Cabling Chronicles
Advantage of Automated Fiber Inspection over Manual
Over the past decade, the amount of fiber in the data center has increased significantly due to the need for higher bandwidth between switches and the ever increasing amount of equipment requiring fiber uplinks to storage area networks (SANs), not to mention the demand for maximum availability that calls for redundant primary and secondary fiber network connections to every piece of equipment.
September 28, 2016
Deploy and Test Shielded Cable with Category 8
The TIA TR-42.7 Copper Cabling Subcommittee recently approved specifications for Category 8 cabling (TIA 568 C.2-1), the latest twisted-pair copper system designed to support future IEEE 25GBASE T and 40GBASE T applications currently under development.
With all the buzz surrounding Category 8, you and your customers might be wondering how exactly it will impact the deployment and testing of cabling infrastructures.
Let's take a closer look at where it will be deployed and some of the key characteristics that impact installation and testing.
September 22, 2016
Upgrading Your Fiber Plant to 40 and 100 Gigabit Speeds
Just Now Upgrading to 10 Gig? We Didn't Forget About You
While upgrading backbone cable plants in the LAN to support 10 Gig has been going on for several years since the release of the 10GBASE-SR standard for fiber, many enterprise businesses did not previously require these types of speeds, until now.
September 8, 2016
September 1, 2016
How to Set Up DSX-5000 for New Installation?
Getting the right setup to ensure the best test results with your DSX-5000
If you turn up to a new installation with your new DSX-5000 then it might be up to you to ensure the DSX-5000 is set up correctly. So what do you have to do?
Well, if it’s brand new out of the box, then you need to do a basic set up. But, with every new project there may need to be changes if you make installations tests in other countries or time zones with different requirements for date or time differences, or different formats for them or numbers.
August 25, 2016
Cable Testing 101: There's No Gain with "Gainers"
In a recent Cable Testing 101 series blog on mixing multimode fiber types, we covered the considerations surrounding mixing legacy 62.5 micron (µm) OM1 fiber with today's laser optimized 50µm OM3 and OM4 fiber and highlighted the "gainers" that can happen when transmitting from a smaller 50µm fiber core to a larger 62.5µm fiber core.
August 19, 2016
How to Measure the Loss in the APC Connector?
This question often gets asked in my classes at the same time as when talking about launch methods using launch and tail fibers. So let’s talk about launch fiber compensation.
August 11, 2016
Understanding POH: The Power Behind HDBaseT Technology
Last month we posted a blog about HDBaseT that explained the application and how testing isn't really any different since standards-based Category 5e, 5 or 6A will support it. But maybe you've also heard about power over HDBaseT, or POH, and you're wondering how that differs from power over Ethernet (PoE).
A Little Bit More
August 4, 2016
All About Alien Crosstalk Measurement
Alien crosstalk is a relatively new measurement that’s widely misunderstood. I’m often asked why it’s an important measurement and if it’s required to be measured by the standards. Also misunderstood is the sampling criteria for alien crosstalk measurements, which are applied so that not all links have to be tested?
July 21, 2016
Cable Testing 101: What is the Difference Between OM3 and OM4?
OM3 and OM4 multimode fiber are two common types of fiber used in local area networks--typically in backbone cabling between telecommunications rooms and in the data center between main networking and storage area network (SAN) switches.
July 14, 2016
