Valparaiso University
Electronic Information Services
Standard Operating Procedure
Number 5.3.1.4.1

Floor (Horizontal) Telecommunications: General Requirements

Introduction
The Horizontal Cabling represents the part of the cabling plant that is the most complex and most cost prohibitive to replace or correct if not done correctly. This is caused by the design principle of a multitude of mixed-media cables running from a central location by ways of wall-conduit, floor, or ceiling routes to individual rooms and spaces on that floor. Often there are hundreds of individual "runs" on one horizontal level that can make fixing a problem extremely staff time consuming and thus very expensive if it needs to be repaired.

Labeling/Documentation
All cabling runs on the horizontal level MUST be labelled on each end of each cable as well as on the corresponding termination equipment (wall jack/port, FDC, patch-panel). Any junction points (junction boxes, tray distribution points, and such) must be labelled and documentation must be kept about which distribution points a given run passes through to ease locating the run later on. It is recommended that cabling be labelled at major distribution points to further improve identification capabilities. Both color coding as well as standardized text-labeling practices must be employed. Current text labelling standards must be obtained by contacting EIS.

Back to Floor (Horizontal) Telecommunications

Written by: Mike Tucker, Simon Kissler, Mike Schwinn (NS); Dwight Batey, Justin Hunt (TEL); May 14, 2001
Approved by: ;
Reviewed by: ;
Revised by: Mike Tucker, Simon Kissler; December 13, 2002
Revised by: Mike Tucker, Simon Kissler, Mike Schwinn; May 21, 2003
Revised by: Mike Tucker, Mike Rabe, Simon Kissler, Mike Schwinn; January 8, 2005
Revised by: Mike Tucker, Mike Rabe, Simon Kissler, Mike Schwinn; March 14, 2006