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Connectix Cabling Systems™
Jason Holroyd CNID Director of Business Development Connectix Cabling Systems™ Cabling Standards and CPR Update Connectix CEP - Cabling Standards and the Impact of Construction Products regulations Jason Holroyd, CNID Director of Business Development
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CPD Seminar Introduction Standards update
Classes, Categories and Constructions The Impact of Construction Product Regulations (CPR) To Screen or not to Screen The New Critical Factor – Containment The Future CCS Cabling Systems – Approach to the future. Q&A This course is designed to provide an up to date picture of the structured cabling standards and developments in the market in general. Whilst at the same clarify a number of common misconceptions.
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Commitment to Standards
Compliance to Expert Panel TCT/7/-/2 "Telecommunications - Installation requirements – Cabling infrastructure, design, planning and commissioning“ Compliance to Expert Panel TCT/7/-/3 “Telecommunications - Installation requirements - Cabling infrastructure, design, planning and commissioning (Data Centres)“ Compliance with IST/046 “Sustainability for, and by IT” Reports into International (ISO) Committees European (CENELEC) Committees
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CCS System Offering Voice Copper Category 3 UTP Internal Grade Cabling
Category 5e U/UTP and F/UTP Category 6 U/UTP and F/UTP Category 6A U/UTP, U/FTP and F/FTP Category 7A S/FTP Fibre Internal/External Grade Cable Patch Cords and Pigtails – ST, SC, LC Connectors and Adaptors Patch Panels MTP Blown Fibre Voice Internal Grade Cabling External Grade Cabling Cabinets Floor Standing Cabling Cabinets Floor Standing Equipment and Server Cabinets 2 Post Frames Wall Mount Enclosures Accessories PDUs – Standard, Modular and Intelligent
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CCS Installer Certification Course
May 2013 Positioning CCS Sold in over 70 Countries UK Factory and offices in Braintree, Essex UAE office in Dubai Design/Technical Office in Taiwan Rack Build Facility in Braintree Manufacturing plant in Mildenhall, Suffolk Custom Rack/Product Design team CCS Product line covers Commercial, Residential, Broadcast industries
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CCS Installer Certification Course
May 2013 Positioning CCS 25 Year Warranty CCS Partner Programme (ESP, ECP & EDP) Independently tested to ISO standards Delta verification for both channel and component Delta inspected manufacturing capabilities Comprehensive CCS system product range In excess of 1,600 products Copper / Fibre (standard, MTP, Blown, Broadcast) / voice / cabinets / PDU’s (standard & intelligent) / tool less keystone jacks / low profile modules / Custom Enclosures / Environmental Management Solutions
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Current Standards Update
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Current Standards EN To start it is important to understand the hierarchy of the relevant standards. At the same time it should be noted that these standards are ever changing . The UK standards panels that contribute to the EN (Cenelec) standards meet on average once a quarter in day long sessions, to discuss changes and updates. At any one time each of the standards above have a series of amendments in discussion so it is important to stay in touch with the changes. To keep things simple. ISO covers the world, EN/Cenelec covers all of Europe and TIA is the American Standards body. ISO and EN/Cenelec have close links and liaison members on each others to make sure wherever possible there is a level of conformity between the two, unfortunately this link is not as close between TIA and the others.
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ISO ISO/IEC Ed.2: 2002 Information technology –Generic cabling for customer premises Amendment 1 – ISO/IEC 11801: Ed. 2.1: 2008 Class EA and Class FA channels New channel parameters Amendments to channel Classes D, E and F Amendment 2 – ISO/IEC Ed 2.2: 2010 Published April 2010 Contains Class EA and Class FA links OM4 40 & 100 Gigabit Ethernet Fibre Channel The Channel Parameters for Class EA (Cat6A)was agreed and published in 2008, however it took until Amendment 2 was published in April 2010 did we see Class EA and Class FA permanent link parameters (amendments to D, E and F) Also in that amendment we also saw the introduction of Cabled Optical Fibre to include OM4 the Test regimes for Class EA, Class FA and OM4 The list of applications were also updated to include reference to 40GbE & 100GbE as well as Fibre Channel
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EN – CENELEC Automatically adopted by the member state as a standard – in the UK case British Standards BS EN Information technology – Generic cabling systems BS EN Information technology – Cabling installation CENELEC - European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization - Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique. As the UK is a member state of the EU, this standard is automatically adopted with the prefix of BS for British Standards, The BSI has a number of panels (sub-committees) that contribute to the development of Cenelec standards. They are effectively split into two parts. Design of Systems and Components are covered by BS EN 50173 Installation Guidelines are covered by BS EN 50174 Each one of the above are then split down further.
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EN – CENELEC Automatically adopted by the member state as a standard – in the UK case British Standards BS EN Information technology – Generic cabling systems BS EN :2011 Part 1: General requirements The combination of the standard and the amendments + A1: A2:2011 BS EN : Part 2: Office premises BS EN : Part 3: Industrial premises BS EN : Part 4: Homes BS EN : Part 5: Data centres BS EN :2013 Part 6: Distributed Building Services BS EN Information technology – Cabling installation CENELEC - European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization - Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique. BS EN is current split into 6 parts Part 1 is the General requirements element and has recently undergone a series of amendments in the last couple of years, these have involved Class EA Permanent Link and Channel parameters that have been mentioned previously with ISO The other parts relate to different environments, such as office, factories, homes an data centres. Currently in the early stages of development is the section that relates to Distributed Building Systems
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EN – CENELEC Automatically adopted by the member state as a standard – in the UK case British Standards BS EN Information technology – Generic cabling systems BS EN Information technology – Cabling installation BS EN : Part 1: Installation specification and quality assurance BS EN : A1: Part 2: Installation planning and practices inside buildings BS EN :2013 Part 3: Installation planning and practices outside buildings CENELEC - European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization - Comité Européen de Normalisation Electrotechnique. EN covers Installation specific practices for Planning and Installation. Both inside and external to the building. Part 2 recently underwent development and amendment which was published in The major element of which covered updating the recommendations for separation distances as well as the use of Fibre Arrays, such as MTP.
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British Standards BS 6701:2010 Telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling. Specification for installation, operation and maintenance Published 31st March 2010 BS 7671: Amendment 3: 2015 Requirements for electrical installations. IET Wiring Regulations. Seventeenth edition, 3rd Revision Within the UK we also have 2 national standards that should also be referred to and followed. They are: BS6701 which was published in 2010 which covers the operations and maintenance of Telecommunications Equipment and Telecommunications Cabling, the latter element includes structured cabling. The main relevance involves the documentation and how an O & M (operation & maintenance) manual should be constructed and maintained to ensure the proper use of the system throughout it’s life. BS7671 ,2008 commonly known as the Wiring Regs, also has a bearing on how structured cabling is installed, as many of the cables run adjacent spaces and power is supplied to items such as cabinets and comms spaces.
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TIA ANSI/TIA-568-D Published 2015
ANSI/TIA D Generic Telecommunications Cabling for Customer Premises Ed. D:2015 ANSI/TIA D Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard Ed. D:2015 ANSI/TIA-568-C.2 Balanced Twisted-Pair Telecommunications Cabling and Components Standard Ed. C:2014 ANSI/TIA D Optical Fibre Cabling Components Standard Ed. 3:2016 ANSI/TIA-568-C.4 Coaxial and Broadband Components (Released August 2011) Telecommunications Industry Association The North American Standards Body that has by default been used in other parts of the world, purely due to the expansion of American owned companies deploying structured cabling throughout the world and bringing with them their domestic standard. In 2009 the 568 series went through a major re-vamp that cleaned it up and put subjects into clear defined sections, the previous versions had evolved over a period of time and had become unbalanced. The other reason for the re-write was to start the process towards harmonisation with the ISO standards, particularly concerning fibre optic arrays. It is important to remember that this standard was developed for the US market and in that sense there are a number of anomalies where it does not translate very well to the International market. We will highlight a couple of these further in the presentation. In the last couple of weeks there has been the addition of C.4 to include the definition of Broadband and Coaxial products not covered elsewhere within the Standard.
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Are there legal requirements?
Standards are not necessarily law Contracts are law Be careful what you sign up to! It is impossible to comply with ISO EN & TIA standards at the same time What would reasonably be expected Start with National Standards i.e. BS EN Standards are not necessarily law. They only become legally enforceable once they are referenced within a Contract. It is impossible to comply with ISO,EN and TIA standards at the same time for two key examples are the following: TIA calls for 2 power outlets per user station. This is not part of ISO or EN, nor should it be, as this is covered by the local Electrical Wiring Regulations. Also the Test limits for ISO and EN are the same, however TIA is slightly different for Cat5e and Cat6 and very different for Cat6A. There is 2.5dB difference in the NEXT value, with TIA being the lower value, therefore a system passing TIA may not pass ISO or EN, therefore the best standards to test to are always ISO and EN, if you want the best performing solution.
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Which should I use? Recommend the UK & EN series
Design – EN series Installation O&M – BS6701 Admin, Spaces, Pathways, Pathway systems – EN series Installation – EN series Functional Bonding – EN series & EN 50310 Testing – EN series For the UK market we would recommend the following the list of standards are followed: The one additional one that hasn’t been mentioned previously is EN which covers the functional bonding of cabinets and enclosures.
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New European Standard – Data Centres
EN Series Holistic approach Bringing in all disciplines No one discipline can do it all
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EN 50600 Data centre facilities an infrastructure
Part 1 – General concepts Part 2.1 – Building construction Part 2.2 – Power supply and distribution Part 2.3 – Environmental control Part 2.4 – Telecommunications cabling Part 2.5 – Security systems Part 2.6 – Management and operational information SR – add front page of one of the sections
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Classes, Categories and Constructions
So far we have discussed both Classes and Categories, however it is important to understand what they represent. In essence Categories and Classes in general mirror each other. However it is important to understand the differences we will highlight as we move forward through this section.
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Application Classes The ISO and EN Standards use Application Classes for the definition of Channels & Links: Class C MHz Class D MHz Class E MHz Class EA MHz Class F MHz Class FA GHz For ISO and BS/EN they refer to Classes rather than Categories but the frequencies are effectively the same. It is worth taking a moment to familiarise yourself with each of these as CCS amongst a number of other manufacturers recommend and ask for all testing for warranty purposes to follow the above standards.
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EIA/TIA Categories of Cabling
Category MHz Category MHz Category MHz Category 5e MHz Category MHz Category 6a MHz Category N/A Category 7a N/A In June 2002 Cat 6 was ratified. Cat 6 cable offers bandwidths of 250 MHz and provides a truly future proof cabling system that will run Gigabit Ethernet and beyond. Due to the strict requirements set out in this Class E Standard and to enable the performance to be more than doubled from the previous Class D standard, manufacturers have had to radically redesign each element of the structured cabling system to ensure full backward compatibility and interoperability. As you will see from this slide the Category 7a frequency limit is still to be ratified, however it is expected to be harmonised with the ISO standard at 1GHz
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Cable Types This chart is self explanatory and is one of the best ways of recognising the construction types, this is available from CCS marketing . There is a level of confusion that appears from time to time. STP and UTP, there is actually no reference or explanation for these terms in any Standards document, STP is a generic term for all forms of Screened Twisted Pair the actual definitions used are the ones above, for example U/FTP which stands for Unscreened, Foil Twisted Pair, where there is a foil screen around each pair but no overall foil screen.
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The Impact of Construction Product Regulations (CPR)
So far we have discussed both Classes and Categories, however it is important to understand what they represent. In essence Categories and Classes in general mirror each other. However it is important to understand the differences we will highlight as we move forward through this section.
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Construction Product Regulations 2017
Implemented in 2013 under the EU Construction Products Directive Based around Fire Performance Certified to EuroClass Standards Results in the use of CE Mark on Data Cables Governed within EN50575 EN50575 Harmonised in July 2016 – mandatory in July 2017 Independent Tests Required within the EU by a “Notified Body” approved by the country of issue and adopted by the country standards body Standard now BS EN 50575: A1: 2016 Adopted by BS6701 as a minimum performance Standard SR – add front page of one of the sections
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Construction Product Regulations 2017
BS EN 50575 Power, control and communication cables — Cables for general applications in construction works subject to reaction to fire requirements. BS EN Fire classification of construction products and building elements Part 6: Classification using data from reaction to fire tests on electric cables. BS EN 50399 Common test methods for cables under fire conditions. Heat release and smoke production measurement on cables during flame spread test. Test apparatus, procedures, results. BS EN Tests on electric and optical fibre cables under fire conditions. Test for vertical flame propagation for a single insulated wire or cable. Procedure for 1 kW pre-mixed flame. BS EN ISO 1716 Reaction to fire tests for products. Determination of the gross heat of combustion (calorific value). BS EN Measurement of smoke density of cables burning under defined conditions. Test procedure and requirements. BS EN Common test methods for cables under fire conditions. Tests on gases evolved during combustion of materials from cables. Procedures. Determination of degree of acidity of gases for cables by determination of the weighted average of pH and conductivity. BS 8492 Telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling – Code of practice for fire performance and protection. BS 6701 Telecommunications equipment and telecommunications cabling – Specification for Installation, operation and maintenance. BS 7671 Requirements for Electrical Installations, Wiring Regulations. BS EN Information technology. Cabling installation. Installation specification and quality assurance. SR – add front page of one of the sections
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Euroclass Standards – What are they?
Classified as Performance in reaction to fire Aca to Fca Euroclass Standards Aca highest performance Fca defined as performance determined SR – add front page of one of the sections
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CPR, BS6701: 2017 and BS7671 18th Edition 2018 - What does it actually mean?
Cable Construction to be based around Fire Performance Mandatory Certification to EuroClass Standards ALL cables should be CE Approved and marked BS6701 Mandate to a minimum Euroclass Cca from 30th November 2017 All specification documents should be amended to comply with BS6701 asap Euroclass Selection is the responsibility of the Client or the Designer Establish this pre Stage 3 SR – add front page of one of the sections
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Class EA – To Screen or Not to Screen
With the advent of higher frequencies we have moved to higher performing cables. However these higher frequencies and bandwidths have provided a new raft of issues to be addressed. The major one relating to Class Ea or Cat6a is one of outside interference.
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Reminder of the Standards
IEEE 802.3an – 2006 was ratified in June 2006 It defined an application standard for 10Gb/s data transmission over copper twisted pair of up to 100 metres and includes both UTP and STP With the ratification of ISO/IEC Class EA the IEEE agreed to use this for all future development involving 10G Ethernet over copper. With the ratification of IEEE 802.3an or 10G Ethernet over copper they also agreed that all future developments of applications involving the 10G standard would be based upon the copper transmission being carried out over ISO Class EA cabling, whether screened or unscreened. There was a document published by the TIA called TSB155, (technical service bulletin) that came up with a set of mitigation rules to allow 10G to be run over existing Cat6 cabling installation, over reduced distances. It does NOT refer to new installations and should not be used. It is also very complicated and requires that you only run 10G over 1 in every 6 cables installed etc.
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10GBASE-T Challenges Alien CrossTalk (ANEXT) is the noise source that limits the ability to Transmit 10Gb Ethernet The 10GBASE-T receiver cannot compensate for the noise from adjacent channels. The cabling needs to do the cancelling wherever possible The largest challenge to overcome with 10G Ethernet and Class EA is that of Alien Crosstalk, whilst we used to mainly interested in NEXT within a cable between one pair and another or PSNEXT which is the powersum of 3 pairs against one. We are now concerned with the impact of interference affecting the cable from external sources, whether that is from traditional EMI threats of Power or from signals being transmitted along adjoining cables. This called Alien Crosstalk. Unfortunately it is not possible either technically or economically for the 10GBASE-T receivers to compensate for this noise and it therefore has to be done by the cabling.
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10GBASE-T Challenges The noise is measured as PSANEXT PSAACRF
Both ISO/IEC Ed 2.1 ClassEA & TIA-EIA-568B.2-10 Cat6A require Crosstalk be measured in a 6-around-1 configuration. Alien Cross talk is measured in two ways, PSANEXT which is measure at the near end and PSAACRF. Which stands for Powersum, Attenuation to Alien Cross Talk Ratio. In effect it is measuring the strength of the signal to the level of interference at the far end. The difference between the two numbers the better the performance. (measured in dB and the higher the value the better). As part of the standards when they were first published, it laid out how to field test for Alien CrossTalk and this require a 6 around 1 procedure i.e. Inject a signal into 6 cables and test the performance of the victim cable. Most leading Field Testers such as Fluke and Lantek have Alien Crosstalk test lead kits available. However as you can see it is a very time consuming process. And therefore the rules on testing for Alien CrossTalk testing have been relaxed. So as well as the standard testing we only have to test 5% of all the Long lengths, 5% of the Medium Lengths and 5% of the short Lengths. Even this relaxation carries with it a huge amount of additional testing. The other relaxation is ANEXT testing is not required for SCREENED Installations.
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10GBASE-T Challenges Category 6 UTP system will not meet the limits for metres of 10GBASE-T transmission. There are some that state that you can run 10G Ethernet over Cat6 UTP cabling. Basically what they are doing is misusing at a TSB (Technical service bulletin) that was issued by EIA/TIA in the US called TSB155, which was last amended in 2009. The document was intended to provide guidance for those with ‘Existing’ installations of Cat6 as the document provides a series of mitigating actions to see if an installed Cat6 system can support 10G, this includes ensuring that only one in every 6 outlets on a patch panel are used for 10G, as well as instructing that the those links must not be run in the same bundle etc. All this said it not a standard and only provides guidance. The above chart provides an example of the relative performance of 3 types of system, one is Cat6 UTP, the others are Cat6A screened and unscreened as you can see the clear winner is Cat6A screened. It must also be noted that this is chart is based upon TIA limits which we have already established is less stringent than ISO or EN
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10GBASE-T Challenges One answer Install screened solutions
The foil screen prevents signals from coupling and reduces alien crosstalk well below the required limits Eliminates the need for time-consuming and complicated field-testing of ANEXT Therefore it is sensible to install a screened Cat6A system if you are planning for 10G Ethernet. This statement is further backed up by the following research.
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Independent Testing An independent test carried out by GHMT funded by some leading manufacturers demonstrated the benefits of a screened solution. The German Test house carried out a series of independent tests a couple of years ago that further reinforced this view. The general set-up was to build a 10G Ethernet network connected by various cabling systems. Then expose them to a series of ‘external disturbers’ or interference.
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Independent Testing Practical Radiated HF
Whilst not going into all the details we will cover a couple of the key findings. The first one being Practical Radiated HF (high frequency) which can be found with push-to-talk switches on two way radios or pressing the call set-up button on a mobiles phone. The impact was to disturb the transmission sufficiently to cause dropped packets and service interruption. Pushing the push-to-talk switch or the call set-up button impaired the data transmission of unscreened systems system (01 and 02) or even led to complete loss of signal traffic. There was no influence on the screened systems.
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Independent Testing Fast Transients Powering of fluorescent lamps
U/UTP systems failed this test for all electromagnetic environments. STP systems pass this test for all electromagnetic environments. The second example was that of Fast Transient power. The best way to describe this is when a fluorescent light tube is switched on the ballast/starter motor emits a major surge which has an impact on other systems. Within buildings this can actually be the largest source of issues in an office environment. Once again, the screened systems demonstrated a level of immunity to this problem not provided by unscreened systems.
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Conclusions The evidence is all leaning towards a screened solution being the best performing option It takes no longer to install a screened option on balance of these findings The only reason to install U/UTP over a screened option can only be for materials cost Beware some vendors continue to question these findings and will push what is best for them The conclusions are
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Future Developments What does the future hold, as with all areas of technology, IP infrastructures move as fast as many others, if not more so.
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Future Developments Fibre Ethernet POE – Power over Ethernet
The three keys areas that we will cover are effectively the fastest moving at this time.
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OM4 – Meaning? OM4 1100 m 150 m Greater Distances 1 Gig 10 Gig
Using parallel optics
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Fibre 40GBASE SR4 & 100GBASE SR10 will use parallel optics – MPO Connectivity 100 Gig Vertically stacked ports 40 Gig Side by side ports Single port The standards committees have now announced the first round of deploying higher Ethernet speeds within the DC will done by using 40GBase SR4 and 100GBase SR10 with the following methodology. Both using Multiple Push On (MPO) connectors. Or the more popular variant MTP from US Conec, the latter device has been adopted more commonly due to the fact that it is a ‘keyed’ technology with Male and Female versions.
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CCS Installer Certification Course
May 2013 Ethernet
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Ethernet – What’s next…
40GBASE-T 30 – 100m Cat 7A cabling ? – Not Likely NG Base-T ???? – only just started – Category 8 Cable (DC only mtrs) 100GBASE-copper 1m Backplane & 3-4m twin ax 100GBASE-SR4 25G/lane via m OM4 400GBASE-fibre 400 Gigabit Ethernet 1TBASE-fibre Terabit Ethernet What other technologies might we expect. Some may say that 40G using Cat7a cabling is next, however there is an issue here, whilst some cable manufacturers may claim this level of performance. There is no call for it right now. By that I mean the IEEE have not put out a Call for Interest (CFI) to see if any one wants it, until that is done, no work will start on the encoding techniques required to transmit 40G Ethernet over balanced twisted pair cable. If we look back to 10G Ethernet, work was started on that standard in 2002 and it was not ratified until So even if they were going to start on this standard don’t expect anything before 2015/2016. Work has started on the standards for delivering 100G Ethernet over very short distances using copper and this will typically be within the cabinet or at most the one next to it. They are also starting work on the 100G SR4, having 4 x 25G duplex channels using OM4. again this work is not expected to produce any real results much before 2013/14 Finally towards the back of the decade we will start to see 400G and 1Tb Ethernet emerging. This is purely going to be a ISP technology and a method of delivering content rich services to the home as well as businesses.
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CCS Installer Certification Course
May 2013 Power over Ethernet (PoE)
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POE - Power over Ethernet
802.3af Standard POE – 15.4/12.95W Published in 2003 15.4 Watts Powering – Watts Powered What is sent and what is received, the rest is lost in transmission 802.3at Enhanced POE or POE+ Published in 2009 34.2 Watts Powering – 25.5 Watts Powered 802.3bt POE++ Work group started 2013 – no end date for publication Minimum 49W could be in excess of 100W, 4 pair powering Cisco’s UPoE could still play a part The other major development area is that of POE, Power over Ethernet, which will be the major enabler of Converged IP solutions. It has been the major driver for IP telephony since it was ratified in 2003, however as more an more technology is coming along it is demanding greater and greater levels of power. And example of this is PTZ (pan tilt and zoom, CCTV ) cameras. We therefore launched POE+ in 2009. I do have one major word of warning here. There are some equipment vendors in the market now announcing and promoting devices that operate at levels above the standards, some of which are stating products that can deliver in excess of 100watts. The standards have been developed for a reason and we should follow them if we want to maintain a level certainty that what we are deploying is not only going to work but also safe. More worryingly a group of manufacturers have got together to launch their own alliance and standard. This group called the HDBase-T alliance has a vested interest in delivering higher levels of power to enable one of their application which is HDTV services throughout the home using balanced twisted pair copper. They have therefore released ‘a standard’ which they state can support 100watts over 100m over Cat5e cable.
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Equipment Vendor Claims
Market Application Power WLAN Dual-band Aps 802.11n Aps Outdoor Aps ~20W 20-30W Security PTZ network cameras 15-20W IP Telephony Video phones 15-25W New Markets RFID readers/access control WiMAX base stations Workgroup switches Residential gateways Industrial sensors Laptops POS + information kiosks Up to 25W 15-60W Up to 50W 1-30W Up to 70W 13-60W This level of power they are talking about, is way in excess of what we have been envisaging within the cabling standards committees so far, or even what the IEEE is looking at for the next generation of POE. Therefore it must be approached with a level of care until all the proof has been put forward.
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POE - Power over Ethernet
Design Considerations & Misconceptions Heat and lots of it! TR29125 WD TR EN Testing Methodology Complete Work under way at various locations CCS have conducted testing in conjunction with De Montfort University Results have been shared with ISO/Cenelec ISO/IEC is sufficiently concerned about the impact of POE, to put together a working group that produced a Technical Report TR29125 on the design and installation of POE along with a methodology of how to mitigate the temperature increases that are going to be a result.
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POE – Power over Ethernet
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POE – Power over Ethernet
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Containment ‘The Critical Issue’
We now come on to a section where all good consultants could really help the installers of IP Infrastructures. With a lot of these developments we have spoken about there is one outside factor, not in the control of the installer that has a major bearing on the future performance of the network. That is the containment, whether that is trunking, basket tray, backboxes etc.
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The Impact of CAT6A The Fundamentals have Changed
Irrespective of Shielded or Unshielded The OD has increased over CAT 6 by 25-30% From less than 6mm to over 8mm in some cases Example 25mm Flexible Conduit 4 x CAT6 UTP cables 3 x CAT6A (if you are lucky) Impact on Bend Radii Basically with the spread of Class Ea or Cat 6a we have encountered a problem that we have not come across before. This is due to the construction of the cable, as you can see from the figures listed above there is a BIG difference in the Outside Dimension of the cable. The numbers given are also on the conservative side, Cat6 can be as small as 5.6mm and the largest Cat6a can be as high as 9.3mm. This all has an impact on Bend Radii and the type of containment it can be installed in.
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Containment If in doubt, use the containment calculator.
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The Impact of CAT6A Impact on Bend Radii Do the maths!
8 times OD during installation, 4 times OD when installed (under tension and relaxed) Over to 64mm when pulling in and 32mm when installed Double check the claims of the containment manufacturers One of whom claimed capacity for up to 14 CAT6A cables unfortunately in reality could only accommodate 3 in the bends. As you can see these numbers have increased dramatically, from a bend radii of 48mm for Cat6 we are now typically talking about 64mm. The difference between when the cable is being installed and when it is finally installed is based upon whether the cable is being stressed or not. Also not all Dado trunking is equal, there are currently upward of 12 different manufacturers in the UK Market and each one has at least two solutions available. It is therefore very important to double check their claims, I know one that caused a major problem on a particular site, which ended up having to installed twice the amount trunking that had been initially designed due to incorrect data.
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The Impact of CAT6A Part 1 of BS/EN states The Design of the termination points SHALL: Allow safe access Ensure link performance (Keep MBR) Have adequate clearance to install components in accordance with cable manufacturer’s instructions. All this must also take into consideration the standards which clearly state the Minimum Bend Radii is maintained and the product is install in line with the manufacturers guidelines. For clarity there are two words used extensively in all standards documents. Should = Recommended Shall = Mandatory
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How to get it Wrong If you get it wrong it will look like this, apart from the fact that the installer should have used the top compartment to bring the cables in, as the outlets are terminated ‘top down’ There are also other options, deeper back boxes, when this isn’t possible, specify ‘skeleton frames’ and the last option is actually route more cable to produce a loop in the box.
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CCS Installer Certification Course
May 2013 Importance of Independent Testing
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Third Party Verification
CCS Category 6 and Category 6A systems carry both Channel and Component certification To download copies of our 3rd party verification certificates please visit
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Questions?
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