As a structured cabling refers to the cabling within and between buildings. It is thus the basis of modern IT infrastructure and for systems that are intended for the transmission of data. It is usually divided into primary, secondary and tertiary cabling.

Forward planning is an essential point in all cabling issues. This enables future-proof structures and prevents subsequent changes, additions and unplanned replacement of parts of the network. Structured cabling is hierarchical and uses star and tree topologies. The layout of all components must be adapted to the requirements of modern networks (switched networks). Therefore, planning includes not only cables but also components such as cables, connectors, junction boxes and patch panels. These must be insensitive to interference, guarantee secure transmission and include redundant lines.

The primary area comprises the cabling of buildings at one location to each other. This area includes cables from site distributors to distributors in buildings as well as the building distributors and the cables between the building distributors. Since large distances have to be covered here, fiber optics (multi- or single mode) are particularly used, since a high transmission rate (bandwidth) with very good attenuation (shielding) can be achieved here. For shorter distances copper cables are still in use.

This area covers the cabling of the floors of a building to each other. The floors within buildings are connected, i.e. from the building distributor to the distributors on the floors. Depending on the requirements, fibre optic or copper cables are also used here.

This area is also called floor cabling, because cabling is done within the floors of a building. The floor distributors are connected to the individual junction boxes. So usually the cable goes from a patch panel to junction boxes in the wall, in a cable duct or in a floor tank with an outlet. Fibre optic cables are usually used here as well.