This project involves designing a cabling infrastructure for a three-story office building. The cabling will be Category five since it will be a Voice over IP system with a fiber backbone. The equipment room is located on the South East side of the building and there is a three-foot crawl space above each floor. A raceway is provided in this crawl space and is where the cabling will be laid. The equipment room for floors two and three are located in the North West corner of the building and therefore we will need additional cabling to connect the first floor to the second and to the third floor. The diagram on the previous page shows the ACME Corporations’ dimension of their office building that will be using the Voice Over IP system.  The project allows for a total of six technicians paid an hourly rate of $12.50 to complete the job. The estimated completion of this job is three days.

 

In the previous pages we also show the orientation of each office on each floor, the amount of cabling needed, and the amount of termination points that is required. Each termination point is denoted by a triangle in each office. Since there will be two RJ-45 connectors at each termination point a dual faceplate is needed for each office. One connector will be for data and the other for voice.  This will increase the footage of our cabling by two since there will be two lines going to each faceplate.

 

On the first floor we can see that we will need 10 dual faceplates, 20 RJ-connectors and approximately 952 feet of CAT-5 cabling.  Category 5 cable uses eight 24 AWG insulated conductors (four pairs), enclosed by a thermoplastic jacket.  Each of the four conductor pairs is twisted together to reject electrical interference from sources such as power wiring, fluorescent and HID ballasts, motors, and so on.

 

On the second floor we will require 9 dual faceplates, eighteen RJ-45 connectors and approximately 986 feet of CAT-5 cabling. We will have to add more Cat-5 cabling in order to connect the second floor to the PBX that is located in the equipment room of the first floor. We will be using fiber optic cable for this job and will require 80 feet of cabling. This will provide a reliable backbone to our system.

 

Since the third floor is a duplicate of the second floor we will require the same amount of dual faceplates and RJ-45 connectors. We will require the same 986 feet of Cat-5 cabling for the floor but we will need an additional 100 feet of fiber optic cabling for connecting the third floor to the PBX located on the first floor.

 

Calculation and Price for the CAT-5 cabling

We will require a total of 3050 feet of cabling. We will add a ten percent cushion for any variance. Therefore, the total amount of 3355 feet of CAT-5 cabling will be required. At Belkin.com I was able to find 1000 feet of CAT-5 cabling for $199.99. That is approximately $0.20 per foot. ($0.20 X 3355 feet = $671.00 plus shipping and handling.) The cabling does not come with RJ-45 connectors but these will be added later in the project.  The product ID number is A7J304-1000 and may be typed in the search engine at www.Belkin.com for current prices.

 

Dual FacePlates

We will need a total of 28 dual faceplates at $5.99 a piece. This amount comes up to $167.72 plus shipping and handling. The product ID number for the faceplate is F4E440 and can be typed in the search engine at www.Belkin.com.

 

Switches and Patch Panels

We will need a total of three switches and three patch panels to complete the cabling project. The patch panel I found is called a 24-Port Angled CAT-5 patch Panel at www.Belkin.com. This patch panel gives room for growth in the event more offices and/or equipment is added and its product number is F4P338-24AB5-AN.  They are priced at $159.99 each for a total of $479.97. The switches I found were priced at $6995.00 each and are the product ID number F1DE216N-B. I am sure that there are other switches available like the Gigabit switch found in the Telecommunications lab at DeVry. I searched the price on those switches and they are about 3 times more expensive. The more ports you need the more expensive the switch becomes.

 

RJ-45 Connectors

At each faceplate there will be a need of two RJ-45 connectors making a total of 56 connectors. We will then need another 56 connectors to connect them at the patch panel. We will also need additional connectors for the patch cord and that will be another 112 RJ-45 connectors.  Again at Belkin.com the price for these connectors are $5.99 for a pack of ten. We need a total of 224 connectors so we will purchase 23 packs making a total of $137.77 plush shipping and handling. The product number for the RJ-45 connectors is R6G088-10 and can be found at www.Belkin.com.

 

 

Patch Cable

At Belkin.com labs the price for 200 feet of CAT-5 patch cable is $120.00. We will not require more than this to connect the patch panels to the switch and the RJ-45 connectors are included. The product ID number is A3L791-S and may be typed in the search engine at www.Belkin.com.  The reason I chose Belkin Labs for this project is because of the warranty they provide to each of their products. You are offered a lifetime warranty and a guarantee for life from Belkin. There were other companies that offered less expensive products but not the same warranties.

 

Fiber Optic Cable

We will need enough fiber optic cable to connect the switch if the first floor to the second and again from the first floor to the third floor. I am choosing fiber optic because prices have come down for the cabling and it is a reliable medium for data transfer. The fiber optic cable I found was priced at $156.00 for 50 feet. We will need about 200 feet of fiber for a total of $624.00.

 

Labor

We will have six technicians working from 9:00pm-5:00pm, with one hour lunch break. At 7 hours per day one worker will be paid $12.50 per hour for a total of $87.50. If there are six workers that amount goes up to $525.00 per day. They will work three days so the total amount of labor is $1575.00. 

 

The Total Amount

CAT-5 Cabling:                   $671.00

Fiber Cable:                         $624.00

Patch Panel:                        $479.97

3 Switches:                           $20 985.00

Face Plates:                         $167.72

RJ-45 Connectors:             $137.77

Patch Cable:                      $111.99

Shipping and Handling:   $100.00

Labor:                                    $1575.00

TOTAL:                                    $24852.45

 

Therefore according to my calculations the cost of implementing a CAT-5 cabling system to this particular building will be about $24852.45. Please keep in mind that this is the first time that I have attempted to design a cabling infrastructure for VoIP. Experience goes a long way in doing something like this, which is something that I do not have. I am sure there can be some cost effective measures that can be met and other ideas that can be applied that I have not done here. In the end, I had a great time preparing this project and learned a lot in what really goes into cabling a 3-story building with VoIP. If anything this project showed me that there are many ways in doing such a project and that not one way is the only way. There are many ways to get the same job completed but budget, growth and expandability are some factors to keep in mind when wiring a building.