Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1192126
52 I ICT TODAY Less Intrusive Retrofits, Expansions and Upgrades If network retrofits, expansions, and upgrades are needed, optical fiber reduces much of the expense and operational impact. A fiber infrastructure can reduce high-efficiency particulate absorption (HEPA) tenting requirements. HEPA tenting is intrusive, disruptive and expensive for health- care facilities. With less cabling, there is also less need to access above the ceiling. Therefore, there is less impact relative to infection control risk. For future network upgrades, today's SMF cable supports 1 GbE, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, 100 GbE and wave- length division multiplexing (WDM) technologies, so there is a high probability that the SMF LAN infrastruc- ture will support all future healthcare demands and may not need to be touched after initial installation. Space Savings = Cost Savings Healthcare facilities that leverage fiber optic cabling and POL technologies can gain significant space savings. The space can be repurposed for more patient beds, larger patient accommodations, additional work areas or other healthcare facility amenities. As discussed earlier, ANSI/TIA-1179-A expects that 45 percent of rooms should have two to six ports, 25 percent should have six to 12 ports, and 30 percent of rooms should have 14 or more ports. These Gigabit port densities and cabling can add up quickly and become overwhelming in the main data center. Passive optical LAN with fiber optic cabling provides a better alternative for managing this girth. One OLT can serve 8,000 Gigabit Ethernet endpoints (Figure 6) and can reach 12 to 18 miles across a passive infrastructure (Figure 7). A legacy copper LAN data center can support only 450 Gigabit Ethernet endpoints that reach only 300 feet over copper. One SMF cable can serve 128 Gigabit Ethernet endpoints compared to one copper cable that can serve one Gigabit endpoint (Figure 8). As a result, POL occupies 90 percent less space yet has four times greater GbE density and 300 times better reach compared to copper-based LANs. Because POL can also transport healthcare network services across a span of 12 to 18 miles with no power, air conditioning, ventilation, floor space or manage- ment needs, this means that telecommunications rooms (TRs) can be eliminated, and the number FIGURE 6: POL data center shelf density can be as much as 8,000 GbE versus a copper LAN shelf supporting only 450 GbE. FIGURE 7: Gigabit Ethernet reach over a POL architecture can be up to 18 miles versus a copper LAN reach of .06 miles (300 feet). FIGURE 8: POL Gigabit Ethernet density per fiber cable can be 128 while a copper LAN is only one. 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 Copper Fiber 9000 8000 7000 6000 4000 3000 5000 POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Shelf 2000 1000 0 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Reach in Miles 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Cable 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Copper POL 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 Copper Fiber 9000 8000 7000 6000 4000 3000 5000 POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Shelf 2000 1000 0 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Reach in Miles 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Cable 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Copper POL 0.35 0.3 0.25 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 1 Copper Fiber 9000 8000 7000 6000 4000 3000 5000 POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Shelf 2000 1000 0 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Reach in Miles 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 Copper POL POL Gigabit Ethernet Density per Cable 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Copper POL