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October/November/December 2020 I 75
captures remotely. Therefore, a backbone connection
should connect the simulation backend to the campus
network. This leads to a number of important questions.
Where should switches serving the simulation system
be physically located? Should they be located in the telecom
room (TR) or in a dedicated AV space? The case could
be made to collocate or segregate. While there are cost
advantages to having the switches in a location that
is already limiting access and meets the required environmental,
grounding and power needs, some owners
do not want AV personnel in their TRs. If the decision
is made to collocate the simulation electronics in the
TRs and security concerns exist, the use of locking cabinets
to control access to the various hardware should
be considered.
No matter who has physical access to the healthcare
simulation equipment, it is important for the owner
to consider who will manage the switches supporting
the system. Not everyone who has access to the building
switches should be automatically granted access to make
changes to the simulation equipment.
When locating the IT/AV equipment rooms serving
the simulation spaces, cabling density becomes an important
consideration. Simulation spaces, especially the supporting
rack room, tend to require large numbers of network
cables, and limiting these to a shorter distance, such
as a space directly adjacent to the simulation rooms, saves
on cable and pathway costs (Figure 11).
It also can lower the level of effort required to support
the spaces and reduce the risk of disruption when MAC
work is occurring in other parts of the building. Depending
on the building configuration, a location adjacent to
the simulation spaces may not allow the station cables for
the remainder of the floor to stay under the critical Ethernet
distance requirements (i.e., 100 m 328 ft for Category
cables with the exception of Cat 8). One solution
is to establish an AV room dedicated to the simulation
system but equipped as if it were another TR on the floor.
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FIGURE 11: Simulated operating room adjacent to server room.