Cabling Chronicles’ 4th of July Reflections
July 1, 2019 / General, 101 learning, Best Practices
The 4th of July is always a time to reflect on our history, where we come from and the dedication of our founding fathers. But it’s also a time to look ahead, learn from past mistakes and progress towards a better future.
Our industry has a lot of history as well as traditional practices that we still use today simply because they work. But we also know that there are new ways of doing things, new parameters and new applications that are driving positive change.
With the 4th of July holiday this week and perhaps a bit of downtime for some light summer reading, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on some of our history and back-to-basic traditions while also taking a look at what’s happening that’s new and innovative. So we’ve put together a list of the top four Cabling Chronicle blogs covering some of the most historical and latest topics.
Four for History
-
History of the RJ45: A Case of Mistaken Identity: Our industry commonly uses the term “RJ45” to refer to the modular 8-position, 8-contact (8P8C) interface deployed for Ethernet over copper twisted-pair network cabling despite it pretty much being a case of mistaken identity. Take a trip back down memory lane to see where the RJ45 came from and why it remains the de facto interface today.
-
What Ever Happened to the Mechanical Splice?: While mechanical splice connectors have come a long way and are an ideal field termination method, what ever happened to mechanical splicing as a means for joining fibers along a link? Find out why this once “groovy” method has gone by the wayside.
-
Are You Positive It’s Negative?: When testing fiber, insertion loss should always be positive, return loss that measures reflection is always positive, and reflectance, which also measures reflection, is always negative. And it’s always been this way. This back-to-basics blog will explain why this fourth-grade math has caused confusion for years among even the most experienced industry professionals.
- What Ever Happened to Category 7? Ratified in 2002 in the ISO/IEC 11801 standard and introduced to support future 10 Gb/s Ethernet, Category 7 cable almost seems like it didn’t happen. And in a way it didn’t. Take a trip down memory lane to find out what really happened to this once forward-thinking, innovative technology.
And Four for the Future
-
Cat 6A – A Bright Future Ahead: Category 6A has been around now for more than a decade, and while Category 6 (now 17 years old!) continues to dominate worldwide sales of twisted-pair copper cabling, things are looking bright for Cat 6A. Find out why it might just get its day.
-
Singlemode Fiber is On Rise. Are You Ready?:With an increased use of singlemode fiber, the growing demand for low-cost singlemode transceivers is driving down cost. Now we’re seeing the industry gear up for short-reach singlemode fiber applications to support speeds of 200 Gig and beyond. Find out what’s happening and what it takes to support these emerging applications.
-
Gearing Up for Single-Pair Ethernet in the Enterprise: While 10 Mb/s may seem like old school, it’s making a comeback due to the wide range of low-speed, low-bandwidth IoT devices. Find out what’s happening with single-pair Ethernet, why it is being developed and what you can expect to be different and what might be the same.
- Testing on the Edge: Edge data centers are popping up in a variety of places to increase bandwidth and decrease latency by bringing data processing and capacity closer to the users and devices. Find out just why we need them, where we can expect to see them and what they’ll look like from a cabling and testing perspective.
