Rational IDC network layout and Integrated Wiring

Networking for IT companies, we should not only start from the actual needs of the enterprise, but also plan and design the network according to the amount of network funding. After purchasing network equipment, servers, and other equipment, it is important for our network administrators to make proper network layout and wiring for data centers and office locations.

The network layout mentioned in this article mainly refers to how network devices, servers, and other devices in the data room are placed and how they get along with network wiring. In short, the network layout should be fully considered.

I. Principles of network layout

1. Practicality

The LAN set up by an enterprise should be implemented according to the size of the data room and the quantity of equipment. It is very important to make full use of the network layout according to the characteristics of network wiring.

2. Comprehensiveness

During the networking process, the placement of networks, servers, and other devices should be considered comprehensively, and the network layout should be considered comprehensively, so that various devices and wiring systems should be placed in a reasonable position as far as possible.

3. Reliability

Regardless of the network layout, the ultimate goal is to ensure that all the devices in our LAN can run reliably and stably, so that the network can operate normally.

4. Easy maintenance and upgrade

The networking of the network is not static. As the IT enterprise's business continues to grow, the originally established LAN needs to be constantly improved and expanded. In daily network operation and maintenance, when planning the network layout, you should consider the convenience of future network maintenance and upgrade operations.

II. Specific implementation requirements of network layout

For wired LAN, this is something we often encounter during enterprise network construction. We need to wiring the data center and office building. To plan the network layout, consider the equipment layout of the data center and the reasonable combination of the wiring system. Therefore, we must first plan and design the data center and cabling system, and then fully consider the network layout.

IDC Planning and Design

In order to ensure stable, secure, and reliable operation of networks and computer systems, as well as to ensure a good working environment for IDC room staff, the technology is advanced, economical, reasonable, safe, and applicable to ensure quality, comply with relevant national IDC Design Regulations.

● 1) anti-static

Static electricity will not only cause random faults to computer operations, but also lead to the breakdown and destruction of some components and dual-level circuits. In addition, it may affect the normal work and physical and mental health of operators and maintenance personnel.

● 2) Fire Prevention and theft prevention

During the design of the computer room, the fire suppression design of the data room should be considered. The design scheme of the IDC room can be determined based on the fire prevention level. The fire alarm of the computer room should be set up on duty room or monitoring site on the first floor. The data room should pay attention to the installation of anti-theft facilities. In specific scenarios, anti-theft doors, anti-theft locks, guards, and automatic alarm systems can be used.

● 3) lightning protection

Because the communication and power supply cables of the data center are mostly introduced to the data center from outside, it is vulnerable to lightning attacks. The design of Lightning Protection for the data center is particularly important. Lightning arresters shall be installed on the core line and telephone line of the computer communication cable.

● 4) moisturizing and heat preservation

The humidity in the IDC room should be kept at 20%-80%, and the temperature of the IDC room should be kept at 15-35 degrees Celsius. Installing the air conditioner to adjust the temperature is the best solution to this problem.

Planning and Design of cabling systems

With a good data center, network equipment has a good "home". The established IT network should connect the data center and office location through the wiring system to ensure the normal operation of the network. If there are many access points for an enterprise, we can design three network layers: access layer, aggregation layer, and exchange layer to establish a cabling system.

For the access layer, selecting a reasonable access device is the most critical, and we need to select the appropriate bandwidth based on the access device. The aggregation layer is the core part of the LAN. network devices in the aggregation layer generally support the network management function to facilitate our management and maintenance and facilitate our network upgrading and transformation in the future. The switching layer is the middle layer of the entire network. Connecting the convergence layer and network nodes is an important part of determining the overall network transmission quality. With the popularization of MB network devices, we certainly prefer MB for network devices on the switching layer.

Wiring is an important link connecting the network access layer, aggregation layer, switching layer, and network nodes. When wiring, it is best to use a dedicated channel, and do not mix with the power cord, air conditioning line and other lines with radiation wiring.

For twisted pair wires between the access layer and the aggregation layer, you can select cat5e shielded twisted pair wires to maximize the network performance. The twisted pair wires between the aggregation layer and the switching layer are also cat5e shielded twisted pair wires because they are the most frequently transmitted network data. Between the switching layer and the network node, we can use a common cat5e unshielded twisted pair wires.

It is best to place network devices in the center of a node. This is not to save the cost of Integrated Wiring, but to improve the overall performance of the network and Improve the Quality of network transmission. Because the transmission distance of twisted pair wires is 100 meters, the optimal network transmission quality can be achieved at 95 meters. When wiring a network, it is best to design a device to place a network device.

Network Layout Planning and Design

Currently, most network devices use a rack-mounted structure (mostly flat-like drawers), such as switches, routers, and hardware firewalls. These devices have such a structure because they are all designed according to international cabinet standards, so that the plane sizes are basically unified, it can be installed together in a large vertical standard cabinet. The benefits of doing so are obvious: on the one hand, the device can occupy the minimum space, on the other hand, it is easy to connect and manage with other network devices, and the data room will also look neat and beautiful.

We often see network cabinets, server cabinets, and Integrated Wiring cabinets in the data center. The names of these three cabinets show their respective roles. Generally, network devices, such as switches, routers, firewalls, Encryptors, and network communication devices, such as optical terminals and modems, are placed in network cabinets. The server cabinets are 19 inch in width, the height is U (1U = 1.75 inch = 44.45mm). Generally, there are 1U, 2U, 3U, and 4U servers. The cabinet size also adopts general industrial standards, generally ranging from 22U to 42U;

The cabinet has a detachable slide-trailer Based on the U Height. You can flexibly adjust the height based on the height of your server to store servers, hubs, disk cabinets, and other devices. After the server is placed, all its I/O lines are drawn from the rear of the Cabinet (all the interfaces of the Rack server are also located at the rear), which are uniformly placed in the cable slot of the Cabinet, it is usually labeled to facilitate management.

The Integrated Wiring cabinet is generally equipped with a removable column before and after installation, free to set the installation space, you can configure the partition, fan, power outlet and other accessories as needed. The distribution frame is usually installed in the Cabinet. The side of the distribution frame is an RJ45 port with a serial number;

On the other side is the Jumper interface, which is also marked with numbers. These numbers correspond to the numbers of the above RJ45 ports one by one. Each patch cord is marked with brown, Blue, orange, and green colors. The color lines of twisted pair cables correspond to these jumpers one by one. The distribution frame is not only convenient for management of line pairs, but also can prevent crosstalk, increase the isolation space of line pairs, and provide 360-degree line pair isolation.

In the IDC room, You must place switches, functional server groups, and network printing devices, as well as various devices required to connect the local network to the Internet, such as routers, firewalls, and network management workstations; therefore, the network layout of the data center generally has at least three cabinets. The Integrated Wiring cabinet and network cabinet should be closely connected to facilitate wire adjustment. The following is the server cabinet; arrange network devices and cabling systems properly.

In the network layout, it is best to leave some space for each cabinet to facilitate the expansion of network equipment and server equipment in the future. In addition to network wiring, the Integrated Wiring cabinet may also provide telephone lines, therefore, leave some space in the cabinet.

From the perspective of cables attached to a Cabinet, the cabinet has a higher configuration density, more IT equipment, and a large number of redundant accessories (such as redundant power supplies and storage arrays ), equipment configurations in the cabinet are frequently changed, and data lines and cables are increased or decreased at any time. Therefore, the Cabinet must provide sufficient cable channels to access and exit the cables from the top and bottom of the Cabinet.

In the cabinet, cables must be laid in a convenient and orderly manner. cables are close to the interfaces of the equipment to shorten the wiring distance. space occupation of cables is reduced to ensure that the equipment is installed, adjusted, and maintained, it is free from wiring interference and ensures that the heat dissipation airflow is not blocked by cables. In addition, it can quickly locate the device wiring in case of a fault.

Power Supply System and cooling system are two important parts of Computer Room. In power supply systems, online UPS is generally used for power supply, the actual available capacity of the battery and the discharge current of the battery, the ambient operating temperature of the battery, the storage duration, and the properties of the load (resistance, inductance, and capacitance) closely related.

Refrigeration Systems (air conditioners) involve the entire physical environment of the data center, including air conditioners, floors, cabinets, and room layout; therefore, we should also consider placing UPS and air conditioners in a proper position. If the IDC space is large, you can put both UPS and air conditioners in the IDC;

If the space is small, you can place the UPS (including the battery) in the power distribution room. Note that if the building is equipped with "central air-conditioning", separate air-conditioners must also be installed in the data room, because central air-conditioners cannot be on 24 hours a day, and central air-conditioners can be used during work hours, if servers and network devices need to run properly after work and on holidays, they must be independently air conditioners in the power-on room.

The scalability of a cabinet is manifested in the expansion of the device density in the Cabinet and the expansion of the number of cabinets. Therefore, in the network layout, the air distribution capability (usually called the heat dissipation capability) and power distribution capability of the Cabinet must be taken into account.

On the one hand, the equipment in the Cabinet requires cold air (cold air) with suitable temperature and humidity and sufficient air volume ). These cold winds are sucked in by IT devices in the cabinet to reduce the temperature of components (especially CPUs) in the equipment. When the number of devices in the cabinet reaches a certain level, the cold air volume sent from the floor air outlet cannot meet the requirements of all devices, thus forming a part of IT equipment with insufficient air and overheating.

You can allocate the location of IT devices to solve the problem of local hot spots when the density of devices in the cabinet is expanded. For example, install the equipment with the largest heat load in the middle of the Cabinet to obtain the maximum air volume. In addition, a strong Horizontal Axial Exhaust Fan is installed in the upper or lower part of the Cabinet to enhance the suction capability of the upper or lower part (that is, reduce the entry static pressure of IT equipment ), to increase the air volume.

On the other hand, the equipment in the Cabinet must supply power and communicate with the outside of the Cabinet. When the number of IT devices in the cabinet increases, these cables and connection terminals increase exponentially at the same time, thus increasing the capacity and number of plug-ins of the rack-mounted power supply.

The wiring space in the Cabinet also needs to be considered in advance, because when the power density in the cabinet increases, the cable at the rear of the device will obviously increase wind resistance, therefore, cable management and cabling space must be considered.