You have been asked to recommend a type of wiring for a manu

You have been asked to recommend a type of wiring for a manufacturing building. The size of the building is 200 meters by 600 meters. (Corresponding to about 650 feet by 2000 feet), and it houses large, heavy machinery. Approximately 50 devices in this building must be connected to a computer system. Each device transmits data at 2 Mbps and sends a small packet of data every two to three seconds. Due to various building-related factors, any cable used for this network has to be suspended high overhead in a hard to reach location.

What type of cable would you recommend? Use the media selection criteria introduced in this chapter to arrive at your answer.

Solution

Cost, security, environment, distance and expandability are few factors to be considered in making a decision regarding the cables used for transfer of data. Along with these there is an another factor that must be considered in the media selection process is the environment. Many types of environments are hazardous to certain media. Because of the heavy machinery involved in the connection there will be more electromagnetic radiation that can inferfere with improperly shielded cables. In these type of cases it is better to use either shielded cable or optical fiber cable.