COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS-VOICE, DATA, VIDEO, LAN, HVAC, FIRE ALARM, SECURITY, AND cctv ‘Today's businesses reply on their communication systems to stay competitive, Communi systems used to connect users together or to share information, ion systems cover a wide range of voiee, information processing, and signaling Five categories of communications systems in commercial bulldings need structured cabling systoms, Th 4. Phone systems 2,Dala systems 3. Local Area Networks (LANs) 4, Bulding Automation and Contil Systems (BACS) 5. Sound Systems Each lype of system is defined by NEC (National Electrical Code) in diferent sections of the NEC. Each system requires its own cabling system and usually is bid and built by separate ‘contractors,PHONE SYSTEMS Most commercial businesses require more than one phone line, so that employees can receive phone calls while other employees are making phone calls. This is supported by a phone switch. Each telephone is connected to the phone switch using UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) copper cable, This is shown in the following figure. Central Once ———«_ ‘seten weve = fo fo ee ie Phone| |Netvort rs hoe fee> Small Business Phone Systems Small businesses with fewer employees typically use small phone switches called Key Service Units (KSU). A KSU is designed to support a fixed number of phone lines and telephone extensions. A typical KSU supports up to eight phone lines coming from the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC, the phone company), and up to 32 telephone extensions. A KSU phone system is shown below.> Large Business Phone Systems Large businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees need a large phone switch called PBX (Private Branch Exchange). PBX can support hundreds of phone lines from the LEC (phone company) and thousands of telephone extensions, PBX systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. SODATA SYSTEMS The term Data System is typically used to describe a mainframe or minicomputer system. It is not used to describe today’s popular PC-Server LAN (Local Area Network) systems. Mainframe and minicomputer data systems were popular in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. They have mostly been replaced by LAN (Local Area Network) systems. (We will talk about LAN in the next section). Amainframe is a large, centralized computer that performed all computing activities. All applications were installed on the mainframe computer, and all data was stored on the mainframe computer's disk drives. Users interacted with the mainframe computer through terminals which were connected to a port on the mainframe’s controller with a communication cable. A mainframe computer could support hundreds of terminals. A mainframe computer was powerful enough to support an entire company.oecomes TI 7> Minicomputers ‘A minicomputer is a smaller version of the mainframe computer. All applications ran on the centralized computer system and all data was stored on the minicomputer's disk drives. Users interacted with the minicomputer through terminals which were connected to a port on the minicomputer with a copper cable. Because minicomputers were not as powerful as mainframes, they supported only small ‘number of terminals, Terminals Disk Drives COMPUTER Tape Drives ccruyLAN (LOCAL AREA NETWORKS), In 1980, IBM produced the first Personal Computer (PC) and LAN (Local Area Network) was designed to link PCs together and enabled them to communicate. The term LAN is defined as “a data communication system allowing a number of independent devioas to communicate directly wth each other and within a moderately sized geographic area The following picture shows a small LAN network. workstation Workstation Workstation Workstation workstation3) CCTV System Closed Circuit Television system is a video network for security purpose. Itis made up of video cameras placed throughout a building and campus. The video cameras are wired to a headend with coaxial cable. In tum, the headend sends the video signal to television ‘monitoring sets in a security office. A typical CCTV system is shown below.