Copper Cable Certification | Progressive Office Cabling

The Organizations that Set Cabling Standards

27 May 2017

Data Cabling,Network Cabling,Atlanta GA The TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) and the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) are the primary organizations that oversee the development of structured cabling standards for the industry. Committees formed by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) provide assistance through testing and setting performance specifications for various standards.

Compliance with standards ensures the functioning of systems at specified levels, backward compatibility, and a greater selection of equipment will exist. General global recognition of standards permit utilizing equipment sourced from various countries inside computer systems. Requirements for the components of optical and copper cabling including cables, assemblies, connectors, cabling spacing and pathways, administration, field testing, and installation are standardized to make worldwide acceptance possible.

Technicians in North America typically use TIA standards, while the rest of the world uses ISO standards. Examples of organizations that set regional and national standards organizations are CENELEC (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization), CSA (Canadian Standards Association) and JSA (Japanese Standards Association). Their standards are generally compatible with TIA and ISO.

Different terminology used by TIA and ISO Associations sometimes cause confusion because they refer to the same item. For example, what the TIA terms as Cat5e is what ISO terms to be Class D. However, adherence to standards set by TIA and ISO ensure system cabling requirements are properly implemented in the categories below.

Insertion Loss – Decrease of signal strength down the transmission line.

Return Loss – Measurement of signal reflections on the cable.

NEXT – Near End Crosstalk Loss due to signal coupling.

Propagation Delay / Delay Skew – Elapsed time for signal to reach other end of cable or the delay between signal arrival at far end on slowest and fastest cable pairs.

ACR – Difference between insertion loss and NEXT.

ELFEXT – Identical to NEXT, but for cabling system’s far end.

PSANEXT / PSAACRF – Power sum alien crosstalk at near end / Power sum alien crosstalk at far end.

Due to ever-increasing data rates, the efforts of the standards organizations are assuming greater importance in terms of ensuring proper system design.

Union Network Cabling

When your work requires a unionized cabling group, call on Progressive Office Inc. for your commercial Cat5e/6/6a and fiber cabling projects. Specializing in cabling for data, voice, security and even the latest WiFi and LiFi solutions. Phone: (202) 462-4290

Cat5e Cat6/6a Cabling,cable installations

What is Certification and is it really necessary?

10 Aug 2015

Stu Kushner

Environmental Problems with Cat5e, Cat6, and Cat6A Cable

Cable must be installed so that external environmental factors do not have an effect on the performance of the network. Problems can occur at the patch panel punch down, at the wall plate jack and anywhere along the cable itself. Maybe an inadvertent kink is in the cable. Or there is a snag in the cable as it got pulled across a rough surface in the rafters above the drop ceiling. Or maybe the cable got too close to an electric line. Any one of these issues can degrade the performance of an individual cable.

There are two basic kinds of testing that is performed during the installation of cabling:

Continuity Testing

Certification

Continuity Testing

Continuity Testing is a test to insure that the wires in the connectors at the faceplate and at the patch panel are connected up correctly. There are 4 pairs of wires and each wire is color-coded. So, as the technician is connecting everything, a particular sequence is required. If a wire is connected in the wrong order, the cable will fail. This is a basic wire-mapping test. If this test fails, the connector and wires are re-examined and re-terminated. All of our cable installations include continuity testing.

But the only way to insure and guarantee full speed to every cable is to do Certification Testing on each cable.

Certification

Certification Testing is a performance test that utilizes a precision device that sends a signal from one end of the cable to the other. This test is the only way to test the data-carrying capacity of each cable. For example, Cat6A cable is rated to run at 10G/sec. But if you have an issue, the cable will work but it might be running at a slower speed. It passes the continuity test but it's not performing at 100%. Certification will find the fault, pin-pointed to its exact location so that our technician can fix it, retest it and fully certify it as 100% top-speed rated.

The Fluke DSX-5000 is a very expensive test device that we employ to test and certify our cabling jobs. It costs about an extra $10 per cable to get everything tested and certified. But without this test, we can't guarantee top speeds throughout your network. And, considering that most cabling projects have a useful lifespan of 15 - 20 years, this investment upfront is very cost-effective. It means you will have full speed to every device for the entire lifetime of your cabling infrastructure.

Certification includes a PDF report showing every cable and the test results.

Do you have an upcoming cabling project?

Directions in Telecommunications and Cabling

3 Apr 2015

Stu Kushner

The telecommunications industry continues to advance. And bandwidth demands will continue to increase. Meanwhile, conditions to convey considerable amounts of information quickly are changing. Applications including graphic information, technical modeling, video conferencing, and multi-level online databases will certainly increase bandwidth requisites. The bottom line is demand for higher transfer speed for information is expected to rise.

Properties for Cabling Systems

Two principal properties needed for cabling systems are performance and easy installation. Fiber and shielded twisted-pair provide stronger signals compared to Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) although these two lagging in client acceptance. The question is will UTP provide the appropriate bandwidth for modern applications?

Unshielded Twisted Pair

UTP is considered the most prevalent cable worldwide for telecommunications and networking. Cat 5e is the most popular and it long ago replaced coaxial cable which failed to keep up with more dependable and faster networks. UTP is also easy to install, develop and troubleshoot. Unshielded Twisted Pair cabling does not have any foil covering. It depends on twisted pairs inside the cable to prevent electromagnetic interference. UTP is used extensively for local area networking and comparable cabling configurations. Hence, installation is easier and less expensive.

Shielded Twisted Pair

Shielded twisted Pair (STP) features a metallic foil enclosing twisted wire pairs inside the cable. This is the safeguard against electromagnetic intervention which facilitates rapid data transmission. STP functions by drawing electromagnetic interference and counterbalancing this with grounded cabling. The drawback is that if the cable is not grounded correctly it loses the capacity to prevent unnecessary noise. STP is also larger and more sensitive compared to UTP cables. Expert cable installers use this cabling for industrial environments where adjacent equipment emit significant amounts of elctron-magnetic interference (EMI). Actually, UTP and STP can perform well if installed and maintained by efficient cabling providers.

Transmission is Essential

Transmission should be balanced. This is the standard for conduction of data using twisted cabling pairs. Separate protection for balanced twisted pairs is designed to enhance resistance and emission of the communication lines. The shielding method produces a conductive barrier that lessens these electromagnetic waves. It also creates a conduit for conduction so that currents and can pass data through without any obstruction. Shielding can be performed on individual pairs or as one set of pairs.

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns or if you need a free quote on your cabling project.

Advantages Of Using Cat6 Cables

22 May 2014

Stu Kushner

Cat 6 Category 6 or Cat 6 network copper cabling is the preferred infrastructure for Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet. It has a maximum performance of 250 MHz, or 500 MHz for the more contemporary Cat6a standard. This type of cabling may be utilized for a maximum distance (end to end) of 100 meters, or 55 meters for the 10 GBASE-T networks. Aside from support for higher performance, Cat6 includes more rigid specifications for crosstalk and system noise. Although Cat6 is anticipated to surpass Cat 5 and Cat 5e cabling soon, all three cable varieties are still widely used for network installations.

Fast and Credible Performance

Most IT experts recognize this type of copper cabling for its speedy network performance due to its ability to deliver gigabit data transmission speeds. It has a parallel structure similar to Cat5 and Cat5e. These copper cables have eight wires coiled as one to form four pairs. The major difference is that one pair of the Cat 6 cable wires does not touch the others, so it can produce twice the transmission capacity of the two other models.

It is also backward compatible. The plug and port of Cat6 cable is the same as the 5 and 5e models. Thus, it can be plugged into any outlet that supports these cables. For instance, you can use the Cat 5 connection for a Cat 6 cable although it will not produce the full speed of the Cat 6 cable.

Resistance to Heat and Flexibility

Copper cables are second to silver in terms of effective conductivity, but among non-precious metals, these wires can cope with a broader load of electricity with less need for insulation. Furthermore, copper cabling has more resistance to heat, which eliminates overloading problems. They are impervious to corrosion despite their shiny surface. Copper is also more pliable, so it can be twisted without the risk of splitting. In fact, copper is used in fabricating thick wires for applications where very thin wires are required. It can also be part of an upgrade if you are looking forward to a more optimal network. Copper Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 are the industry standards for most small to medium sized offices.

There are certain problems that deserve consideration. Such as copper cabling failure in high-performance wiring systems. Users may also need to contend with poor component performance, such as bad cable segments or connectors that do not comply with specifications. However, these problems are frequently the result of human error. So the choice of copper cabling is still a good one.