Cabling Installation Procedures Steps

Written by Julianus Yu

Now that we’ve covered some of the factors to take into account when designing a cabling system, it’s time to discuss the process of installing an entire cabling system, from start to finish. The steps include;

Design the Cabling System
Following proper cabling design procedures will ensure the success of your cabling system installation. Before you pull a single cable, you should have a detailed plan of how the installation will proceed. You should also know the scope of the project, Finally, you should have the design plan available to all people involved with the installation of the cable list of people includes the cabling installer, the electrical inspector, the building inspector, and the customer. At the very least, the information should contain a blueprint of how the cables will be installed.

Schedule the Installation
In addition to having a proper cabling design, you should also know approximately how long the installation will take and pick the best time to do it. In fact, because of the obvious connection between electrical and telecommunications wiring, many electrical contractors are now doing low-voltage (data) wiring so they can contract the wiring for both the electrical system and the telecommunications system.

If you use an electrical contractor to install your communications cabling, make sure he or she is well trained in this type of installation. Many electricians are not aware of the subtleties required to properly handle network wiring. If they treat it like the electrical wire, or run it along with the electrical wire, you’re going to have headaches in your network performance. We recommend that the communication wiring be installed after the electrical wiring is done so that they can be kept properly segregated.

Install the Cabling
Once you have a design and a proper schedule, you can proceed with the installation. The tools that you need is;
*  Pen and paper
It is a good idea to have a pen and paper handy when installing the individual cables so that you can make notes about how particular cables are routed and installed. You should also note any problems that occur during installation.
*  Hand tools
Some of the hand tools you should make sure to include in your tool kit are (but are not limited to); Punch-down tool, Crimping tools, Cable cutter, Hammer, etc.
*  Cable spool racks
The tool used to assist in pulling multiple cables as one bundle.
*  Pull string
The pull string is either put in place before all the cables are pulled, or it is run at the same time as the cables.
*  Cable-pulling lubricant
To prevent stress on the cable during the pulling of a cable through a conduit, a cable-pulling lubricant can be applied.
*  Two-way radio
Two-way radios allow two people who are cabling within a building to communicate with each other without having to shout down a hallway or use cell phones.
*  Labeling materials
With the hundreds of cables that need to be pulled in large cabling installations, it makes a great deal of sense to label both ends of each cable while it’s being pulled.

next part is pulling the cable, Keep in mind the following points when pulling cable to ensure the proper operation of the network:

1.  Tensile strength
The most important consideration to remember when pulling cable is the cable’s tensile strength, a measure of how strong a cable is along its axis. A cable’s tensile strength is normally given in either pounds, or in pounds per square inch (psi). When you are exerting pulling force on all four pairs of 24 AWG conductors
in a UTP cable, 25 pounds is the maximum tensile load they can withstand before the copper starts to stretch. Once stretched, a point of high attenuation has been created that will also cause impedance and structural return-loss reflections.

2.   Bend radius
Both copper and fiber-optic cables have a value known as the minimum bend radius of that cable. ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A specifies that copper cables should be
bent no tighter than the arc of a circle that has a radius four times the cables’ diameter.

3.   Protecting the cable while pulling
We should be careful not to pull the cable over or near anything that could damage it. For example, never pull cables over sharp, metal corners, as these could cut into the outside jacket of the cable and, possibly, the interior conductors.

And finally the most part that we usually ignore-Cabling System Documentation Cabling system documentation includes information about what components make up a cabling system, how it is put together, and where to find individual cables. The most useful piece of cabling system documentation is the cabling map. Just as its name implies, a cabling map indicates where every cable starts and ends. It also indicates approximately where each cable runs. Additionally, a cabling map can indicate the location of workstations, segments, hubs, routers, closets, and other cabling devices.

Terminate the Cable
Terminating the cables involves installing some kind of connector on each end (either a connector or a termination block) so that the cabling system can be accessed by the devices that are going to use it. Sloppy termination will yield an installation that won’t support higher-speed technologies (For termination connection process look in "Technical Process"-Article Category).

Test the Installation
Each connection must be tested for proper operation, category rating, and possible connection problems. If the connection has problems, it must either be reterminated or, in the worst-case scenario, the entire cable must be repulled. The tester is a very complex electronic device that measures not only the presence of a signal but also the quality and characteristics of the signal. Cable testers are available for both copper and fiber-optic cables, You should test the entire cabling installation before installing any other hardware (hubs, PCs, etc.).