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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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Third, this type of setup limits your ability to make any changes to the

network. Before you can change anything, you have to figure out which

cables in the huge rat’s nest of cables connected to the switch go to which

machines. Imagine that troubleshooting nightmare!

“Gosh,” you’re thinking (okay, I’m thinking it, but you should be, too),

“there must be a better way to install a physical network.” A better

installation would provide safety, protecting the star from vacuum cleaners,

clumsy coworkers, and electrical interference. It would have extra hardware

to organize and protect the cabling. Finally, the new and improved star

network installation would feature a cabling standard with the flexibility to

enable the network to grow according to its needs and then to upgrade when

the next great network technology comes along. That is the definition of

structured cabling.

Structured Cable Network Components

Successful implementation of a basic structured cabling network requires

three essential ingredients: a telecommunications room, horizontal cabling,

and a work area. Let’s zero in on one floor of a typical office. All the cabling

runs from individual workstations to a central location, the

telecommunications room. What equipment goes in there—a switch or a

telephone system—is not the important thing. What matters is that all the

cables concentrate in this one area.

All cables run horizontally (for the most part) from the

telecommunications room to the workstations. This cabling is called,

appropriately, horizontal cabling. A single piece of installed horizontal

cabling is called a run. At the opposite end of the horizontal cabling from the

telecommunications room is the work area. The work area is often simply an

office or cubicle that potentially contains a workstation and a telephone.

Figure 18-20 shows both the horizontal cabling and work areas.

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