M05 Devices and Cabling

Lecture Video

Cabling

Cabling infrastructure is the backbone of the interconnected society. There is no traffic without roads, there is no Internet without cabling.

In Finland there is talk about "road debt", but no talk about "cabling debt". Mainly because most of the telecommunications cabling has been installed by privatized companies (previously owned by the government).

Society is suprisingly vulnerable - a brittle copper cable halted the phone network of healthcare clinics in Turku

Talking about expected lifecycles of cabling infrastructures

Copper cabling, decades
Fiber cabling, centuries

Basic infrastructure of cabling

The figure below represents the basic principles & topologies of the cabling infrastructure in our society. No matter the physical media.

These "distribution facilities" have been established through the decades of wired telephony infrastructures.

Helsingin seudun puhelinlaitos 1882-1982 -history

Campus Distribution

Device side

Subscriber side

Fiber cabling cross-connections

Building distribution

Example1

Example2

Example3

Floor distribution

Consolidation point (or apartment distribution)

Copper Cabling

Copper cabling is divided into categories (with the exception of coaxial cabling) in the (SFS-)EN 50173 -standard series concerning Generic Cabling Systems.

These categories are gone through here.

Category	Channel	Class	Maximum speeds
Category 3 (phone cabling)	16 MHz	Class C	below 100Mbit/s, depends on length
Category 5	100 MHz	Class D	100Mbit/s
Category 5e	100 MHz	Class D	1Gbit/s
Category 6	250 MHz	Class E	1Gbit/s
Category 6A	500 MHz	Class EA	1Gbit/s
Category 7	600 MHz	Class F	10Gbit/s
Category 8.1	2000 MHz	Class I	Up and coming standards for 25Gbit/s / 40Gbit/s
Category 8.2	2000 MHz	Class II	Up and coming standards for 25Gbit/s / 40Gbit/s

Twisted pair cables reduce electromagnetic interference (called noise)

Physics course will teach you about eletromagnetic waves produced by the transmission of current. And how those waves are received by nearby cables.

Category - 3 (CAT3)

Category 3 cable

Source: ECS Global Wire

Range: depends on technology

5 kilometers for Plain Old Telephone System (POTS)
5 kilometers for ADSL
2 kilometers for ADSL full-rate
hundreds of meters for VDSL

Adapters

RJ11 - male adapters, connection cable

Phone adapter - with RJ11 female adapter

Installation

Typically installed on Krone LSA-PLUS connectors.

Krone

Source Krone

The wires are connected with use of a special tool:

Krone Impact Terminal Tool

Source: Partco.fi

Category - 5 through 7 (CAT5 - CAT7)

CAT6 U/UTP Cable

Source: ECS Global Wire

Range: Typically 100 meters

10 meters for tail cabling
90 meters for ceiling/wall cabling

Types

ISO/IEC 11801 designation[A]	Cable shielding	Pair shielding
U/UTP	None	None
U/FTP	None	Foil
F/UTP	Foil	None
S/UTP	Braiding	None
SF/UTP	Braiding and Foil	None
F/FTP	Foil	Foil
S/FTP	Braiding	Foil
SF/FTP	Braiding and Foil	Foil

Letter before the slash indicates shielding of the cable. Letter after the slash indicates the shielding of individual pairs. TP is always Twisted Pair.

U – unshielded
F – foil shielding
S – braided shielding (outer layer only)
TP – twisted pair

Unshielded - Unshielded Twisted Pair - U/UTP

Source ECS Global Wire & Cable

Foil shield / Foiled Twisted Pair - F/FTP

Source ECS Global Wire & Cable

Braided Shielding / Foiled Twisted Pair - S/FTP

Source ECS Global Wire & Cable

Adapters

RJ45 -connector, one of the most common data network connections today

RJ45 -connector pinout

Installation

Wall Box for Telecom Outlets in rooms.

Wall Mount Box Cat6 2xRJ45

Note! Two Telecom outlets with RJ45 cables attached to them on (on both sides)

Typically have Rack -installation in Floor Distribution.

24 port patch panel for RJ45

Source: Partco.fi

Coaxial Cabling

Coaxial cabling is most often used in Television distribution networks and always in place in Finnish households. Data Networks use Cable Modems (or EuroDOCSIS standard) for IP traffic over these tv networks

Indoor use

Coaxial cable - indoor

Source: Prysmian Group

Outdoor use

Cable-TV -network outside and channel cable

Source Onninen

Fiber Cabling

There currently is no replacement for fiber cables in sight. Photons are the fastest way to transmit data and given the wavelengths of fiber cables, the bandwidth limit is in the electronics at the end of fiber cables. Rather than the cable itself.

How can your home be attached to a fiber network?

Fiber cabling is dangerous

Do not operate/install unless you know how to protect yourself.

Do not point them towards your eyes!

Single Mode Fiber - SMF

Single Mode Fibers send their transmission in 1200nm - 1600nm wavelengths. Most commonly 1310 nm, but other wavelengths do exist in transmission through wavelength division multiplexing techniques.

These fibers have lengths from 10 to 80 km on typical hardware designed on land. (Thousands of kilometers when seacables and electronics are discussed.)

Multimode Fiber - MMF

Multimode fibers exist because they are chepear to produce. They are a typically a within building solution, but are less frequently installed.

Multimode uses the wavelength of 550nm

Wavelengths? Electromagnetic spectrums? What?

Whole Electromagnetic Spectrum

Source: Wikipedia

Adapters

Adapters for fibers are of different sizes and formats based on usage.

LC -adapter - Maybe the most common attachment in devices.

SC -adapter - Maybe the most common attachment in patch panels.

There are FC and ST adapters, but their usage is fading out

Source Fluke Networks

Types

Cross-connection / Patch Cables

FMS OS2 OS2 LC/LC/1/2m

So a cross-connection cable, with LC adapters on both ends, 1 fiber and 2 meters of length

Source Onninen

FMS OS2 SC/LC/1/5m

Indoor cables

Fire proof indoor cable

Source Nestor cables

Outdoor cables

Outdoor cable

"One cable can withold 432 fibers"

Source Nestor cables

Seacables

Seacable FYOHBMP 1,6MW

"1.6mm^2 steel wire armoured cable for sub-water installations. Can withold either 12, 24, 48 or 96 fibers."

Source Nestor cables

Installation

Typically a 24 fiber patch panel installation to 19" racks.

24 -port SC adapter fiber patch panel

Example 2

Source: Partco.fi

196 Fiber cross-connection

Fiber welding on the left and a ground installable extension box.

Closer look at NC-450 extension box

TBK-8 extension box

Devices

Data Network devices are robust hardware, but also have an technical lifecycle.

Approximate average lifecycles (depending on use) for different devices:

Mobile phones, 2 years
Computers, 3 - 6 years
Laptops, 2 - 5 years
Network devices, 6 -10 years

Of course these are just estimates of average life cycles, but devices have to be renew'd from time to time. Either to have replacement parts or get new technology into use for the organization (e.g. Software-Defined Networking).

We start our journey from old to new.

Hub / Repeater

Be it electric current in wires or photons in fiber connections, signals attenuate while traversing through the cabling.

This means that repeaters are needed to enhance the transmission. Repeater's have been present a long time, that is why the term 'broken-phone' is familiar even as a kids game.

Single Morse Repeater

Source: National Museum of American History

Ethernet repeater - copper cabling

Source: Mikrotik

Ethernet repeater - fibre cabling

"Submarine fiber has attenuation. Repeaters are used for optical signal amplification. Repeaters are placed every 60km to 70km."

Source: www.submarinenetworks.com

Multiport Ethernet repeater - or an 'Hub'

Source: Netgear

Hubs and repeaters are excellent for investigating network traffic through packet sniffers. And this introduces us to...

TAP / Network Sniffer

It is illegal to interfere & read communications in Finland!

5 § Vaitiolovelvollisuus ja hyväksikäyttökielto

Se, joka on ottanut vastaan tai muutoin saanut tiedon luottamuksellisesta viestistä tai tunnistamistiedosta, jota ei ole hänelle tarkoitettu, ei saa ilman viestinnän osapuolen suostumusta ilmaista tai käyttää hyväksi viestin sisältöä, tunnistamistietoa tai tietoa viestin olemassaolosta, ellei laissa toisin säädetä.

https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2004/20040516

Because we can repeat signals, we can also do multiport repeaters where, - One port for incoming transmission - One port for outgoing (amplified) transmission - One port for "tapping" into the transmission (read: eavesdrop)

As mentioned, these are great for learning networking, but at wrong places they are also harmful/illegal.

In finland; Tiedustelulait etenevät, mutta perustuslakivaliokunta vaatii useita muutoksia

The equipment still exists.

1-Link LC Fiber TAP

Source: Profitap

Ethernet copper cabling TAP's

Source: Profitap

Modem

Communication cables have modulations to improve efficiency in transmission (bandwidth, signal to noise ratio, electromagnetic spectrum usage). This means that there have been a lot of modems throughout the ages, and more are in development.

The kind of modem depends on what kind of electromagnetic spectrum is used and what transmission medium is at hand (air, copper cable, fiber cabling).

My old modems 28.8k, 56.6k and an 14.4k -modem

Switch

Switches are the most common network equipment in buildings equipped with physical copper/fiber ethernet cabling.

Physical Switches

Switches span across modular to fixed size switches. From small needs to bigger enterprise needs.

HPE 1820-8G Switch for home/office use

Source HP

Extreme Networks X460-G2 -network edge switches

Source Extreme Networks

Aruba Networks 5400R -series modular switch

Source Aruba Networks

Storey buildings in Finland

Almost all households have a switch in their Mains room (fi: Sähköpääkeskus) that is operated by an ISP.

Liityntäverkon toteutus taloyhtiöihin - Case Keski Suomen Valokuituverkot Oy, Markus Turunen

Industrial buildings in Finland

Also different industry buildings (such as IT-Dynamo) has switches in their cabling racks.

Wireless Basestations

Most of our communications at the network edge are moving towards wireless technologies such as 4G / 5G or WLAN. This still means that the wireless section of the transmission is just

WLAN, hundreds of meters
4G / 5G, kilometers

These distances are of course adjusted by the used frequencies, directional antennae, line of sight and weather conditions. All of them affect the spreading of the electromagnetic spectrum. And thus cause instability for user connections.

a rural basestation building with antennaes on top

Quite often the most commonly recognized device by consumers is the WLAN / Modem / Router / Firewall box. This thing is used by most consumers and thus is really competetive market. Thus the box has all the functionalities crammed into one, but with consumer-grade life-cycle, manageability and replaceability.

Wireless WLAN basestation

Router

Commercial grade routers are the backbone of the Internet. Given the term they connect to the Internet with multiple different WAN options keeping sites alive through dynamic routing.

Cisco 5000 Enterprise Network Compute System Family

Source Cisco

Firewalls

Firewalls are typically L3 routers, but with enhanced traffic inspection capability. They have the ability to enforce Firewall policies which;

Deny
Permit
Reject, deny and send a TCP RST or an ICMP port unreachable message to the source host
Encrypt/decrypt (direct into a VPN)
Authenticate (e.g. enforce web portal authentication)
Prioritize (Input Quality of Service markings such as TOS or DSCP)
Schedule (insert the traffic into a traffic queue for a scheduler to handle)
Filter (scrap stuff out from the packet)
and monitor (log the traffic)

All of these give the network administrator capability to enforce security into a network. They are typically stated as perimeter (cybersecurity) defence, but it is really a matter of planning and placement of firewalls.

Kyberturvallisuuskeskuksen yhdyskäytäväohje

Paloalto PA-220