Publish smart or perish
Simon & Schuster blends fiber with copper in its new network--and looks to a more fully fiber future.
Atikem Haile-Mariam Corning Inc.
Martyn Easton Siecor Corp.
Nowhere has the digital revolution brought about more sweeping changes than in the publishing business. Personal computers and computer networks, multimedia applications, graphics, and cd/rom technology have dramatically altered the face of publishing, making books but one, if still the primary, offering of publishing houses large and small. The day-to-day operation of publishing has a new face, too. The work of many has been concentrated on single computer screens, where editors bring complex and image-rich designs all the way from concept to completed pages. Technology also is used to improve the product in process, to provide better information to manage print runs and inventory, and to track rights and royalties.
Among the giants in the industry is Simon & Schuster (New York City), the world`s largest educational and English-language book publisher and widely regarded as the industry leader in using digital technology in both its products and processes. In an effort to maintain its leadership position, Simon & Schuster recently decided to upgrade the network cabling at sites throughout the United States--in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Indiana, California, and Massachusetts. The company enlisted the expertise of Com Con Inc. (Patterson, NY), a member of Siecor Corp.`s lanscape Extended Warranty Program, to install the new network.
The goals of the project, completed in 1997, were to provide sufficient network capacity for current bandwidth-devouring applications; to establish a flexible cabling infrastructure unbounded by distance limitations; and to get Simon & Schuster off the "re-cabling treadmill" once and for all by installing a futureproofed transmission medium. Network planners determined that optical fiber, along with Category 5 copper cable, could help them achieve these objectives.
Today Simon & Schuster does business on Category 5 cable and high-capacity, fiber-to-the-desk networks at four of its main publishing locations and one of its warehouses. The installations feature fiber-rich network backbones of singlemode and multimode fiber, as well as horizontal copper and optical-fiber cable linking more than 8000 workstations.
Why fiber--and why now?
Several factors prompted network designers to implement all-fiber infra structures at Simon & Schuster. First of all, the company wanted to ensure its network was futureproofed against bandwidth bottlenecks.
"We put fiber in the backbone to support whatever comes in the form of new technology," says John Murphy, mis director for Simon & Schuster. "All our long-lease buildings are designed to accommodate changing technology for the next 15 years. Our plan in 1994 to implement atm [155-Mbit/sec Asynchronous Transfer Mode] was the driving force. In 1998 we are planning for Gigabit Ethernet to run over the same fiber backbone.
"In the horizontal segment of the network," continues Murphy, "fiber-to-the-desk helps us to plan for applications that go beyond Category 5 copper specs in the future. Publishing has become increasingly graphics- and image-intensive, and we wanted to plan for that."
Simon & Schuster also realized the advantages of fiber in long cabling runs. Distances between server rooms and hubs at the various sites average 600 ft (about 182 m). While Category 5 copper cannot extend beyond 100 m from a wiring closet, multimode fiber easily covers the 500 m specified in the tia/eia-568A Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard. Fiber`s low attenuation over long distances allowed Murphy, when necessary, to connect users directly to servers while bypassing local hubs.
Simon & Schuster uses its optical-fiber networks for normal business functions--file management, printing, e-mail--that are handled by mainframes, numerous midrange computers, and local servers. More critical for the company`s success, the network is used to run all applications related to publishing: editing, marketing, production, imaging, and digital archiving.
Capacity and consistency
Central to Simon & Schuster`s long-range planning were network backbones with the capacity to meet the company`s needs well into the next century without disruptive and expensive recabling. The fiber-rich infra structure also provides the high bandwidths required in the present.
In each facility, a single server room is connected to numerous hubs with Siecor mic cable containing 60 strands of Corning 62.5/125-micron multimode optical fiber and 12 strands of Corning singlemode fiber. The largest of these sites contains 18 hub rooms. Backbones, which are configured in star topologies, operate using Fiber Distributed Data Interface (fddi) and Fast Ethernet network protocols, and use 100-Mbit/sec switched Ethernet, 100-Mbit/sec switched fddi, 10-Mbit/sec switched Ethernet hubs and 10Base-T shared hubs.
Design consistency is a key feature of the Simon & Schuster networks, according to Murphy. "The infrastructure in every facility we have looks the same in its fiber backbone, server room architecture, hub room architecture, and workstation configurations," he says. "The cable plant is integrated for both voice and data and is completely interchangeable."
At major locations--those with leases extending beyond five years--Simon & Schuster provided itself with the ultimate in futureproofing by installing optical fiber in the horizontal segments of the network. Siecor mic cable carries four strands of Corning multimode fiber to each desktop. This fiber is terminated on demand; however, today most fiber in the horizontal remains dark.
According to Murphy, installing currently unused fiber to the desk is a smart investment. "Dark fiber is not that expensive," he explains. "It prepares us for the future at today`s labor rates. Besides, the price of electronics is coming down."
Preparing for the future is good business, of course, but what do all this fiber and bandwidth mean to Simon & Schuster today? Most importantly, employees are able to take advantage of high-end publishing applications, enabling one person to do work that in the not-so-distant past required an entire staff. A single editor now will see through to completion a total page design on one workstation, working from concept to four-color pages, including images.
"With the use of new page-makeup software," says Murphy, "multimedia and graphic applications are becoming standard for everything in publishing. For instance, four-color graphics-intensive textbooks are the norm in elementary and high schools. In our college division, we have a mixture of standard text and multimedia publications with companion Web sites, cd/rom, and diskette applications."
Murphy credits the optical-fiber infrastructure with keeping Simon & Schuster competitive. "We couldn`t have a network without the fiber backbone," he says.
And what will the fiber network allow Simon & Schuster to do in the future? Murphy`s reply comes quickly and confidently: "Anything we want to." u
Atikem Haile-Mariam is market development manager, premises, for Corning Inc. (Corning, NY). Martyn Easton is manager, premises systems, at Siecor Corp. (Hickory, NC).