Belden is a global leader in signal transmission solutions for mission-critical applications, and its Hirschmann switches are helping customers in the EMEA region to create environmentally responsible and sustainable network infrastructures. In 2012, the first of two major building projects in France involved the installation of exactly such an infrastructure.
Hirschmann was chosen to provide IP network devices for a new type of IT infrastructure for buildings, EcoFlex’IT. This was developed by the French IT consulting company Ingetel-bet. Deployed six months ago in several large office buildings in France by Exprimm’IT, a French Hirschmann partner, EcoFlex’IT hugely decreases the carbon footprint and power consumption of IT networks and is also extremely versatile.
The first EcoFlex’IT network has been operating in the building since December 2010 and is used daily by more than 700 users. It also connects to equipment such as PCs, IP phones and videoconferencing equipment, shared printers and fax machines, plus WiFi and DECT access points.
The 11 813 m², 8-floor building has only one IT room and this houses the distributor for the building. The IT cables and the network are organised as follows:
Cabling for the entire building is centred on a single switch cabinet in which the cabling components occupy only 16U of each rack’s 42U height.
Eight optical rings are provided, one on each level from ground to seventh, installed in raised floors. They are connected to the building distributor through IT technical shafts.
Each ring has been equipped with four or five active consolidation points (ACPs), as appropriate for the working area on that level, and these are installed on a frame integrated in the raised floor.
Each ACP is connected to 12 fibre optic cables from the ring-in and 12 more from the ring-out. One ACP on each ring serves as a bridge ACP and is therefore also connected to the building distributor via a further 12 fibre optic cables, providing connections to the core IP network devices.
In addition, each ACP has four twisted pair connections that secure TDM-link distribution and drive the opening dry contact of the ACP box to the dry contact IP bridges which are located in the distributor and connected to the IP network. This itself managed by the network management platform.
Twisted-pair distribution from the distributor to the ACP is provided by multipair cables connected to a patch panel in the distributor (one RJ45 rank for each ring) and a further special module installed in the IT technical shaft on each level. From there they are connected to each of the ACPs by means of a 4TP cable attached to a four-RJ45 box located in the ACP box.
Each ACP box distributes all the users’ IT terminal devices within its distribution area, which corresponds to a surface area of approximately 200 m².
Each ACP box can accommodate one or two 48 cm or DIN standard Ring switches, providing the capacity to distribute from 4 to 48 downlink ports with Hirschmann MACH or RS series devices to the user terminals in its distribution area.
The customer selected Hirschmann MACH102 switches with Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) modules and the new range of Hirschmann MACH104 switches. The complete solution uses more than 65 switches and 90 PoE modules to deliver a green solution for the entire building. In this way it underlines Hirschmann’s commitment to the continuing development of green solutions for industrial Ethernet applications.
Each Hirschmann switch is evaluated during each of its design and production stages and throughout its actual deployment for its direct and indirect contributions to overall sustainability, ensuring the best possible performance in terms of environmental impact and carbon footprint.
As Wolfgang Schenk, general manager of Hirschmann Automation and Control GmbH, points out, highlighting the greenest products in the Hirschmann product range helps customers to make the right decisions: “We believe this move is a step in the right direction. Hirschmann has introduced a number of activities and initiatives at its manufacturing location in Neckartenzlingen to ensure that we deliver the greenest possible performance for our customers. The GreenChoice initiative fulfils exactly our management’s stated objective of offering the best performance in the marketplace today.”
For more information contact Fons de Leeuw, Profitek, 086 165 4321, [email protected], www.profiteksa.com
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