Wiring Closets

The wiring closets at Mount Holyoke will include all of the following:

Fiber optic cables
Electrical
Video / Cable TV
Data
Door access control
HVAC
Telephone
Alarm systems: intrusion, fire, door

While room for all of these system should be considered, there may be a need for additional wiring closets in a building if the Cat 5 specification is exceeded. The specification calls for data ports to be no more than 100 meters from the patch panel in the wiring closet to the end station (computer). Because of this we require that the length of the wire run from the patch panel in the wire closet to the data drop, be no more than 85 meters. This allows us to use a longer patch cable in an office if necessary.

The walls of the wire closet should be fully lined with plywood and most of the components in it should be wall mounted on that plywood. The mounting plywood should be from two feet off the floor to seven feet off the floor. All Data components should be placed in a 19 inch rack and not on the wall.

Space

A minimum wiring closet 8 by 10 feet would satisfy the following, given only a single data rack and assuming all wall mounted items have at least 5 feet vertical space:

Data racks, one rack per 134 data ports.
3 x 2.5 feet total. 1 x 3 foot for UPS on floor.
Fiber: rack mounted (additional rack) or wall mounted: 3.5 feet
Telephone: 4 feet
HVAC controls: 3.5 feet
Alarms, door access: 3 feet
Cable TV: 5 feet

The wiring closet should also have room for a 30x24 inch table and chair for a computer for maintenance.

Wiring

The various wiring should be color coded in the same scheme used in the residence halls. We used category 5 wire for all existing telephone and data wiring in the residence halls. Any new wire shall comply with the Cat 5E standard.

Our present color code is as follows:
Data = Gray	Phone = Blue	HVAC = Green	Door Access = Yellow

Wiring closet examples

This is an view of a wiring closet. Telephone and access control equipment are on the left, video cables are on the far left, a fiber optic panel is straight ahead, and a piece of the data rack is on the right.

Here are the front and back views of a data rack. There is no UPS for this equipment, but a UPS could be placed next to the rack. This rack holds 7x24 data ports. Normally we would recommend limiting a rack to 6x24 data ports and installing a second rack if there are more.

Fiber Panel in a rack for a closet with large amount of fiber.
Video connection on the left; a single fiber panel on the right.
Telephone panels with UPS for the DRUs shown at the very top.

A larger video cable installation.

Fiber Panel in a rack for a closet with large amount of fiber.	Video connection on the left; a single fiber panel on the right.	Telephone panels with UPS for the DRUs shown at the very top.
	A larger video cable installation.

Wiring Closets

Space

Wiring

Wiring closet examples

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