EE8236 ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS IN BUILDINGS

Lecture 16

5. Intercom Facility of a Building (Telephone System)

5.1 PABX System

Short for Private Automated Branch Exchange, this telephone network is commonly used by
call centers and other organizations. PABX allows a single access number to offer multiple
lines to outside callers while providing a range of external lines to internal callers or staff.

5.1.1 PBX System

PBX is an acronym for Private Branch Exchange and it stands for a telephone exchange that
is used in business or the office as opposed to one that is used as a common carrier or
Telephone Company that operates for many businesses or for the general public.

PBXs are used to make connections amongst the internal telephones of a private
organization, which are usually business oriented. They are also connected to a public
switched telephone network (PSTN) through trunk lines. As they incorporate telephones,
modems, fax machines, and many more parts, the general term "extensions" that is given is
referred to the end point on the branch.

PBXs are differentiated from the key systems in which the users of the key system manually
select the outgoing lines, whereas the PABX phone system selects it automatically. There are
some hybrid systems that combine both the features. In the beginning, the main advantage of
PBXs was the cost saved on internal phone calls, handling the circuit switching and thus
locally reduced charges for the local phone service. Over the time, as PBXs increased in their
popularity, it started offering many more services than the operator network, like call
forwarding and extension dialing.

5.1.2 Essential Components in a PABX System

Some of the most essential parts required to set up a PABX system include the following:
 Microcomputer – This is the central processing unit that interprets caller requests.
 System Cards – These include devices for switching, control, logic, and power cards
that make that facilitate the PABX operations.
 UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) – It consists of sensors, switches, and batteries
that allow the system to run round the clock.
 Stations or telephone sets, sometimes called lines.
 Outside trunks- Trunk lines are the connection to the outside world of the PBX. It
can be either digital or analog. Analog trunk lines are analog telephone lines from
PSTN. When it is digital, it uses digital interfacing technology like ISDN (Integrated
Services Digital Network). Normally, high end PABX which needs more trunk lines
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 use digital standard and lower end PBX uses analog lines.
 Console or switchboard allows the operator to control incoming calls.
 Interconnecting wiring.
 Cabinets, closets, vaults and other housings.

5.1.3 PABX functions

Functionally, the PABX performs four main call processing duties:
 Establishing connections (circuits) between the telephone sets of two users (e.g.
mapping a dialed number to a physical phone, ensuring the phone isn't already busy)
 Maintaining such connections as long as the users require them (i.e. channeling voice
signals between the users)
 Disconnecting those connections as per the user's requirement
 Providing information for accounting purposes (e.g. metering calls)
In addition to these basic functions, PBXs offer many other calling features and capabilities,
with different manufacturers providing different features in an effort to differentiate their
products. Common capabilities include (manufacturers may have a different name for each
capability):
 Auto attendant
 Auto dialing
 Automatic call distributor
 Automated directory services (where callers can be routed to a given employee by
keying or speaking the letters of the employee's name)
 Automatic ring back
 Call accounting
 Call blocking
 Call forwarding on busy or absence
 Call park - allows a person to put a call on hold at one telephone set and continue the
conversation from any other telephone set.
 Call pick-up
 Call transfer
 Call waiting
 Camp-on - A signal that informs a busy telephone user that another call originator is
waiting for a connection
 Conference call - A conference call is a telephone call in which the calling party
wishes to have more than one called party listens in to the audio portion of the call.
 Custom greetings
 Customized Abbreviated dialing (Speed Dialing)
 Busy Override
 Direct Inward Dialing - In DID service the telephone company provides one or more
trunk lines to the customer for connection to the customer's PBX and allocates a range
of telephone numbers to this line (or group of lines) and forwards all calls to such

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 numbers via the trunk. As calls are presented to the PBX, the dialed destination
number (DNIS) is transmitted, usually partially (e.g., last four digits), so that the PBX
can route the call directly to the desired telephone extension within the organization
without the need for an operator or attendant.
 Direct Inward System Access (DISA) (the ability to access internal features from an
 outside telephone line)
 Do not disturb (DND)
 Follow-me, also known as find-me: Determines the routing of incoming calls. The
exchange is configured with a list of numbers for a person. When a call is received for
that person, the exchange routes it to each number on the list in turn until either the
call is answered or the list is exhausted (at which point the call may be routed to a
voice mail system).
 Interactive voice response - In telecommunications, IVR allows customers to interact
with a company’s host system via a telephone keypad or by speech recognition, after
which they can service their own inquiries by following the IVR dialogue.
 Music on hold
 Night service - incoming calls are automatically redirected by the switchboard to
particular telephones or other equipment (Security persons)
 Shared message boxes (where a department can have a shared voicemail box)
 Voice mail
 Voice message broadcasting
 Welcome Message

5.1.4 PBX Wiring

There are three basic types of telephones that connect to PBX, or Private Branch Exchange
systems. They are analog, digital and VoIP telephone sets. The PBX is the electronic
switching system that connects network services to telephone sets and routes calls to the
desired locations. Category 5 cable allows connectivity to all three types of phones and gives
you the versatility to change the types of devices in any location without replacing or
modifying the cabling.

5.1.5 Wiring Types

Regular Wiring
The most basic type of telephone wiring is the kind that most people are familiar with. Basic
wiring that a telephone comes with, including wiring that is installed through telephone
companies, is considered regular wiring. Regular telephone wiring is generally everything
you will need to operate a basic phone line. The coils are not twisted tremendously as are
other telephone wires. The downside is that basic telephone wires are difficult to use with
Internet connections. They can only support a limited amount of data, and therefore a
limited amount of transmission over the modem.

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Cat 3 TP Cable
Outside of the basic type, all telephone wires receive a category scale rating, also known as a
Cat scale. An alternative to a regular telephone wire is the category 3 TP cable, also known
as Cat 3 cable. Commonly utilized in Ethernet systems and networks, the wiring is designed
to transmit more information than regular telephone wire transmission. It reaches limits of up
to 10 megabits per second.

Cat 5 TP Cable
Above the Cat 3 is the category 5 TP cable, also known as the Cat 5 cable. The wire is more
twisted than other cable types, including the Cat 3 and regular phone wiring, serving to
reduce interference. It is used in advanced data transmission systems, including Token Rings,
as well as Asynchronous Transfers. It can support 10 times the data that a Cat 3 telephone
wire can, including up to 100 megabits per second.

Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

Figure 5.1: UTP

UTP cables are found in many Ethernet networks and telephone systems. For indoor
telephone applications, UTP is often grouped into sets of 25 pairs according to a standard
25-pair color code. Typical subset of these colors (white/blue, blue/white, white/orange,
orange/white) shows up in most UTP cables.

For urban outdoor telephone cables containing hundreds or thousands of pairs, the
cable is divided into smaller but identical bundles. Each bundle consists of twisted pairs
that have different twist rates. The bundles turn twisted together to make up the cable.

UTP cable is also the most common cable used in computer networking. Modern Ethernet,
the most common data networking standard, utilizes UTP cables. Twisted pair cabling is
often used in data networks for short and medium length connections because of its relatively
lower costs compared to optical fiber and coaxial cable.

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Table 5.1: Most common twisted-pair cables
Name Type Bandwidth Applications Notes
Level 1 0.4 MHz Telephone and modem lines Unsuitable for modern systems.
Level 2 4 MHz Older terminal systems Unsuitable for modern systems.
Unsuitable for speeds above 16
Cat3 UTP 16 MHz 10BASE-T and 100BASE-T4 Mbit/s. Now mainly for
telephone cables
Cat4 UTP 20 MHz 16 Mbit/s Token Ring Not commonly used

Cat5 UTP 100 MHz 100BASE-TX & 1000BASE- Common in most current LANs
T Ethernet
Enhanced Cat5. Same
100BASE-TX & 1000BASE-
Cat5e UTP 100 MHz construction as Cat5, but with
T Ethernet
better testing standards.
Most commonly installed cable
Cat6 UTP 250 MHz 10GBASE-T Ethernet in Finland according to the 2002
standard. SFS-EN 50173-1
Cat6a 500 MHz 10GBASE-T Ethernet ISO/IEC 11801:2002
Amendment 2. (shielded
Four pairs, S/FTP
Telephone, CCTV,
pairs, braid-screened cable).
Class F S/FTP 600 MHz 1000BASE-TX in the same
Development complete -
cable. 10GBASE-T Ethernet.
ISO/IEC 11801 2nd Ed.
Four pairs, S/FTP (shielded
Telephone, CATV,
pairs, braid-screened cable).
Class Fa 1000 MHz 1000BASE-TX in the same
Development complete -
cable. 10GBASE-T Ethernet.
ISO/IEC 11801 2nd Ed. Am. 2.

Telephone jacks and Outlets

Figure 5.2: Telephone Jacks & Outlets

Left to right, modular connectors:

 eight-contact 8P8C plug (used for RJ45, RJ49, RJ61 and others)
 six-contact 6P6C plug used for RJ25
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  four-contact 6P4C plug used for RJ14 (often also used instead of 6P2C for RJ11)
 four-contact 4P4C handset plug (also popularly, though incorrectly, called "RJ9",
"RJ10", or "RJ22")
RJ11, RJ14, and RJ25 can be plugged into the same six-pin 6P6C jack.

A registered jack (RJ) is a standardized physical network interface — both jack

construction and wiring pattern — for connecting

5.2 Voice Over IP

Voice over IP (VoIP, or voice over Internet Protocol) commonly refers to the
communication protocols, technologies, methodologies, and transmission techniques
involved in the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet
Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. Other terms commonly associated with VoIP are
IP telephony, Internet telephony, voice over broadband (VoBB), broadband telephony, IP
communications, and broadband phone

Figure 5.3: Setup of Voice Over IP System

Because of the bandwidth efficiency and low costs that VoIP technology can provide,
businesses are migrating from traditional copper-wire telephone systems to VoIP systems to
reduce their monthly phone costs. In 2008, 80% of all new PBX lines installed
internationally were VoIP.

5.2.1 Advantages
There are several advantages to using voice over IP. The biggest single advantage VoIP has
over standard telephone systems is cost. In addition, international calls using VoIP are
usually very inexpensive. One other advantage, which will become much more pronounced
as VoIP use climbs, is that calls between VoIP users are usually free. Using services such as
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True VoIP, subscribers can call one another at no cost to either party.

VoIP can be a benefit for reducing communication and infrastructure costs. Examples
include:

 Routing phone calls over existing data networks to avoid the need for separate voice
and data networks.
 The ability to transmit more than one telephone call over a single broadband
connection.
 Secure calls using standardized protocols (such as Secure Real-time Transport
Protocol).
Most of the difficulties of creating a secure telephone connection over traditional phone
lines, such as digitizing and digital transmission, are already in place with VoIP. It is only
necessary to encrypt and authenticate the existing data stream.

5.2.2 Disadvantages
 Network traffic – reliability of the service
 Fixed delay
 Quality of the voice
 Susceptibility to power failure
 The nature of IP makes it difficult to locate network users geographically

5.3 Ethernet Structured Wiring

Structured cabling is building telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists
of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into five subsystems:

 Demarcation point is the point where the telephone company network ends and
connects with the on-premises wiring at the customer premises.
 Equipment or Telecommunication Rooms house equipment and wiring
consolidation points that serve the users inside the building
 Vertical or Riser Cabling connects between the equipment/telecommunications
rooms, so named because the rooms are typically on different floors.
 Horizontal wiring can be IW (inside wiring) and connects telecommunications
rooms to individual outlets or work areas on the floor, usually through the wireways,
conduits or ceiling spaces of each floor.
 Work-Area Components connect end-user equipment to outlets of the horizontal
cabling system.

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Ethernet Structured Wiring

 10Base-T : 10 Mbps data transfer speed with twisted pair cables

(Cat 3 cables) - Ethernet
 100Base-T: 100 Mbps data transfer speed with twisted pair cables
(Cat 5, 5e cables) – Fast Ethernet
 1000Base-T: 1000 Mbps data transfer speed with twisted pair cables
(Cat 5, 5e cables) – Gigabit Ethernet

Components in an Ethernet Structured Cabling

 Wiring – Cat 5, 5e or higher cables (UTP, 4 pair)
 Sockets and Plugs (Jacks) – RJ45
 Patch panels
 Jumper cables
 Mounting Racks (19”)

Figure 5.4: Patch panel

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