The basic statistics for Lucent Technologies' new U.S. research and development facilities are staggering by any comparison. Located just outside Chicago, the aggregate floor space is more than one million square feet. The primary mission of the research complex is the development of core technology for switching and high-speed wireless communications.

To service the voice, data and video network, and the intelligent building systems needs of this ambitious undertaking, an elaborate cabling infrastructure was required. Two high-rise structures are each strung with one million feet of two-strand, single-mode optical fiber cable and an additional three million feet of four-pair Category 6 copper cable. Three copper cables and two single-mode optical fibers are the standard configuration to each of more than 9,000 work areas.

Says Jack McKillip, RCDD, an infrastructure engineer who designed much of the cabling system and oversaw its installation, "The scale and complexity of this project is totally warranted, given the purpose of the new facility and how it relates to the existing operation."

Prior to the construction of the new buildings, Lucent had already established a major data center in an adjacent building, one occupying an entire floor and serving as a central repository of data resources for a worldwide network of Lucent Technologies and Bell Laboratories. From this hub, a mesh backbone of single-mode and multimode fiber extends to seven other nearby buildings, including the two newest structures.

The backbone itself is heavily protected. Redundant fiber, diverse routing, and instantaneous restoration in the face of fiber breaks ensure that the network operates under practically any circumstance. A concrete-encased duct bank, through which the backbone runs, provides a further measure of security.

The internal data network as it is now configured supports 10/100Base-T ethernet. The copper cable will support Gigabit Ethernet and the single-mode fiber has virtually unlimited bandwidth.

The project, as a whole, McKillip says, "was intended to be one of the world's most advanced engineering and scientific laboratories. Fiber to the desktop may seem pretty extravagant, but when you have several thousand engineers collaborating over the network, it really isn't.

"In one sense, it's basically just a huge cabling job," he adds. "There are no routers or servers or redundant memory in any of the closets. There's really no data center in either of the buildings. It's all just switches and wire going back to the main data center across campus.

Lucent prequalified all prospective bidders, arriving at a final choice of Advanced Data Technologies (ADT), where McKillips is a consultant. The company also chose to use the Chatsworth Products Inc. (CPI) rack and cabling management system, which provided for an infinite combination of equipment configurations, along with high-density cable management. In fact, ADT began the massive installation project using CPI's system approach.

"When people first became more conscious of cable management, we started using stand-alone wire-management racks," explains Dave Kelsch, ADT president and Lucent project manager. "But once you get into multiple racks and high density requirements, racks alone don't do the job."

Each floor of each wing is equipped with a modular "telecom room," with a CPI rack system comprised of 14 open rack systems, each containing a combination of Avaya's SYSTIMAX patch panels and Cajun Ethernet switches. Smaller closets containing complements of the same equipment are located in the center wing, which largely supports major conference rooms. In addition, each building has main telecom rooms, with the same type of equipment in each of the basements.

The telecom rooms house all of the equipment and cabling for voice, data and video, as well as intelligent building systems equipment and cabling, which presented an additional challenge. "Everything had to be dead accurate, because of the space constraints," says McKillip.

"Everything fit perfectly," adds Kelsch. "We had hundreds of terminations at each switch and patch panel and all the cable coming in through horizontal runs because there was no raised floor or dropped ceiling. All of the cabling was exposed in the closets. Since this building is a showcase, as well as a work area, the installation had to make the right visual statement, and it does." The final part of the job involved termination of the cable at the desktop, which meant routing individual wires through the floor-to-ceiling Steelcase office furnishings used to demarcate the workspaces.

As Lucent intensifies its research efforts, its new facilities continue to acquire yet more powerful computing engines and to generate ever more network traffic. McKillip says that the basic cable infrastructure will provide capability for unlimited situations. "The capacity at each desktop is more than many large corporations have for their entire headquarters!"