New Building 3

[sport404]

Hey guys,
So we are building a new 5 story building. Each floor will have a data closet and then fiber runs to the data center. My question comes to the phone system. I will have patch panels on each floor for the data but what is the standard these days for doing digital phones? Do you just run a 100 pair to the floor and use a punch board or are there better methods and ways out there these days?

Thanks!

 

[LeeMcCauslin]

I'm not positive of the terminology but 110 blocks seems to be the easiest and neatest way to do it. We have cable coming in from the floors terminating at a 110 block - they are modular so you can use as many as you need. Then those get cross-connected to another block that terminates in the phone room. When everything gets done right, I hardly ever even need a toner. Our building is 4 stories and was built new about 12 years ago so there may be prettier versions of the same thing out there now. I don't get into too many other buildings so I don't know what I am missing.
I'd love to see pictures of, or links to, cool new stuff if there is anything though.

We do all our runs with cat5 cable. One cable feeds 4 cubicles. Works pretty good.

 

[SF0751]

You don't mention what type of phone system you have, but we use the exact same setup for our telephones that you describe for your data. Clean, neat, professional-looking - and I don't have the data guys whining that they can't cable a telephone for me if I'm out of town when someone moves within the building. Never have to use a toner. Can "borrow" a data jack for voice if I need to. If we move from our digital phones to VoIP phones, I won't have to change out the infrastructure.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[LeeMcCauslin]

Meridian M1 - 61C (Well, since we just got a shiny new signaling server, I guess technically now it's a CS1000 - but it's still a big ol' honker sitting on the floor inthe computer room.)

Yup - I love stealing data for phones. But I'm generally stealing from myself since I'm the data guy too. ;-)

But just today I had a case where a guy moved into a new office but didn't like the wall where his data and phone jacks were. But the office right next to him had a wall plate with 2 data and a phone jack. It's all just drywall skinned obver studs so I popped off the plate and was happy to see cat5 going to the phone jack and only using 1 pair. Poked a hole through the wall on the other side, swiped one data cable and one pair for phone and popped in a 2-plate in the new office and everything looks like it was supposed to be there and he gets his stuff on the wall he likes. Even found a dummy cover to fill in the recently vacated data hole on the old side of the wall.

And the best part is that since I already knew where the original phone run was terminated, I knew by the color of the pair I stole where the new one went. Didn't even get my toner out of my bag. I love it when a plan comes together.

 

[robertjo24]

We run in a slightly larger building.
We've run 100 pair to each floor from the phone room.
In the phone room, the cables terminate on 110 blocks on one wall, in order by floor.
On each floor, the cables terminate in the data closet, on rack mount 110 blocks, located under the patch panels.
Each office is wired with three jacks, each colored differently, two for data and one for voice. They are all the same cables (Cat-6), so that can be used for for what ever we need.
The digital phones are then jumpered accross from the 110 block to the appropriate jack with premade jumpers.
We don't even use a punch tool in the data closets as the jumpers have a 2 prong 110 adapter built on.
We run a predominantely IP based phone system, but all of our digital and analog lines are run this way.

 

[phoneguy55]

Use 110 blocks for the voice. As far as riser cable goes, the cost between 100 pair and 300 pair is almost nothing. I always run twice the amount of riser cable that I will need. Cable is cheap, labor is expensive. Running 2 cables is not a bad idea either. Run 1 300 pair and 1 100 pair. If one cable were ever broken, you have a backup in place, ready to use.

 

[sport404]

My phone system is a Toshiba CTX that will use all digital phones. So on each floors data closest I will have a say 100 pair come down from the main data center. In each closet that 100 pair will go to a 110 block and then from the 110 block push it on to a patch panel?

Thanks

 

[mikeydidit]

I am not going to start the 110 vs. 66 blocks talk again, but the 66 blocks will hold up a lot longer then the 110 for voice. 110 will get to the point of the razors spreading and then iffy dial tone. If you really want this to look good and work great then the 66 block on the Homaco frames have 3 sections on each side of them. One side port side and the other distribution. Each section of one frame will hold 900 pairs. Here is how they lay out. On one side of this frame I have over 15,000 pairs.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[bwtc]

mikeydidit,

I don't know whether to say WOW or just state in awe!

GREAT JOB!!!

 

[Dexman]

Awesome picture! That is a true blue, top notch wiring job!

 

[GMgerry]

I do 100% patch panels, yes even the PBX. All our buildings are the same and anyone can do the changes. It has saved me thousands. 100 pair to every closet. The only thing I ask is the upper left or left jack be used for voice unless needed by data. In four years no problems. My techs at the remote sites don't even have a punch tool.

 

[pbxn]

SInce your running fiber to each floor, one would assume you would have a network switch for each floor.
So you could patch your network from the switch to your terminated patch panels. Phone side 110/66 I personally prefer 110 in the MDF. Then I have run feeder cables from the 110 MDF to the patch rack. to eliminate wear on the the 110's, I run jumpers once, from switch side to cable rack feeder pairs. Label the patch panels with the TN's, and plug in patch cables. For floor to floor, 100, 300pr what ever you need, feeder cables from the MDF to the IDF's, then in the IDF's terminate the feeder cables again to patch panels.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

mikeydidit indeed! Apparently, mikey has been doing it for some time. You've got my vote for valuable post. Thank you!

 

[bwtc]

Ditto here!

 

[mikeydidit]

Thanks guys but I am a young old guy, LOL. By that I mean I was taught by someone that worked for AT&T for 32 years and then retired. I started as his helper. I didn't know anything about phones (probably a good thing) and was 25 at the time. I got to work with him for one week and he found he had terminal cancer. The others with AT&T (with at least 25 years in the business) took me under thier wing so to speak. He would come in about once a month and try to teach me this and that(1A2 key and ECTS sets). All the way down to "you never leave those jumper ends on the floor, because they got writen up for it".

He was a great person besides being a great phoneman. That was 20 years ago and I still miss him and owe him for being such a great teacher. He even got some of it to stick.

Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.
Thomas A. Edison

For the best response to a question, read faq690-6594

 

[dagwoodsystems]

Nuthin wrong with old school, bro. It's nice to know that there are still guys out there that know the difference between purple and white backboards. In my world, that stuff still counts.

 

[LamoniDave]

I accept mikeydidit's point about longevity of 66 block connectors for phone cable termination. However, applications that want flexibility for voice or data over the same cable may need to move to 110 blocks (or 210 blocks?). I understand that the relatively large flat parallel metal plates that make up the 66 connectors have electrical charactistics similar to a capacitor, and interfere with high speed data.

 

[oldtimerbob]

You can now purchase 66 blocks that will work with data cables, check with your local supplier for them.

Has been in the cabling business for about twenty years and is now the Sr PM for a cabling company located in the Los Angeles area.

http://www.globusinc.net

Also a General Class Amatuer Radio Operator.

 

[dagwoodsystems]

Say hello to WD6GFL! General class, code only, 40 meters, old military Hallicrafters. Got my license when I was 13.

It's a long story as to how I fell into phone work, but like Hal Bissinger (hbiss) says, "I gotta get out of this business...

 

[wires]

I had some 110 blocks in a test rig that were terminated at least a hundred times both with punchdown and clips with no problems. These blocks were used for phone, data, consumer IR and general signals when I needed to introduce more wire length into a circuit. Never a problem with durability or loose connections.

The only problems I have seen with 110 blocks is when stranded wire is used.

YMMV