Bicycles And Network Structured Cabling

Your “free-time” outside of family and work, and possibly a fair portion of your expendable income, are likely spent on hobbies or sports of your choosing. You may choose playing golf, boating, driving cars, or other activities to spend enjoyable hours and countless funds.

One of my passions is cycling…not the gasoline-powered variety, but the human-powered variety. As my interest has deepened and evolved, I find it easier to justify what some may deem as extravagant spending on seemingly insignificant (and inconsequential) components to optimize my bicycles for best performance. Based on its purpose and intended function, best performance of a bicycle may mean many different things.

Many characteristics come to mind; the only true criteria and ranking comes from the individual and his or her needs/desires. A year-round bike for primary transportation will have very different value parameters than a time-trial racing bike. Best cycling performance (such as speed, endurance, efficiency, reliability, or dependable transportation) cannot be obtained by independently selecting components and hobbling them together as a system. Unlike a set of golf clubs, where each club can be optimized for its unique, intended function, a bicycle and its components work best when they’re “matched” to work in concert together considering the rider’s needs.

Network structured cabling is similar to the performance of a bicycle. Independently comparing components isn’t the true measure of the system’s capability and value. All the individual components cannot perform independently; they need the balance of the system to deliver true value. The true value is the operation and performance of the whole system (whether bicycle, boat, car, structured cabling solution, or other) measured against the intentions and requirements of the owner or user.

CommScope’s network infrastructure solutions have been developed to deliver superior performance as a system. All components within the solutions (many modular in design providing network flexibility) are tested with each other against channel/link criteria as part of the total solution. Substituting alternate components in the link to seemingly optimize a particular criteria such as availability or price will negatively impact the system’s capability and performance.

Major racing bicycles are optimized to meet the demands of the particular race and the rider. They’re tested in labs to simulate the race environment as complete machines. Shouldn’t your network infrastructure be tested as a system against “race” conditions as well?