cabling.

This document should be applied for specifying cabling in new construction plans and purchase orders.

CHANGE SUMMARY:

None; this is the first issue of this document.

GENERAL

This document provides specifications for the design of telecommunications cabling systems for New Hanover County (NHC) building construction and renovation projects. This document supplements industry standards and building codes and elaborates on items important to the function and support of County data network and telephone systems.

The NHC Information Technology (NHC/IT) department participates in design reviews and approves final drawings and specifications for the telecommunications cabling design for all construction projects. Additionally, NHC/IT participates in construction progress reviews and final acceptance inspection of cabling systems. Special attention is given to the layout, functionality, and appearance of the main equipment room and wiring closets.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Horizontal cabling and pathways:

Use Category 5e cable for data and voice communication unless otherwise specified.

There will be no distinction made between voice and data Cat 5e cabling terminations. All Cat 5e cabling will terminate to common (general use) patch panels in the wiring closet (8-position modular jack wired to T568A pin assignments). The work area outlet modular jacks may be used in either a voice or data application, so no distinction is made as to their use when jacks are terminated. See Cable/jack identification.

Use home runs from wiring closet patch panel to outlet jack. The use of consolidation points for open-office (modular furniture) cabling or other special use areas must be approved by NHC/IT.

Any approved method (conduits, raceways, trays, hangers) for cable distribution may be used. Cable routing should be readily accessible for adding additional cables, such as raceways following hallways. Cabling supports must be independently secured and must not be tied to the supports for the ceiling assembly.

Work Spaces:

Enclosed office spaces will generally have two or more outlet locations. These outlets are located in a manner to accommodate variations in office furniture arrangements. There should be at least one multi-jack outlet available for each occupant. For very small offices and cubicles, a single outlet location is appropriate if this outlet is located such that it can feed the desk without using a floor cable cover.

Enclosed office spaces will generally have two or more outlet locations, depending on size, in order to accommodate different office arrangements and/or multiple occupants. As a guide, office spaces of approximately 100 square feet should have at least two conveniently placed telecom outlets.

Office wall telecom outlets will be served with a 1" conduit stub through walls to a double sized wall box with duplex mud ring. Wire mold will not be used unless approved by NHC/IT.

Modular furniture may use surface mounted telecom outlet boxes.

Open-office, modular furniture, use of floor boxes, in-floor conduit, raised flooring, and other special situations will be reviewed by NHC/IT on a case-by-case basis. For conference rooms and boardrooms, a floor box or boxes should be provided beneath the table.

Each telecom outlet plate should be able to accommodate four or more modular jacks or snap in connectors. The standard wall outlet is three Cat 5e/RJ45 modular jacks; the other position(s) is blanked. The Cat 5e/RJ45 modular jack should be the same color as the faceplate (no color coding). The faceplates will include space for numbering each jack as well as provisions for snap-in icons that can be used to identify the service of each wire once it is connected to a system in the phone room, i.e. designation as voice or data. Faceplate design (manufacturer and style) must be identified in drawings and approved by NHC/IT.

Jacks will be numbered as given in the next section. In addition to the numbering on the front of the faceplate, the numbers should be repeated on the top surface of the faceplate so that the jack numbers can be read from above when the face is blocked by furniture.

Cable/jack identification:

Each Cat 5e cable termination (jack) will be uniquely identified; each of the jacks at each outlet is assigned a number that corresponds to the jack position in the wiring closet patch panel.  

The cable numbering will include a prefix that identifies the wiring distribution panel from which the cable originates followed by a number that identifies the sequential patch panel position. (example: the cable terminated in the 2nd floor wiring distribution panel's 134th patch panel position is labeled 2-134 next to the outlet jack, on top of the face plate, and on the patch panel.)

NOTE:      As cables are installed in a new wiring project, the sequential numbering should follow a room by room, outlet by outlet order, but the identification number is not tied to the room number. Also, once the cables have been installed, any additional numbers added into a room or outlet take on the identification from the next available patch panel position.

Wiring closets will generally be numbered for the floor on which the closet is installed, i.e. 1, 2, 3. If more than one wiring closet is required on the same level, then the closets will be identified with a suffix letter A,B,C, e.g. 1A, 1B. If a wiring closet serves more than one floor, then a separate rack will be installed for each floor and the prefix for the numbers correspond to the number where the outlet jack is located.

Patch panel jacks at each wiring closet will be sequentially numbered from 1 without any skips in the numbering sequence. Normally, 48 port patch panels will be used and separated from adjacent patch panels with horizontal cable managers. Example: the top patch panel's jacks are labeled 1-1 thru 1-48; the next patch panel's jacks are labeled 1-49 thru 1-96, etc.

REFERENCES:

The following industry standards should be used in the design of the telecommunications cabling systems.

TIA/EIA-568A - Commercial Telecommunications Cabling Guide

EIA/TIA - 569 - Commercial Building Standard for Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces

TIA/EIA - 607 - Commercial Building Grounding/Bonding Requirements

In addition to these, the standards and specifications listed in this specification and other NHC specifications listed in NHC Cabling Infrastructure Policy will be applied.

CHANGE HISTORY:

Version	Date	Author	Comments
A	02/01/02	DRoss	Original Document