02 / 09
Case file
Structured cabling, Wi-Fi 7, switching, SD-WAN and data-centre networking — Cisco, HPE Aruba, Juniper, Netgear, CommScope.
| Requirement | Sized to launch day | Engineered approach |
|---|---|---|
| PoE and switching | Day-one device count | Three-to-five-year device horizon |
| Wi-Fi coverage | Catalogue square-footage | Surveyed to actual cell-edge SNR |
| Segmentation | Flat network | Guest, camera and back-office on separate VLANs |
Educational comparison — not about any specific installer.
/ The discipline, in detail
How we approach enterprise network design & installation.
The network has become the only system every other system depends on. We design with that weight in mind. Cat6A backbones rated for 25 years, OM4/OM5 fibre to the rack, Wi-Fi 7 access points designed to actual cell-edge SNR (not catalogue square-footage), and switching with sufficient PoE budget for the year-3 device load — not the launch-day count.
For architects and project managers, the network is the trade to design first and cable before the walls close — its containment, riser positions and rack room set the limits for every other system in the building. We size the active stack to a three-to-five-year device horizon, segment it so a guest network, a camera fleet and a back-office VLAN never share one broadcast domain, and hand over a documented topology and addressing plan the in-house IT team can run without calling us back. On campus or multi-building briefs, the inter-building fibre and the core-distribution-access layers are planned as one design rather than three separate procurements.
On record
Every enterprise network design & installation engagement is documented end-to-end — design, programming, commissioning, calibration — and handed over with the files our successors would need if we were never to return.
/ Topology reference
Three-tier enterprise pattern
Core, distribution and access with the typical endpoint fanout. Brand-neutral; actual project topology is per brief.
Diagram · described
Three-tier network topology
A generic enterprise network topology showing a redundant core pair, a distribution layer of stacked switches, and an access layer fanning out to Wi-Fi access points, IP cameras, IP phones and POE-powered building-services endpoints. Brand-neutral pattern — actual project topologies vary with scale and brief.
Diagrammatic view — a system planning illustration for design discussion, not a project drawing or live interface.
/ Where we deploy this
Active across 7 sectors.
Enterprise Network Design & Installation is rarely a standalone brief — it sits inside a wider sector practice with its own codes, expectations and operating rhythm.
Residential
The premium home, made quiet.
Hospitality
Guest experience, engineered.
Commercial & Corporate
Workplaces that begin meetings on time.
Education & Institutions
Schools, colleges and universities.
Healthcare
Hospitals where systems serve the patient.
Government & Public Safety
Mission-grade integration.
Industrial & Warehousing
Operations that don't take a day off.
/ Sister services
The rest of it.
A serious brief usually crosses two or three of these. Read across the discipline — we deliver them as one contract.
- 01
EPABX & IP-PBX
Voice, routed cleanly.
Enterprise voice — IP-PBX, SIP trunking, hosted UC and hospitality PMS integrations — Grandstream, NEC, Cisco and Yeastar.0 - 03
Structured Cabling
Backbones rated for the next quarter-century.
Cat6A, OS2 and OM4/OM5 structured cabling — designed to TIA-568, terminated to manufacturer warranty and labelled to a documented patch schedule.1 - 04
Enterprise Wi-Fi
Coverage you can measure, not just claim.
Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E enterprise wireless — Cisco, Aruba, Juniper Mist, Netgear — site-surveyed to the building's actual cell-edge SNR.2 - 05
Network Security
Segmentation. Visibility. Recoverable backups.
Next-generation firewalls, segmentation, NAC, EDR, SIEM and backup — Fortinet, Palo Alto, Sophos, Check Point — designed to how breaches actually unfold, not how vendors describe them.3 - 06
Servers, Storage & Data Centre
On-prem, hybrid and edge — sized for actual workload.
Server and storage architecture — Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Pure, NetApp — for on-prem and hybrid workloads, including precision cooling, rack design and DR.4 - 07
Video Conferencing Infrastructure
Reliability beats features.
Cloud, on-prem and hybrid VC — Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Cisco Webex — with bridges, gateways, recording and transcription infrastructure.5 - 08
Digital Library & RFID Automation
The whole collection, tracked and self-service.
RFID-based library automation — tagging of books and media, self-issue and self-return kiosks, EAS security gates, handheld inventory readers and drop-box automation, integrated with the library-management software.6 - 09
Smart Rack & Precision Cooling
A server room, contained in one cabinet.
Self-contained smart racks — a sealed cabinet with close-coupled precision cooling, in-rack UPS, environmental and access monitoring, and optional integrated fire detection and suppression — for edge and server-room sites without a full data-centre room.7
/ Where this system has been deployed
Enterprise Network Design & Installation on the ground.
The reference projects below carry a enterprise network design & installation layer engineered as part of an integrated stack. Each case study walks through the engineering challenges that were solved, the standards the work was held to, and the operational outcome on the day-two team.
Public project summaries describe systems and outcomes only — BOQ values, quantities, device counts and security layouts are kept off public surfaces.
Request a feasibility review/ Integration with
How enterprise network design & installation talks to the rest.
A serious deployment of this system rarely operates in isolation. The disciplines below most commonly share its cabling pathways, its controller logic, and its cause-and-effect matrix.
Structured Cabling
Backbones rated for the next quarter-century.
Cat6A, OS2 and OM4/OM5 structured cabling — designed to TIA-568, terminated to manufacturer warranty and labelled to a documented patch schedule.Enterprise Wi-Fi
Coverage you can measure, not just claim.
Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E enterprise wireless — Cisco, Aruba, Juniper Mist, Netgear — site-surveyed to the building's actual cell-edge SNR.Network Security
Segmentation. Visibility. Recoverable backups.
Next-generation firewalls, segmentation, NAC, EDR, SIEM and backup — Fortinet, Palo Alto, Sophos, Check Point — designed to how breaches actually unfold, not how vendors describe them.Servers, Storage & Data Centre
On-prem, hybrid and edge — sized for actual workload.
Server and storage architecture — Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Pure, NetApp — for on-prem and hybrid workloads, including precision cooling, rack design and DR.
/ Read deeper
The engineering, in long form.
Each article below goes deeper than this service page can — a full walk-through of the engineering decisions, written by the team that delivers this work.
- AV · 9 min
AV-over-IP deployment realities: network discipline is the binding constraint, not the codec choice
AV-over-IP is a network deployment that happens to carry AV. The codec choice, the platform brand and the encoder count are the visible decisions; the multicast routing, the IGMP snooping, the QoS marking, the VLAN segregation and the BFD discipline are the invisible decisions that decide whether the deployment works. Why network discipline outweighs codec choice on real projects.
Read article - IT · 9 min
Enterprise Wi-Fi density: the attenuation realities that defeat uniform AP-class deployments
Wi-Fi density on the spec sheet is per-square-metre; Wi-Fi density in the building is per-attenuation-event between every AP and every client. Stone walls, RCC slabs, glass partitions, low-E coatings and tenant fit-outs all bend the catalogue answer. Mixed AP-class deployment is the engineering answer to the spec-sheet trap.
Read article - IT · 10 min
Structured cabling planning: the 25-year decisions you take in week one of design
Structured cabling is the layer everything else runs on, and almost every decision about it is taken in the first week of design — when the architect's drawings are still fluid and the IT team has not yet assembled. Get those decisions right and the building runs cleanly for 25 years. Get them wrong and every device added in year three is a retrofit exercise.
Read article
Engineering decisions
Compare the options
Decision · Networking & IT
Cat6 vs Cat6A — structured cabling grade
You are specifying the horizontal cabling grade for a new fit-out or a re-cable and want to size it for the building's life, not just today's link speed.
Decision · Networking & IT
Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 7 — which generation to design for
You are provisioning wireless for a new building or a refresh and want to size the AP grid, cabling and switching for the right generation.
Decision · Networking & IT
Managed Wi-Fi vs consumer mesh — the right wireless for the building
You are deciding the wireless class for a home, office, retail or hospitality space and want it matched to the real client load and ownership model.
Engineering toolkit
Tools to scope this work
Calculators and reference checkers we use ourselves to sense-check the engineering before any drawings change hands.
- IT · Cabling
Structured Cabling Estimator
Estimate total structured-cabling length, patch panel count and IDF closet count against floor area and drop count. 50 cable-system brands including Panduit, CommScope, Belden, Legrand, Corning, Furukawa, R&M, Siemon, Nexans, Schneider Electric, STL, Finolex and Polycab. Cat6, Cat6A, Cat7, Cat8 copper plus OM3, OM4, OS2 fibre. TIA-568 compliant.
50 brands · 7 categoriesOpen - ELV · Surveillance · Storage
CCTV Storage Retention Calculator
Multi-brand, codec-aware CCTV storage retention sizing across a verified, source-cited camera-profile catalogue including Hikvision, Dahua, Axis, Hanwha, Bosch, Honeywell, CP Plus, Ubiquiti, Verkada, Meraki, Avigilon, Pelco and more. Computes storage TB, HDD count plan, recorded bandwidth and an NVR/VMS class recommendation against camera count. Pairs with the CCTV Coverage Calculator.
50 brands · codec-awareOpen - Drawing readiness
Drawing & BOQ Readiness Checker
Check whether your drawings, schedules, BOQ/spec status, site access and project team are ready for a systems conversation. Advisory; no pricing, quantities or final scope.
Advisory · copyableOpen
/ Engineering concepts
Related engineering concepts
Concept
Cat6A Structured Cabling
Augmented Category 6 structured cabling — 10 Gbps over the full 100 m channel, rated for 25 years of service. The default for any new commercial or premium-residential cabling layer.
Concept
Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be)
Current generation of Wi-Fi. Adds 6 GHz band, MLO multi-link operation and 320 MHz channels. Default for new premium deployments where dense-room capacity is the binding constraint.
Concept
Power over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3)
IEEE-standard delivery of low-voltage DC power over the same Cat-class cable as data. PoE+ delivers up to 30 W; PoE++ Type 3/4 up to 90 W — sufficient for IP cameras, APs, VOIP phones and small displays.
Concept
IEEE 802.3bt (PoE++)
Power-over-Ethernet at Type 3 (51 W device) and Type 4 (71.3 W device) classes — the power floor for Wi-Fi 7 APs, large PTZ cameras with heater, AV-over-IP encoders and small powered displays. Shared switch budget, per-port negotiation.
/ Used alongside
Commonly deployed alongside
Sector
Commercial & Corporate
Workplaces that begin meetings on time.
Sector
Hospitality
Guest experience, engineered.
Sector
Education & Institutions
Schools, colleges and universities.
Sector
Healthcare
Hospitals where systems serve the patient.
Service
CCTV & Surveillance
Coverage. Storage. Evidence.
Service
Building Management System (BMS)
The building, on a single dashboard.
/ Plan it right
Enterprise Network Design & Installation — getting the brief right.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Designing the network after the building instead of before it — riser positions, containment and the rack room set limits every other system inherits.
- Running one flat network for office users, cameras, guests and building systems, with no VLAN or addressing plan.
- Buying switches on port count alone, ignoring PoE budget, uplink capacity and redundancy.
- Handing over with no documented topology or addressing plan, so every future fault needs the original installer on the phone.
- Neglecting earthing, surge protection and UPS for the network stack — in a lightning-prone region the network's weakest point is usually its power.
What to share before a quotation
- Floor plans — and for campus work, the site plan with building positions.
- The systems riding the network — users, Wi-Fi, cameras, telephony, building systems — with rough counts.
- Rack-room and IDF locations, or the constraints on where they can go.
- The internet links available at the site and any multi-site or SD-WAN intent.
- Growth horizon — the device load the network must still carry in year three.
/ Frequently asked
Enterprise Network Design & Installation — what buyers ask first.
Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 in 2026?
Choose Wi-Fi 7 for any new deployment in 2026 — the 6 GHz band, MLO and 320 MHz channels deliver real-world capacity gains, and the access-point premium over Wi-Fi 6E is small and reduces every quarter. We site-survey to actual cell-edge SNR, not access-point catalogue claims.
Cat6A or fibre to the desk?
Cat6A to the desk for almost all commercial deployments — supports 10 Gbps over the full 100m channel for 25 years. Fibre to the desk is reserved for very high-bandwidth specific positions (broadcast, finance trading, video editing) where Cat6A bandwidth becomes the bottleneck.
Wi-Fi 7 or wait for the next generation?
Wi-Fi 7 is the right specification for any new deployment in 2026 — the access-point premium over Wi-Fi 6E is small and reduces every quarter. The 6 GHz band, MLO and 320 MHz channels deliver real-world capacity gains in dense rooms (boardrooms, classrooms, lobbies). For retrofit on a recent 6E install, wait one refresh cycle.
Cisco, Aruba or Juniper switches?
Cisco for any project where the existing IT team is Cisco-trained and the broader ecosystem (UC, security, ACI) matters. Aruba CX for premium new builds where switching elegance and Wi-Fi/wired unification matter. Juniper for ISP-grade routing and SD-WAN. We deploy all three and tune the recommendation to the IT team's existing skill profile.
What's the right approach to network segmentation?
VLAN-based segmentation is the floor — separate VLANs for IoT, building systems, guest, staff, voice. Above that, micro-segmentation (Aruba ClearPass, Cisco TrustSec) provides identity-driven policy that contains lateral movement during a breach. We design segmentation around the realistic threat model rather than a generic best-practice.
How do you size the network for year-three load?
Through a documented forecast that captures the actual device count growth, the bandwidth-per-device increase (4K video, AI workloads), and the headroom required for analytics and surveillance bursts. We size switching for year-three plus 30%, then verify against actual usage in year-one and adjust. This is the single most important decision in network design and the one most often shortcut.
· Begin
Begin a
enterprise network design & installation
brief.
Tell us about the building, the timeline, and what success looks like a year after handover. We will reply within two working days with a written response, not a sales pitch.