Intelligent Buildings
By Gerry Ward

Intelligent buildings have received a lot of press over the last few years. But what exactly makes a building “intelligent”? What does one look like? And how does it translate into higher occupancy or higher profits? This article will explore how making your building intelligent can benefit owners, agents and tenants alike.

HISTORICALLY NOT INTERESTED

Whenever we sit down with a developer or owner, their first reaction is - “I’m not interested in getting involved with a tenant after the sale or lease”. Historically, most owners were interested in leasing the space, and moving on. “I don’t care what they do with their space after it is leased - that’s their problem, and their liability”. Not true today in many ways.

INTELLIGENT = PREMIUM

Most businesses are willing to pay a premium rate for a building with high-speed voice and data access, and the required wiring. Indeed, many even require it. Wide area networks, or WANS, include T-1 lines for voice or internet access; and ISDN, frame relay, ATM or SONET (to name a few) services for data transmission. In the wake of September 11th, many firms are also doing less flying and more video teleconferencing - requiring sophisticated WAN and local area networking (LAN) wiring systems.

LIABILITY IS YOURS, TOO

Low voltage wiring systems, including voice, data, fiber optic, and security, never caused many issues in the past. They were very passive, lasted the life of the building, and did not generate the scrutiny their electrical counterparts did. That has also recently changed. New regulations, from both the NEC and the NFPA, will require the removal of old cable within buildings, among other changes, beginning with the newest 1999 NEC guidelines. As they are adopted locally, ALL building owners will be required to remove any abandoned cable, or risk the loss of their occupancy permit. So for both profit and liability reasons, we recommend that you take a more active role in designing and maintaining the intelligent wiring within your facilities.

THE WIRES COMING TO YOUR INTELLIGENT BUILDING

Service providers of many types bring their offerings/ products just inside of every building. The point where the old Bell System, and now Verizon or any local telephone service provider terminates their equipment is called the demarcation point, or demarc. Traditionally, by code it was within 50 feet of the entrance conduit to the building. It is where the WAN services are brought into the building, and often the beginning point of the LAN system.

Potential tenants often ask whether a building has a fiber optic cable connection. Fiber has a very high bandwidth carrying capacity which allows users to transfer large amounts of data at very high speeds. Fiber has not been run to most locations outside of major cities, so if your building can be connected via fiber to a fiber network, that is certainly an added selling plus. It is important to note that the speed of WAN connections is much slower than those within the LAN, so even the old fashioned copper cabling which has been brought into an older building, can still be adequate for many basic high speed requirements.

For example, dial up internet connections are usually at 56 Kbps, or 56,000 bits per second. Cable modem speeds run from 125 Kbps on up. And T-1 voice/data connections are at 1.54 Mbps (million bits per second). These speeds are adequate for most simple data applications.

LAN speeds are orders of magnitude faster, however. Basic Ethernet or Token Ring networks run at 4 to 20 Mbps. Fast Ethernet is the current de facto LAN standard, and it runs at 100 Mbps. Gigabit Ethernet is an emerging standard, and runs at 1 Gbps (giga or billion)!

So generally speaking, the wires TO your building are much less important than the wires WITHIN your building.

THE WIRES WITHIN YOUR INTELLIGENT BUILDING

Because LAN requirements are so complex, wiring within your building has become very sophisticated. The cable itself has increased dramatically in price from less than $50 per thousand feet only a few years ago for simple telephone grade wire, to well over $300, making your investment, and that of your tenants, quite significant.

Both copper and fiber optic cables used indoors are manufactured to run into two different indoor environments, plenum versus non-plenum. A plenum ceiling or floor is an area where the air handling system uses the entire space as a return for the heating or air conditioning system. If you climb a ladder and open a ceiling tile in an office area, and can feel a gentle breeze flowing through the ceiling, you have a plenum ceiling.

Because of a famous New York City fire over 30 years ago, indoor cables were redesigned so that when they burned, the amount of smoke or toxic gases that is emitted is minimal. Some cables are “low smoke”, some simply have less toxic materials, and others simply burn less easily. All must meet rigid standards testing to be granted the “plenum use” designation.

Non-plenum cables are designed to be run between wiring closets (or “risers”) or in areas where the air in the ventilation system is carried in conduit or piping. Most buildings older than 20 to 30 years are non-plenum buildings, as are many built today. Check with your maintenance or construction engineers to find out where your facility falls.

Why shouldn’t you just cable all buildings with plenum cable, and be safe? Many firms do just that - but plenum cable is at least 2 to 3 times as expensive as non-plenum cable. As a rule, we always use plenum cable in buildings with high public traffic - hospitals, schools, etc., unless an owner tells us in writing otherwise. It is not the kind of mistake you want to make - because it is a code issue, you will be denied occupancy by the local inspector if you are wrong. And of course the liability issue is important as well - you don’t want your tenants installing the wrong type of cable in your building without your knowledge.

THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT OF THE INTELLIGENT BUILDING

Our discussion thus far has been on code-based issues for building owners. Most of the rest of this article will be based on industry standards which have been developed by BICSI, the Building Industry Consulting Service International, an international trade organization with more than 20,000 members worldwide. BICSI’s TDMM is the “bible” of design guides for the telecommunications industry. They also certify design experts with their RCDD (Registered Communications Distribution Designer) designation, as well as telecommunications technicians.

The demarc is the starting point for the physical wiring layout in a building. Often however, the demarc is located in a boiler room, or a maintenance area with little environmental control, which is also used for other purposes, and is often not secure. For the purposes of simplicity, let’s assume that we are working in a single tenant building. In these cases most building owners extend their demarc to an MC, or main crossconnect (also known as an MDF) or computer room.

The MC is the connection point for the WAN area network wiring and electronics, as well as the central hub for any TC, or telecommunications closets, which feed other floors or areas of the building. This needs to be an environmentally controlled room; from a simple shallow closet, to a room at least 10 feet by 7 feet serving 5000 square feet, or larger depending on the organization’s needs, which is secure and not shared by other functions (no janitor’s brooms or sinks allowed). Proper space needs to be allocated - preferably during the design phase of the building or build out, and not after the fact.

Both MCs and TCs require access to either the ceiling or floor, so that wiring can be run to the desk locations throughout the building. Some owners install support devices, such as ladder rack, J hooks, or bridle rings, to aid in the wiring distribution. In multi-story buildings, owners also install 2 to 6 inch conduits or sleeves to allow the installation of wiring between floors. The number of TCs needed to serve a building is based on one main design standard - voice, data, and even fiber optic cables from the TC to the office outlet must be no more than 90 meters long, and without splices. This is because all network topologies, such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and FDDI have strict electrical needs to operate properly. Therefore you must allocate enough space to reach every point in a building within 90 meters of a TC.

The most common wiring design today uses high strand count fiber between the MC and TCs, and CAT 5 enhanced copper, or 2 to 4 strand fiber cable to the desktop. Copper cable ranges from CAT 3 for voice up through CAT 6, which is for Gigabit Ethernet applications. Most fiber is of two types; multimode for typical applications, and singlemode for either very high bandwidth or very long distance applications.

Most individual drops are at least two copper cables (one for voice and one for data), and can include as many as 4 or more additional copper or fiber optic cables, depending on the need of the end user. Usually all cables are terminated on a patch panel, allowing the end users to make simple changes to the systems by adding or moving patch cables. This technique is called a “plug and play” system.

CONCLUSION

Although many owners might still prefer to ignore intelligent wiring issues in their buildings, leaving such issues to their tenants, in doing so they are risking liability for improper installation - which can run from shoddy to downright dangerous.

These owners, perhaps as importantly, are missing an important added revenue stream. Much of the intelligent wiring system can be installed as a building is built, or as a tenant moves in, and can be amortized over the life of the lease, at a considerable profit.

We recommend that at minimum, building owners consult with low voltage wiring specialists during the design phase of their new building, or the build out of their old. Much as they rely on their construction managers for guidance, we also suggest that they have pre-approved contractors that understand local codes and prevailing standards and can install these systems in a professional way Ñ and insist that their tenants use them. Many local electrical contractors and system integrators claim expertise, but lack the specialized training required. Intelligent buildings can be promoted to potential tenants in a way which can easily result in premium rates, generating above average profits for everyone. All it takes is some preplanning with knowledge of these complex systems, coupled with the flexibility to consider different leasing arrangements.

Copyright 2005 BillGladsone.com. All Rights Reserved.

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