Use Case: Early Rodent Detection and Cable Protection in Raised-Floor Facilities

Industry

Semiconductor manufacturing • Data centers • Telecom switching facilities • Mission-critical infrastructure

Challenge

Facilities with raised floors and dense cable infrastructure are extremely sensitive to contamination and infrastructure damage. A single rodent entering the facility can lead to:

  • Chewed fiber-optic cables
  • Damaged power and control wiring
  • Cleanroom contamination
  • Equipment downtime or production interruption

In semiconductor fabs or mission-critical data centers, even minor cable damage can lead to significant operational losses.

Traditional pest control relies on periodic inspection and traps placed around walls, which means rodents are often detected only after damage occurs.

At the same time, many high-risk areas remain hidden and difficult to monitor, including:

  • Raised-floor plenums
  • Cable trays
  • Conduit infrastructure
  • Utility penetrations
  • Electrical rooms

Facilities required a solution that could detect rodent activity early, both when rodents begin exploring the infrastructure and when they start damaging cables.

Solution

The facility deployed a two-layer monitoring system combining:

  • TrapX® Cable sensors
  • TrapX® smart traps

Together they provide early detection and capture capability across the infrastructure.

TrapX® Cable — Infrastructure Monitoring

TrapX® Cable sensors are installed directly on:

  • Cable trays
  • Conduits
  • Raised-floor support structures

Rodents chewing on cables create distinct vibration signatures that travel through the tray or conduit structure.

TrapX® Cable continuously analyzes these vibrations to detect chewing activity in real time.

Capabilities

  • Detects rodent chewing on cables
  • Monitors hidden infrastructure zones
  • Sends real-time alerts through the TrapX® platform
  • Operates continuously with low-power sensors

This allows facilities to detect infrastructure damage while it is happening, often before cable failure occurs.

TrapX® Smart Trap — Rodent Detection and Capture

In parallel, TrapX® smart traps are deployed along:

  • Raised-floor entry points
  • Equipment corridors
  • Utility penetrations
  • Loading dock transition zones

TrapX® traps use onboard sensors to detect when rodents:

  • Sniff around the trap
  • Enter the trap
  • Trigger the glue trap

The system immediately sends an alert to facility staff through the monitoring platform.

Capabilities

  • Detects rodent presence before capture
  • Confirms capture events
  • Uses replaceable glue traps
  • Integrates with the TrapX® monitoring dashboard

This provides direct confirmation of rodent activity and removal.

Deployment Example

A mid-size data center deployed the combined system.

Facility Characteristics

  • Raised-floor environment
  • Approximately 800 meters of cable tray infrastructure
  • Multiple fiber entry points and telecom conduits

Deployment

  • 120 TrapX® Cable sensors installed along cable trays
  • Sensors spaced approximately 6 meters apart
  • Additional sensors placed at cable entry points
  • 30 TrapX® smart traps installed at perimeter and infrastructure entry zones

The system provides continuous monitoring across both hidden infrastructure and rodent entry pathways.

Results

Shortly after deployment, the system detected chewing vibrations along a cable tray beneath the raised floor.

Maintenance staff inspected the area and discovered:

  • Early damage to fiber cable insulation
  • Rodent activity within the raised-floor plenum

At the same time, TrapX® traps detected sniffing activity around a nearby trap, and shortly after captured the rodent using a glue trap.

Because the issue was detected early, the facility was able to:

  • Repair the affected cable
  • Remove the rodent
  • Prevent potential network downtime

The incident was resolved before service disruption occurred.

Benefits

Early Damage Detection

TrapX® Cable detects rodent chewing activity before cables fail.

Monitoring Hidden Infrastructure

Sensors protect areas that are typically impossible to monitor manually, including raised-floor plenums and cable trays.

Integrated Rodent Detection and Capture

TrapX® smart traps confirm rodent presence and capture events.

Continuous Automated Monitoring

The combined system provides 24/7 infrastructure and pest monitoring.

Ideal Applications

TrapX® Cable and TrapX® are well suited for facilities with:

  • Raised-floor environments
  • Dense cable infrastructure
  • Contamination-sensitive operations

Typical applications include:

  • Semiconductor fabs
  • Data centers
  • Telecom switching facilities
  • Mission-critical control rooms
  • High-tech manufacturing plants

Conclusion

Rodent activity in critical infrastructure environments can cause costly downtime and contamination risks.

By combining TrapX® Cable infrastructure monitoring with TrapX® smart traps, facilities gain a powerful early-warning system capable of detecting rodent activity before damage occurs.

This approach transforms cable infrastructure into a distributed detection network, providing continuous protection for some of the most sensitive operational environments.