|
Old problems - optimistic tendencies
The Russian SCS market, which has a turnover of only $ 50 million in brand-name cable products per year, has been steadily developing for many years and is distinguished by a stable nomenclature, an established circle of suppliers and established customer preferences in relation to certain brands. products. Nevertheless, one or two new "players" from both foreign and domestic manufacturers appear on it every year. Fierce competition, relatively low growth rates compared to the IT market as a whole, low margins on standard Category 5e products - these and other factors are forcing suppliers to diversify their offerings and look for ways to expand the market in order to resist the massive influx of nameless products and increase its attractiveness for partners ...
Despite the fact that today the simplest Category 5e systems are in great demand today, on the SCS market one can observe a tendency for the complexity of projects in the field of cable infrastructure of buildings: they are becoming more and more complex, covering telephony, security and monitoring systems, and electrical equipment. The trend of combining voice and data transmission networks, as well as their increase in scale, leads to the use of SCS with high bandwidth and noise immunity, which can stimulate the demand for optical solutions and cable systems of high categories. According to some forecasts, by 2008 the ratio of SCS in Categories 5e and 6 in Russia may increase to 1: 3, which today characterizes SCS markets in some European countries.
In an effort to offer customers everything they need to build a cable infrastructure, many suppliers are no longer limited to the production of only SCS. Companies are diversifying their businesses with cable ducts, ducts, communication cabinets, campus cables and products for industrial applications, telephony or telecom solutions, intelligent copper and optical cable infrastructure management systems, and even active equipment. Integrators impose on SCS suppliers such requirements as ease of installation in "field conditions" (including optical components), availability of modules that form a single stylistic solution, as well as additional accessories, such as cable ducts and equipment cabinets.
New applications - new requirements The
expectations of widespread demand for Category 6 in Russia, which have not yet come true, are primarily related to the redundancy of this system in terms of supporting existing applications. Thus, the SCS market as such depends on the development of the IT market as a whole, and its future prospects are largely related to how quickly and widely new applications will be introduced, for which the capabilities of Category 5e SCS are no longer enough. In an effort to reduce the aforementioned dependence, suppliers are trying to increase the consumer attractiveness of their solutions by offering intelligent cable management systems, unified stylistic solutions for low-current and power wiring, supplementing SCS with various active equipment, etc.
With the proliferation of enterprise VoIP applications, cabling systems will have to cope with voice traffic, business application traffic, and sometimes video. The cable infrastructure support of key business tasks, the growth of information security threats impose new requirements on SCS as well. In the future, shielded SCS and plastic optical fiber may become widespread in specialized applications. The versatility of SCS implies the possibility of its use for the implementation of the infrastructure of the data center, however, the integration of servers, storage systems and network equipment into a single network environment requires a different topology, and the evolution to higher transmission speeds here is faster than in office SCS.
In specialized applications, including data centers and some vertical markets, there is a need to build 10GE networks. In the upcoming 10GBase-T (802.3an) standard, to achieve 10 Gbps, it is planned to define norms for copper cables in the range of up to 500 MHz. The final version of the standard is due in 2006, and its approval promises to open the way for the creation of new cost-effective high-speed cable systems. A number of companies already manufacture shielded and even unshielded Category 6 and 7 cabling systems suitable for building 10GBase-T networks. According to forecasts, in five years the number of users of horizontal 10GE subsystems may more than quadruple.Several server vendors and most enterprise-class networking equipment manufacturers provide 10GE interfaces to their products.
Despite the certain conservatism of the SCS market, new ideas regularly appear here, standards and technologies change, and manufacturers continue to improve their products, releasing new solutions with characteristics that exceed the requirements of standards. New products also appear at the manufacturers of cable trays, cabinets and accessories. Each year, the systems for quick fastening of trays are improved, new models of cabinets appear that simplify their assembly, fastening and maintenance, and also meet the needs of companies of different sizes. New applications place increased requirements not only on the structure-forming components for building SCS, but also on cable laying systems, especially in a high-density environment of data centers, trays, cable channels, wiring cabinets (in particular, for products for low-port SCS), tools,labeling and diagnostic devices. The growing popularity of WLAN networks is also changing the balance of power in the SCS market.
In a year or two, Russia may see a boom in structured cabling systems for industrial use, and in this regard, many manufacturers are planning to develop new types of products for customers from the manufacturing sector. Currently, the IAONA (Industrial Automation Open Networking Alliance) alliance is developing requirements for the cabling system and wiring elements for industrial use, which takes into account the principles of building structured cabling systems set forth in the standards EN 50173-1 and IEC 11801: 2002. In the coming year, it is expected to adopt the Industrial Ethernet standard for industrial SCS (TIA / EIA 1005).
Materials from the official site of the
publishing house "Open Systems"
|
