DATA CENTER CABLING BEST

PRACTICES & TIPS YOU NEED

TO KNOW

Why Data Center Cabling Matters

It’s easy to underestimate and downplay the importance of the cabling in a data center. After all, industry
standards such as Uptime Institute’s Tier Standard and TIA-942 place a heavy emphasis on the power and
cooling systems—and for good reason, as these systems are vital. But the cabling within a data center can
play an equally important role in the functionality and overall efficiency of data center operations.

To help you optimize your data center for better functionality, efficiency, and scalability, here are a few
data center cabling best practices to keep in mind:

1. Keep Cable Management in Mind

when Choosing Your Racks and/or
Cabinets
The level of demand on your data center is sure to
increase as your organization grows and technology
evolves towards the “Internet of Everything.” This
naturally means having to plan for future growth—
though simply allocating more floor space to your data
center can be costly and inefficient at best. Therefore,

1 Data Center Cabling Best Practices & Tips You Need to Know  305-436-8886
it is important to use the available space within racks and/or cabinets efficiently. This requires some
additional thought be placed on the type and quantity of racks/cabinets that should be installed based
on the current as well as the future needs of your organization.

It is vitally important to incorporate into your initial

data center design the type of racks/cabinets that
are not only capable of supporting active equipment
but equally capable of managing the cables that
interconnect equipment within the same rack/ The level of demand on your data center
cabinet or to equipment installed in other cabinets is sure to increase as your organization
throughout the data center. Not placing proper grows and technology evolves towards
emphasis on cable management often results in
the “Internet of Everything.”..... it is
a tangled mess of disorganized cables, which can
important to use the available space
make ongoing maintenance and future equipment
upgrades unnecessarily difficult, time consuming, within racks and/or cabinets efficiently.
and costly.

2. Properly Design Overhead Pathways

The larger your data center, the more important it is to have cable pathways that are properly designed.
Although raised floor environments are still being used as a means of routing cables and distributing
power, overhead pathways using wire mesh and/or ladder type cable trays are the most prevalent.

Since overhead pathways are visible from below, it is important to ensure that the cable trays are
designed in such as way as to allow proper routing and separation of cables installed between cabinets.
This will help to maintain a neat, organized appearance while allowing for future growth.

3. Consider the Quality of Your Cable

and Connecting Hardware
Due to the influx of “off-shore” products into the
market, there are products available that appear to be
less expensive—at least up front. However, many of
these products have been found to be non-compliant
with established performance and durability standards
and some manufacturers have been completely
fraudulent in marking cables with a UL® Listing without
having actually gone through the UL® testing process.

2 Data Center Cabling Best Practices & Tips You Need to Know  305-436-8886
Many of the issues associated with these substandard products may not be immediately identifiable
and end-users sometimes do not experience trouble for several months. This makes it harder to identify
problem cabling until it is too late.

Low-quality cabling is quite often the cause of poor network performance and can sometimes be
the source of unplanned or intermittent outages. This can end up costing you more in the long run,
especially when paired with substandard installation practices.

Be sure to hire a cabling contractor that only installs cable and connecting hardware from a reputable
manufacturer who stands by their products with extended warranties and is able to provide initial design
support.

4. Know Your Data Center Cabling Topologies

Because your active equipment will be distributed throughout your data center, often in multiple rows of
cabinets, it is important to carefully consider how everything will be connected.

The more common topologies for the distribution of

cables and connecting equipment are Top-of Rack
(ToR), Middle-of-Row (MoR), and End-of-Row (EoR).
These topologies can be used exclusively or together
depending on the size, complexity, and specific
requirements of the data center. However, they all
have a significant impact on how and where cables
should be installed as well as the size and type of cable
management required in each cabinet and/or each row
of cabinets.

5. Consider the Need to Accommodate Future Technologies

As networking speeds and bandwidth requirements continue to increase, it is likely that you will need to
upgrade your equipment at some point. This is especially true in the data center environment where 40
and 100 Gigabit speeds are already being deployed to meet the demands created by high-speed, high-
demand applications and technologies.

While copper cabling is still prevalent in many data centers, hybrid systems consisting of both copper
and fiber cabling have been the norm for many years. However, it’s important to note that the 40 and
100 Gigabit Ethernet standard uses parallel optics, which transmits signals over multiple fiber stands
simultaneously and requires the fiber optic cable to be terminated with Multi-Fiber Push On (MPO)

3 Data Center Cabling Best Practices & Tips You Need to Know  305-436-8886
 connectors. These MPO connectors incorporate 12
individual fiber strands within a footprint relatively the
same size as a standard RJ45 plug.
It’s important to note that the 40 and 100
Gigabit Ethernet standard uses parallel If, during the initial design of the cabling infrastructure,
optics, which transmits signals over proper consideration is not given to the fiber optic
multiple fiber stands simultaneously cable and the corresponding terminations, then
migrating to the 40 and 100 Gigabit speeds will require
and requires the fiber optic cable to be
new fiber cables to be installed and terminated with the
terminated with Multi-Fiber Push On (MPO)
correct connectors, which significantly increases the
connectors.
cost of the migration effort.

6. Pay Close Attention to Organization and Documentation

As your data center grows, the cabling infrastructure will need to grow along with it. One way to
mitigate the effects of change is to implement and strictly adhere to a comprehensive labeling scheme
as well as a change management process for equipment upgrades, connections, and additions. The
more organized and structured things are, the less likely things will get out of control and become
dysfunctional as new equipment is added.

7. Use Color-Coding Effectively

As a corollary to organizing and labeling your cabling,
it can be helpful to use color-coding techniques to
differentiate applications, server connections, etc.
These techniques can involve using different colored
cable, labels, Velcro wraps, patch cables, etc. to make it
easier to identify cabling, power connections, etc. and
make troubleshooting easier and less time consuming.

When deciding what and how much should be color-

coded, it is important to document what the different
colors represent and to remain consistent whenever
upgrades or other changes are made. If not properly
controlled and maintained, the color coding can quickly
become confusing and essentially useless.

4 Data Center Cabling Best Practices & Tips You Need to Know  305-436-8886
 8. Exercise Due Diligence when Considering Pre-Terminated Solutions
A data center with multiple cabinets can be an ideal situation for pre-terminated cabling solutions and
almost essential when designing the infrastructure for the 40 and 100 Gigabit networks previously
mentioned in #5 above. Because the cables are pre-terminated by the manufacturer, there is a higher
cost associated with the materials but the installation labor is significantly lower than traditional
systems that require time-consuming terminations at each end.

However, it is critical to double-check the cable

routes and all length measurements prior to
purchasing the cable assemblies. Assemblies
that are too short are an obvious problem—but
having assemblies that are too long can present
an issue that is tricky to overcome.

Since the cable assemblies are already

terminated at both ends, the cable cannot
simply be cut to length as this would require
re-termination resulting in additional costs for
materials and labor. Instead, the excess cable
would need to be stored somewhere, which
impacts the cable management capacity within Photo taken from www.leviton.com

the cabinets and/or on the overhead cable trays

mentioned in tips #1 and #2 above.

Next Steps
Need more tips for optimizing your data center cabling management? Get in touch with
the experts at Blue Wave Communications!

Get in Touch

Contact Us By: Follow Us:

Phone: (954) 436-8886 or (305) 436-8886
 Facebook
Fax: (305) 594-4243
Office Hours:  LinkedIn
Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Mail: 10330 USA Today Way, Miramar, FL 33025
 Instagram
Eastern Standard Time (EST)