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Meeting Wi-Fi ever growing data demands

Shiny wifi icon on black background against view of data technology

With the Internet of Things and the ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, a reliable and well-designed Structured Cabling System plays a key role in minimizing data bottlenecks. This will involve the consideration of several notions: future-readiness, speed of transmission, power consumption, and Layer one infrastructure.

With Cisco predicting that 53% of monthly IP traffic in 2019 will come from Wi-Fi connections worldwide, up 25% from 2014. The introduction of Wi-Fi 6 technology has become essential, not just to manage the increase throughput of a single connection (now 4 times greater), but to facilitate high speed connectivity. A key advance in the Wi-Fi standard is the use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (ODMFA) technology, which allows simultaneous communication of 30 clients per channel thereby reducing potential congestion of the network. Ideal for high density areas with a large influx of customers, such as stadiums, theaters, train stations or airports.

Cabling Standard

The telecommunications guidelines for Wireless LAN applications is ANSI/TSB-162-A, providing guidelines on the topology, design, installation, and cable testing.  Including the pathways and spaces to support the cabling and wireless access points (WAPs). Recommendations for cabling include:

  • Copper cable: 100Ohm balanced twisted pair, with Category 6A is recommended for the WLANs
  • Fiber Optic using either Multi-mode or Single-mode, with 850nm laser optimized 50/125µm (OM3) recommended or higher for WLAN
  • The square call grid strategy, using pre-cabling allows easy plug-in and flexible positioning of WAPs
  • Category 6A cabling is deployed to each WAP for higher data rates and increased power delivery.

Other challenges

We cannot discuss Wireless LANs without mentioning the latest PoE (Power over Ethernet) tech improvements. Specifying PoE for Wi-Fi installations brings many advantages;

  • Time and cost savings – by reducing the time and expense of having electrical power cabling installed
  • Flexibility – without being tethered to an electrical outlet
  • Safety – PoE delivery is intelligent, and designed to protect network equipment from overload, underpowering, or incorrect installation
  • Reliability – PoE power comes from a central source, can be backed-up by an uninterruptible power supply or controlled to easily disable or reset devices
  • Scalability – having power available on the network means that installation and distribution of network connections is simple and effective
  • Power – up to 90 Watts for high power WAPs.

For more information on how Molex can benefit your structured cabling system, please contact us here

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