From the September, 2012 Issue of Cabling Installation & Maintenance Magazine
One of my children is particularly averse to room cleaning. I fully realize I’m dealing with the parent’s curse (“I hope you have kids who act just like you,” my mom said many times) coming to fruition. So I am sympathetic to my daughter’s antics but have done my best not to let one glimmer of that sympathy show when I’m conducting an inspection. And I try not to laugh when I find books, toys, clothing, etc. stuffed under the bed, in the closet, behind a bureau, or elsewhere. I’m also fully aware that every second I lecture about the consequences of a failure to clean, all my daughter hears is the voice of Charlie Brown’s teacher from the television versions of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts cartoons. “Waah-wah-waaaaaaah.”
So in reality, I am entertained by the many strange and unusual places I find her belongings. Similarly, I was entertained as well as educated when looking over the article that serves as the cover story for this issue. “Fiber-optic cabling in strange and unusual places” (page 7) is presented with a wrapping of lightheared, easygoing discussion about the fact that everything we consume gets manufactured or harvested somewhere. And as the photo of the mine shaft on our cover illustrates, the environments in which this manufacturing, harvesting, exploring, creating, etc. takes place can be unforgiving. Yet in most cases, these environments require cabling systems to support communication functions, just like a commercial-building cubicle-based environment does. The bulk of the article takes a much more serious tone, providing insight into some of the decisions that users must make about the type of cabling systems to deploy in such places. I hope you find the article both entertaining and educational, as I did.
In a similar but different vein, the article beginning on page 13 discusses “where cabling is going” on quite a different level. As in, what type of optical infrastructure will be best suited to support data centers’ future-generation speeds that will reach 100 Gbits/sec? In short, the article makes the case for 24-fiber MPO connectors (rather than 12-fiber MPOs) for long-term efficiency. But don’t take my “in-short” word for it. Read the article to find out why.
We also provide you with a sneak preview of what very well could be in the next edition of the National Electrical Code, in the article that begins on page 23. The update-in-progess report tracks what’s happening with the NEC’s 2014 edition.
2014. Maybe by then my daughter’s room will be clean. ::
PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Chief Editor
[email protected]