Cabling Chronicles
How High-Speed Fiber Applications are Impacting the Networking Arena
In last week’s blog, we took a Closer Look at 40 Gig Duplex Multimode Applications, just one of the many ways that today’s data centers are cost-effectively achieving increased bandwidth in switch-to-switch fiber links. And when we say many ways, we literally mean many.
March 22, 2017
A Closer Look at 40 Gig Duplex Multimode Applications
There’s been a lot of talk in the industry surrounding solutions capable of running 40 Gig Ethernet over duplex multimode fiber—especially with OM5 wideband multimode fiber (WBMMF) now recognized within industry standards that specifies wavelengths between 840 and 953 nanometers to support wave division multiplexing (WDM).
March 15, 2017
Testing Cabling With MPO Connectors – What’s New?
With the wide variety of standards relating to fiber optic cabling, the absence of published standards for testing fiber optic cabling terminated with MPO connectors might come as a surprise. Finally, a technical report (TR), written by this author, is scheduled for a June 2017 publication that provides such testing guidance - it is TR/IEC 61282-15. A technical report provides guidance on a subject but does not have requirements (e.g. no “shalls”) as an international standard or an ANSI/TIA standard would.
March 8, 2017
How to Test Shield Integrity?
Back when Wolfenstein 3D was all the rage, we set up an exhibit at a BICSI conference where we tried to make a Cat 5 link fail by inducing noise onto it. We tried all kinds of no-no’s, such as placing the cable next to a fluorescent ballast, a large electric motor, and even the coil of a running car’s engine, yet the link provided virtually error-free 100BASE-TX performance. At that point, it didn’t seem like there would be much benefit for screened cable for the vast majority of installations.
February 15, 2017
#ICYMI: Highlights from 2017 BICSI Winter
The 2017 BICSI Winter Conference wrapped up last week in Tampa where thousands of ICT professional from around the world had a chance to gain valuable industry knowledge and check out the latest products from nearly 180 vendors in the exhibit hall – including our new DSX-8000 CableAnalyzer.
February 8, 2017
The Road to a Category 8 Cable Tester
On January 23, we announced the DSX-8000 CableAnalyzer™, the first true Category 8 tester. You may be wondering what is required for a “true” Category 8 certification tester and why we launched it now.
February 2, 2017
Tips to Identify Copper Clad Aluminium (CCA) Cables
So you came across some Category 6 cable available online for practically half what you've been paying for that brand name. It claims TIA-568-C compliance, includes the UL listing mark and even has a ETL verification legend printed right on the cable. Before you get too excited, you might want to make sure that cable isn't made with copper clad aluminum (CCA).
January 18, 2017
January 11, 2017
Goodbye 2016. You Weren’t ALL Bad
All over the news and social media, 2016 has gotten a pretty bum rap.
With everything from shootings, terrorist attacks and the weirdest presidential election in history, to exploding cell phones, scary clown threats and numerous celebrity deaths, 2016 has been denoted as the worst year ever.
January 4, 2017
How to Save Money and Time in Testing Fibers with SmartLoop
The only way to get correct values when performing Tier 2 testing of duplex fiber links with an OTDR is via bidirectional testing that averages the measurements taken from both ends of the link.
Bidirectional testing used to involve testing the fiber from one end, walking the OTDR to the other end to test again and then averaging the two values to get the results—and it had to be done for each link.
December 30, 2016
