Your success depends on your ability to stay up-to-date with new standards, performance requirements, the latest technology and industry information.
This page will walk you through the latest trends and technologies available to design and test next-generation cabling systems, as well as relevant national and international telecommunications standards and provide a reference to the most commonly used information.
Technical Specifications
Use our Statement of Work (SOW) documents as general guidelines to help you prepare RFQs or contractual specifications for testing twisted pair copper cabling installations and fiber cabling installations.
A new cabling standard TIA/EIA-568-B.2-10 defines Augmented Category 6 Cabling A new twisted pair copper cabling standard has entered the cabling arena and every installer, contractor and consultant should be aware of the news.
In February 2008, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) approved TIA/EIA-568-B.2-10. This standard defines the parameters for running 10 Gigabit per seconds Ethernet over Augmented Category 6 copper cable. It specifies cabling performance to 500 MHz and adds performance specifications and test requirements for Alien Crosstalk. This standard applies to unshielded cabling systems (UTP) as well as to the shielded cabling solutions. As 10 Gigabit service grows and 10GBASE-T emerges in 2008, the vendor/consultant/customer community needs to understand the implications of this standard.
Cabling For 802.11n Wireless Access Points
802.11n is the new standard in wireless Local Area Networks. In 2008, the IEEE formally ratified 802.11n. Did you know that the higher bit rates delivered by 802.11n will markedly increase the demand on the copper cabling plant?
The twisted-pair copper that connects legacy 802.11a/b/g wireless access points into a network today may very well be inadequate for 802.11n. However, there are many planning options for cabling installers, consultants, and enterprises to prepare for the next wave of wireless LANs.
Fiber Network Installation and Certification Update
Network cabling certification is the process of measuring network cabling performance parameters and comparing the results against industry or user-defined performance standards. Certification recommendations such as TIA’s TSB140 bulletin titled “Additional Guidelines for Field-Testing Length, Loss and Polarity of Optical Fiber Cabling Systems” provides guidelines on how to test fiber optic cabling systems in the field - offering two tiers of fiber network certification.
Basic or Tier 1 fiber certification is required in all fiber optic cabling links. The Tier 1 tests are attenuation (insertion loss), length and polarity. When conducting Tier 1 testing, each fiber link is measured for attenuation and results are documented. This test ensures that the fiber link exhibits less loss than the maximum allowable loss budget for the immediate application
Extended or Tier 2 fiber certification supplements Tier 1 testing with the addition of an Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR) trace of each fiber link. An OTDR trace is a graphical signature of a fiber's attenuation along its length. You can gain insight into the performance of the link components (cable, connectors and splices) and the quality of the installation by examining non-uniformities in the trace. An OTDR trace does not replace the need for insertion loss measurement, but is used for complementary evaluation of the fiber link. This test certifies that the workmanship and quality of the installation meets the design and warranty specifications for current and future applications.
An OTDR trace helps characterize individual events that are invisible when conducting only loss/length (tier 1) testing. Only with a complete fiber certification, installers have the most complete picture of the fiber installation and network owners have proof of a quality installation.