Physical Topology (Floor Plan):

Extra Design Notes/Reasoning:

• Thicker lines represent multiple groups of that cable (i.e. a thick blue line represents some multiple of 4)
• The darker section of the building represents the main admin section
  • Data terminations within these rooms were not shown - instead, cables will be run directly via decorative raceways to individual computers & printers (10 in total)
  • optical cables will be run in a similar fashion to the servers (in room AD6)
    
    
• Room prefixes have meaning:
  • prefix A, B & C represent different sections/faculties
  • prefix D represents demountable rooms, for general purpose studies
  • prefix AD represents admin rooms
    
    
• 3 IDF's were chosen & placed - one for each of the three main (imaginary) faculties
• each faculties is responsible for it's own IDF
• This scheme increases overall simplicity & management
  • MDF connects to admin, servers & (obviously) IDFs
  • IDFs connect with all curriculum (& teacher) computers
    
• Any expansions (eg: extra demountables) can be easily incorporated, with minimal cable length

General Wiring Instructions:

• Groups of cables within dropped ceiling space (i.e. all wires in above diagram) will be mounted using ladder racks, rather than tie-wraps.
• The exception to this is all single runs of CAT5 (in the admin section) where tie-wraps will suffice.
  • NOTE: We have not included this in the costing yet
    
    
• Cable within each room (including admin rooms) will be mounted to walls using decorative raceway
• All cables must match TIA/EIA-606 labelling specifications (UL969)
  • all cables will be clearly and appropriately labelled with classroom/room identifier at each termination
• All cables will meet TIA/EIA-568-A cabelling standards
  • length requirements will be easily satisfied (see diagram)
  • wire will not be: stretched, untwisted, kinked, affiexed with staple guns, bent in too small a radii. etc.
    

Purpose of Including Rooms in Scheme:

• The origional floor plan we recieved showed a total of 34 termination points in 33 different classrooms (see diagram)
• As you can see, we have provided wiring to ALL of these data termination points
  • we did so because our Lecturer told us this was a requirements
    
    
• The classroom A3 represent the special case where 2 termination points are shown in a single classroom
  • A3 is a particularly large classroom (twice as big as the others), so we reasoned that it may be designed to accomodate twice the number of computers - perhaps it is a research area room.
  • therefore this classroom is supplied with 8 runs of CAT5 cable
    
    
• Each room:
  • can contains up to 25 computers - 24 curriculum computers & a single teacher computer
  • has it's own POP with a lockable cabinet for: electrical components & cable terminations
  • the 4 incoming CAT5 runs run into this lockable cabinet.
    • 3 of these connect to hubs which, in turn, connect to curriculum computers.
    • 1 connect directly to the teacher computer.
    • These cables (from the cabinet to computers) will be neatly hidden in raceways.
      

• 34 terminations points * up to 24 computers per termination point = up to 850 curriculum in the school
• However, the user requirements say we can assume a maximum of 250 curriculum computers
  • max. of 250 curric computers / 34 termination points = a max. average of 7.35 computers per termination point
• Obviously, although we have provided connections to all 34 termination points, not all classrooms will be initially set up with computers and/or certain classroom will have fewer than 24 curriculum computers.
  • Some classrooms many only need 1 computer
• However, since all termination points are wired, as the school grows, it will easy to encorporate up to 850 computers
• In the distant future, other blocks may be built around the school and this could become the computer block.

Example of Simple Installation (Admin Section):

• The easiest installation will be the admin computers & printers.
  • These are all close to the MDF
  • Single runs of CAT5 cable will be run via tie-wraps (using a ladder rack for a single wire seems wasteful) through ceiling space, the short distance from the MDF wiring cabinet to each individual device in the admin building.
    
• The two servers in this school are located in AD6 - right next to the MDF - so (instead of using ceiling space) we can drill a hole straight though the wall, then via raceway to the servers.

Examples of Difficult Installation (Demountables):

• Between the main building and the demountables there is already an exiting underground conduit (the underground part seems like a logical assumption) for datamedia cable runs.
• Without digging up the coduit to lay any extra cable (we need a total of 24 CAT5 cable runs here - 8 for each demountables) there is a strategy we can use.
  • This strategy is similar to "fishing the line" - any existing wires/string/etc will be used to attach the new wires (using adhedsive tape), and carefully pulled through to the opposite end.
  • By using bigger and bigger quantities of cables, this technique should work, but if the wire gets stuck/blocked then the messy approach (involving shovels) will be necessessary.
    
    
• Also note that making the ladder racks & cable installation for the IDF's to classrooms will be a fairly monumental job (see diagram) - involving a lot of people and good management if it is to be completed over a single summer holidays.
  • The ceiling space is only 60 centermeters in height (3.3m - 2.7m) - which will make installation of ladder racks (by removing ceiling panels a few at a time), a slow and tricky process.
  • The fluresent lights in the ceilings of the classrooms will need to be avoided (as much as possible) for fear of electrical interference.
• The cost of paying contractors for wire installation does not enter into TCS, but we would expect it to cost 10's of thousands.