Structured cabling is building or campus tele-communications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into six subsystems:

• Entrance Facilities are where the building interfaces with the outside world.

• Equipment Rooms host equipment which serve the users inside the building.

• Telecommunications Rooms house telecommunication equipment which connect the backbone and the horizontal cabling subsystems.

• Backbone Cabling connect between the entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications rooms

• Horizontal Cabling connect telecommunications rooms to individual outlets on the floor.

• Work-Area Components connect end-user equipment to outlets of the horizontal cabling system. Structured cabling design and installation is governed by a set of standards that specify wiring data centers, offices, and apartment buildings for data or voice communications, using category 5 (CAT 5E) or category 6 cable (CAT 6) and modular sockets. These standards define how to lay the cabling in a star formation, such that all outlets terminate at a central patch panel (which is normally 19 inch rack-mounted), from where it can be determined exactly how these connections will be used. Each outlet can be ‘patched’ into a data network switch (normally also rack mounted alongside), or patched into a ‘telecoms patch panel’ which forms a bridge into a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system, thus making the connection a voice port.