Author Archives

Liz Goldsmith

Anixter unveils infrastructure assurance program for next-gen buildings

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Anixter has unveiled its new Utility Grade INFRASTRUCTURE platform. The new technology platform, assurance program and design approach redefines the infrastructure layer to support building subsystems, technologies and applications. Developed alongside the leading network infrastructure manufacturers, Belden, CommScope and Fluke Networks, and third-party tested and verified by UL, Anixter’s UTG program will offer UTG-rated cabling solutions and provide the foundation that will unlock the potential of the next generation of buildings to maximize ROI and enhance user experience.

Ruckus Networks eases hotel fiber deployments while enabling IoT

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Ruckus Networks (now part of CommScope)  has expanded its hospitality connectivity portfolio to include the company’s ICX 7150-24F fiber switch, ICX 7150-C08 compact switch and Fiber Backpack, which supports its H510 access point (AP). The new products add fiber support to existing offerings for hospitality and multi-dwelling unit (MDU) customers. Together with CommScope’s structured cabling products, the company offers customers an end-to-end solution. Ruckus is also announcing the addition of new Internet of Things (IoT) partners to its ecosystem to better address hospitality business priorities, including improving operational efficiency, enhancing guest services, and increasing guest and staff safety.

NYC financial markets get low-latency dark fiber upgrade

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Transaction Network Services has significantly upgraded and expanded its network capacity to include dark fiber connectivity in the strategically important “New York Triangle”, giving financial traders ultra-high-speed access to market data and TNS’ financial community of interest. The new TNS dark fiber network can be expanded up to four terabits of capacity, effectively preparing traders’ networks for the future as their data requirements with TNS grow.

Join the IoT Security Foundation

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The Internet of Things Security Foundation (IoTSF) has established to make it safe to connect in the smart and hyper-connected era of IoT.  Our Smart Building Working Group  will establish a comprehensive set of guidelines to help each of the supply chain participants to specify, procure, install, integrate, operate and maintain IoT securely in buildings. This includes intelligent buildings equipment and controls such as audio visual (AV), fire, HVAC, lighting and building security.

Healthcare IT: When TV drama meets real-life medical device security

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“‘Murder by pacemaker’” isn’t a real thing, is it?” my friend asked. She’d caught a TV drama in which the victim’s pacemaker was hacked. From a remote location, the hacker—a murderer for hire—was able to access the device, accelerate the victim’s heart rate, and cause cardiac arrest. While that’s not yet possible, connected medical devices—like pacemakers, medical infusion pumps, CT scanners, and insulin pumps—are  helping many of us enjoy a better quality of life. But, the advances made possible with IoT and other innovations are not without risk and healthcare is particularly vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Smart buildings can do more than cut your energy bills

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Microsoft adopted a data-driven approach for it’s Amsterdam headquarters redesign. It tracked the use of meeting rooms and communal areas for six months. The data led to a 25 per cent reduction in the amount of space required. Employees now use an app to locate colleagues and book a wide range of workspaces, including and silent zones. Sensors measure occupancy, temperature, humidity, light and noise levels. Mr Williams says: “We’ve completely redesigned the way we work.”

AZ Zeno Hospital -A Place of Recovery and Harmony

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The AZ Zeno hospital in Knokke, Belgium combines high-tech medicine, combined with pioneering patient care. <<We were very aware of the challenges we were facing with high-grade medical images quickly having to be transmitted across the network». This is why Ingenium recommended equipping the operating rooms with fiber optics. The plan also included a redundant server room being connected with a redundant data center using fiber optics. Ingenium opted for multimode OM4 or singlemode cabling to correspond with the transmission distance in each case.

Optics are weak link in industry supply chain, suggests new LightCounting report

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Industry analyst firm, LightCounting found that optical component and module vendors had the lowest profitability across all levels of the industry supply chain for the last 15 years. The group’s average profit margin improved in 2016-2017, reaching 9 per cent, but dropped to below 4 per cent in 2018. In contrast, profits of other company types in the industry improved last year. Demand for networking products, including optics was very strong in 2018. So, what is the problem with optics?

Webinar: Development of High Density Loose Tube Cables Incorporating Rollable Ribbon Units

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This on-demand webinar looks at how optical ribbon is used to minimize deployment costs by supporting mass fusion splicing. Design constraints on traditional flat ribbon cable structures have limited the maximum cable capacity to 864 fibers in a 25 mm cable. Rollable ribbons were developed in Japan to address the design constraints imposed by traditional ribbon structures. The linear array of fibers is intermittently connected by matrix. The intermittent connection breaks the preferential bending of the ribbon structure and allows the use of design rules for a loose fiber or fiber bundle cable while supporting standard mass fusion splicing.

Webinar: Reuse or Replace Fiber

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Is your fiber cabling plant able to handle your next tech refresh? How about multiple generations of upgrades? Depending on the makeup of your existing network and your future needs, the difference between a complete rip-and-replace and being able to reuse your fiber cabling infrastructure will have a big impact on the amount of downtime, expense and headaches you will endure.This webinar can help answer these questions, and show you ways to minimize disruptive changes during future upgrades.