Reichle & De-Massari (R&M), an acclaimed leader in cabling solutions for the communications network, is focusing on the launch of two highly innovative solutions, R&M Netscale which is the industry’s highest density fibre optic cable management solution for data centres, and the SYNO dome closure, a product designed to give network operators more freedom for Fibre to the X (FTTx) projects.

Netscale is the world’s highest-density fibre cable management solution, and the first to feature integrated intelligent infrastructure management functionality, explains Alfred Tharwat, head of training & data centre consultancy, R&M Middle East, Turkey & Africa.

Designed as an ultra-high density platform that utilises the smallest diameter uniboot patch cord for minimal cabling bulk, this solution boasts up to 67 per cent higher density than its competitors and promises to eliminate a host of cable management problems that plague data centres today, he says. 

Its combination of market leading features saves considerable amounts of costly space at large companies in the financial, pharma, colocation and telecom segments as well as edge data centres.

R&M develops and manufactures passive cabling solutions for high-quality communication networks (Layer 1) which contribute significantly to operational reliability and safety in voice, data and video transmission systems worldwide. 

“Our high performance cabling solutions are used in offices, data centres, by network operators, in homes and in industry. We offer an extensive product portfolio spanning over 5,000 highly customisable products,” he says.

In addition to serving its customers with the best solutions and service, R&M will continue to grow its strategic partnerships with leading IT companies such as FNT Software, ABB, and Fluke Network who have regularly co-hosted Data Centre Network Days with it. Such events have enabled it to strengthen its relationships with existing customers while also penetrating into new accounts and verticals, he says.

“We have established ourselves as the leading and preferred vendor for Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Networks by the regional operators. As a result of this, we have had a significant amount of success in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Last year, we have also been able to capitalise on the growing cabling market in Jordan,” he says.

“Our objective for the Middle East has been to establish ourselves as the structured cabling vendor of choice for telcos, public and private sector organisations and to capitalise on opportunities by offering the most innovative products with the highest Swiss quality and degree of customization,” says Tharwat.

R&M has also successfully executed a number of projects in the region. Among them, at Daman Insurance Headquarter in Abu Dhabi the company delivered a comprehensive office cabling solution, at the company’s 18 floor headquarters building in Abu Dhabi. Daman used R&M’s art network infrastructure to deploy the latest IT applications and services.

This solution effortlessly delivers 10GbE connectivity as it utilises R&M’s Cat.6a ISO solution (instead of the TIA Cat.6a which is often deployed). This was on account of the solution’s compliance with the more stringent ISO/IEC 11801 Class EA link standard which guarantees higher performance, quality and reliability. R&M’s Cat.6a solution has enabled Daman to gain superior performance, outstanding security margin for signal transmission, and wide performance scope for demanding applications. A notable feature is the solution’s ability to support transmission frequencies of up to 650 MHz, which is a large step up over the 500 Mhz specified by the Cat.6a standard, he says.

Daman also utilised R&M’s OM3 fibre-optic cabling for fibre backbone connectivity which is suitable for the current 10GbE application requirements and will also allow the insurance specialist to migrate seamlessly to 40 GbE and even 100 GbE. The company spared no expense and utilised a raised floor design in its office layout. Here the modularity of its cabling solutions proved to be an invaluable asset.

Finally, as the implementation was executed by R&M’s certified integration partner, Daman has been able to avail of R&M’s 25-year system warranty.
 

R&M offers an extensive product portfolio of over 5,000 products

Dubai Airport Free Zone: R&M cabled, one of the Middle East’s most prestigious Free zone, the Dubai Airport Free Zone (Dafza) which was one of its largest project installations in the Middle East.

As a government entity, Dafza’s responsibility is to provide best-in-class services and amenities to companies and investors in order to facilitate all their business requirements. 

As a result, Dafza looked to R&M with its strong reputation in the market and innovative cabling range solutions to implement a large-scale project comprising eight buildings.

In working with Dafza, R&M was keen to have it become a network infrastructure leader by installing one of the most robust and highest-performing networks in the country. “We advised Dafza not to compromise by only looking at the short-term but to install a high-quality network as a future-proof investment capable of scaling,” he says.

R&M utilised its wide-range enterprise cabling portfolio with a mix of copper and fibre components, including its Cat.6A shielded STP solution for ultra-high-performance due to the fact that the 360 degree component shielding protects it against electromagnetic interference as well as data loss. This ensures maximum performance and connectivity throughout the network by enabling faster broadband transmission speeds. In total, over 40 000 points were implemented throughout eight buildings.

Muscat International Airport: This airport has utilised a fibre-optic backbone network, based on R&M’s solutions, to ensure reliable, high-performance connectivity between its various facilities buildings and the telco networks of the country’s leading operators, Omantel and Ooredoo. This network infrastructure serves as the platform upon which all its internal and external telecommunications and other operational applications and services run.

Speaking about new projects, he says one of the UAE’s largest oil companies has begun investing in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi. One of their undertakings has been building a massive complex of 40 residential buildings to accommodate the staff. 

To provide the very latest and best connectivity, Etisalat’s compliant FTTH cabling will be installed in all the buildings with a total number of data/telephone points exceeding 38,000 Cat6 points. The end-to-end Cat6 and FTTH cabling solution was procured from R&M in Q4 2015. The cabling project execution began in the second half of Q2 2016 and is expected to be completed in a year, he says.

Speaking about new and innovative products R&M introduces in the Gulf recently, he says: “One solution that we are now seeing customers begin to leverage is R&MinteliPhy. This is an Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) solution which enables continuous monitoring of each and every cable connection in the network.” 

Apart from providing easy and automated management of the cable infrastructure, it delivers an unmatched level of security as unauthorised connections can be immediately detected.

“The reason we believe customers in the UAE will ready to benefit from this is because the solution has been designed to be completely retrofit-able and uses our standard patch panels and patch cords. So customers can easily integrate this technology and greatly simplify the infrastructure management while leveraging their existing solutions.” 

With main features including the entire network configuration stored in central database, retrofit-ability, high density and full customisation open a new era for network managers. With R&MinteliPhy, data centres will improve the capacity utilisation, profitability and availability. IT managers, network planners and end-users will appreciate the abundance of its functions.

On research and development (R&D), he says: “At R&M, we continuously reinvest in our R&D capabilities in order to drive innovation. Annually, R&M invests 5 per cent of its sales into the research and development of both copper and fibre-optic cabling systems.” 

Because of this, it has an extensive portfolio of over 5,000 products. Furthermore, it can customise its solutions to meet the specific needs of its customers. 

“Lastly, our commitment to investing in the region, for the region, means that we have the manpower and skills necessary to successful complete even the largest of cabling projects. For these reasons, we are confident that we will continue to be a leading provider of cabling solutions to many of the region’s most critical infrastructure projects,” he adds.