Innovating with IT networks
Deployment of IT networks is not always executed in coordination with our constructor lots. Most often, it is work carried out by the developer after delivery and is meant to reflect the developer’s – i.e. the tenant’s – specifications.
Raised floors and suspended ceilings must be opened so that fiber wires or cooper cables can be installed to connect to the RJ45 sockets located at the base of each work station. And network routing equipment (switches) must be installed and configured in the machine rooms on each floor and at the heart of the networks, in the building’s main equipment room.
On the other hand, general provisions are indeed taken into consideration during construction: laying cable in raised floors and suspended ceilings, or in the baseboards along the walls, installing vertical cables and sizing the machine rooms on each floor…
For Archipel, as the tenant was already known (VINCI Holdings) and the construction companies were well-placed to carry out the works for the tenants, we had a role to play in terms of innovation, including with respect to IT networks.
We have considered two options:
The first includes equipping the office space only with fiber optics, from the building’s lower levels all the way to each work station. A bit like the way fiber modems are installed in homes. This entails equipping each work station with a coupler that’s both fiber optic / copper (PCs cannot directly connect to fiber). That allows the connection to reach each floor’s machine room; and it means no more intermediary switches. But the results in terms of cost and performance are not totaling convincing.
The second option includes installing switches in the raised floors (or suspended ceilings) rather than in each floor’s machine room. This configuration is proposed by INGETEL, a specialized engineering consultancy that has named this solution ECO FLEX’IT. This means switches that don’t require cooling: such industrial switches cost a little more and are lodged in specific metal drawers. They are connected to each other by fiber optic loops inside a plateau.
The beauty of this concept lies in the fact that the switches are located near the work stations: the length of the cables running between the switches and the PC sockets is considerably reduced. It is therefore much easier to add or change the location of IT sockets. It is no longer necessary to overdensify the IT sockets because it is too complicated to install them once the tenant has taken possession of the premises. This generates significant savings, the details of which are set forth in the document attached.
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