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Cabling market Trends
Posted On January 13, 2012 by Geeta Priya filed under Enterprise
The overall cabling market in India stood at Rs 1,350 crore in 2008, growing at 20 percent over 2007. Markets did showed a decline in 2009. Naresh Chandra Singh, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, opines that 2010 will see market sizes return to 2008 figures. , “Market situations have changed compared to last year. Segments like IT/ITeS and manufacturing have been largely affected by the recession. This hasdefinitely impact the structured cabling market negatively in 2009. However at the same time data center solutions, managed services, virtualization, growing adoption of IP applications will work in its favour.”
“Our estimates show that the market for structured cabling was $230 million in 2008 and the figure will be the same this year. The main drivers in last few years have been IT, ITeS and BFSI. However, we are seeing the emergence of Infrastructure and Govt entities as major spenders. The growth has been hovering over 30 percent over the past few years but may come down to 20 percent this year which is still much better than the rate that the overall IT market may witness,” says Singh
Some of the major trends in structured cabling markets are the following.
Datacenter Consolidation
Data center consolidation is expected to drive the acceptance of fiber-based solutions and 10G solutions in the market. Data centers have been the single largest vertical for the SCS business over the last one year, say analysts.
In addition to this, there are newer avenues such as triple plays, FTTH, data storage consolidation, and extensions of SCS to the residential domain and giga-ready homes that promise good growth for the SCS business.
Cabling intelligence
With richer and mission-critical applications getting delivered on the enterprise networks today, IT managers are increasingly looking for bringing intelligence to cabling. The demand for intelligent cabling, which enables proactive network monitoring and fault diagnosis, is likely to see increased adoption according to analysts. Many telecom companies are implementing 100 percent intelligent cabling solutions.
The interest in intelligent infrastructure is on the rise because companies are looking to consolidate and streamline their infrastructure to gain greater efficiency with their assets. This inclination toward intelligent infrastructure, or, to be more specific, intelligent networks, is also because of its ability to provide an exceptional level of security.
The power of 10 and 40 G
The 10G cabling market in India has matured compared to a few years ago. The growing volumes of information generated have led to the need for more storage like SAN. Fibre Channel over Ethernet is driving the adoption of 10G cabling. Experts believe that the market will grow after IEEE and ISO standardization.
Many enterprises are deploying 10G based on the future applications that would require higher bandwidth. Ideally while deploying the cabling infrastructure, smart enterprises ensure that it stays relevant for the next three generation of networking gears.
40G is another technology that has taken off in a very positive manner, and is expected to take over from 10 G very soon.
The Cat effect
Cat7 has witnessed adoption in some niche segments but is yet to gain momentum. This is because there is not yet enough preparedness or demand for STP cables in India.
Looking at the present scenario, it seems that Cat7 will have a tough challenge ahead. “Cat 7 is not a standard as per TIA/EIA. It is only recognised by ISO. Also, there is no special application that requires Cat 7, which cannot be done on Cat 6A. I would term the Cat 7 adoption in India as negligible and at best an aberration. Cat 7 is an ISTP (Individually Shielded Twisted Pair) cabling, which is very difficult to install. On the other hand Cat 6 is an Unshielded Twisted Pair solution, which is very easy to install. Also, most office environments do not generate that much heat that will require a Cat 7 solution, unless there is a thermal power plant within the premise,” says a report from IDC
Power over Ethernet
The use of Power over Ethernet (PoE) reduces power infrastructure and transmission losses to a great extent. Many active devices such as VoIP phones and Web cameras draw power only when in use. PoE technology is useful for powering IP telephones, wireless LAN access points, network cameras, remote network switches, embedded computers and other appliances where it would be inconvenient, expensive or unfeasible to supply power separately.
With the pending PoE Plus standard nearing completion, attention has been focused on temperature-related issues inherent in transmitting higher levels of power over twisted-pair cabling. This current-induced temperature elevation increases the risk of degraded physical and electrical performance which can impact overall network performance and reliability.
“Historically, a comfortable level of performance margin is considered to be 50 percent headroom to standards-specified limits (this would be equivalent to 6 dB headroom for a transmission performance parameter). Following these guidelines, the solutions that offer the most desirable levels of heat dissipation headroom in support of the PoE Plus application are category 6A F/UTP and category 7A S/FTP cabling systems.” quotes a paper from Gartener Group.
Cabling toward green
Considering the current market dynamics, industry experts believe that green technologies will drive investment in this segment. Structured cabling is one of the first product ranges to go green without compromising on performance and without much cost increase. The industry has witnessed a huge change in the manufacturer’s approach, be it for RoHS-compliant components or packaging. There are suppliers working to provide even halogen-free components which are far safer for next-generation installations. We have already got an entire range which is green or RoHS-compliant. Even our plants are ISO 14001 compliant.
Structured cabling has an indirect contribution to the green environment. For example, the Cat7 solution—which is a completely shielded solution with individual pairs also shielded—allows for sheath sharing concept. In sheath sharing users can use one four-pair cable for multiple applications i.e. two pairs for data, one pair for voice and the remaining pair for other applications. By doing this, the IT manager can avoid having multiple runs of cables for different applications. Less use of materials will contribute to a greener environment.
