Fundamentals
Cabling for Wi-Fi
Over the last decade or more, proponents of Wi-Fi networking have promised the end of copper-based networks. While Wi-Fi is hugely popular and growing rapidly, copper networks still keep growing, although more slowly. Part of the reason is that, as a colleague once told me, “there is a lot of wire in wireless”. Let’s explore what kind of wire you’ll need to support the latest in wireless.
Cable Installation Tools
Learn about the cable installation process and cable installation tools that contractors can use to increase efficiency and quality of a cable installation job.
Category 8 Cable Testing
Category 8 cabling and all the related standards have been approved. Below, we review the most common questions related to the latest twisted-pair copper system designed to support future IEEE 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T applications.
Characterized to 2 GHz and specified for 30-meter, 2-connector channels, Category 8 is intended as a data center application. It is specifically targeted for data center edge applications in copper server-to-switch connections where the emerging 25 and 40 Gb/s speeds will reside.
Data Centers
The data center is the heart of every enterprise network, enabling the transmission, access and storage of all information. Here, cabling connects enterprise local area networks (LANs) to switches, servers, storage area networks (SANs), and other active equipment that supports all applications, transactions and communication. It also is where the LAN connects to service provider networks that provide access to the Internet and other networks outside of the facility.
Fiber Optic Testers
Learn about the common contaminants of fiber optics in today’s mission critical networks and get a detailed look at fiber testing and types of fiber testers to ensure network performance.
Four Pair Power Over Ethernet (PoE)
For several years, you’ve been deploying cable plants that support power over Ethernet (PoE) for variety of devices like VoIP phones and security cameras. So far, up to 30 Watts is all you’ve been requested to support, but with the plethora of devices now able to take advantage of higher levels of PoE—like the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi access points, digital displays and even desktop computers—your customers are starting to ask for four-pair PoE. This article provides an update on four PoE-related topics: the proposed standards, cabling requirements, LP cabling certification, and field-terminated plugs.
Industrial Ethernet Copper Cabling
Originally developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the 1970’s Ethernet has grown to become the world’s most common networking system. Over the intervening decades, tremendous changes and extensions to the standards have allowed Ethernet to address a wide variety of applications that were never envisioned by the original developers.
Multi-fiber Push On (MPO) Connectors
Multi-fiber push on connectors, or MPOs for short, are fiber connectors comprised of multiple optical fibers. While defined as an array connector having more than 2 fibers, MPO Connectors are typically available with 8, 12 or 24 fibers for common data center and LAN applications. Other fiber counts are available such as 32, 48, 60 or even 72 fibers, but these are typically used for specialty super high-density multi-fiber arrays in large scale optical switches.
Network Cable Testers
Cable testing (Cat 5, Cat 6, and Cat 7 Testing) helps ensure that the installed cabling links provide the desired transmission capability to support data communication. Learn about common tests and cable testers for datacom cabling as well as standards and best practices.
OTDR - Optical Time Domain Reflectometer
Learn about (OTDR) technology as well as OTDR testing and types of OTDR testers used to maintain fiber infrastructure performance.
Twisted Pair Cabling Tester and 10 Gigabit Cabling
Today, 10 Gigabit/sec Ethernet (10GBASE-T) over twisted pair cabling is being implemented in data centers. Learn more about 10Gigabit/sec cabling certification, standards, test parameters and more.
