cabling installation and maintenance-oct-2010
TRANSCRIPT
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www.cablinginstall.com
OCTOBER 2010SOLUTIONS FOR PREMISES AND CAMPUSCOMMUNICATION SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE
GOING THE
distance with OM3
PAGE 11
DATA CENTER PAGE 21
Layer one:First, do no harmSECURITY PAGE 25
Will IP camerashog bandwidth?EDITOR’S PICKS PAGE 29
Cable prices going up
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© 2010 Corning Cable Systems LLC
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1www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010
ABOUT THE COVER
Can 10GBase-S go the ull 300-meter
distance using standard MTP cassettes?
Independent testing o dierent channel
confgurations indicates it can.TO LEARN MORE, SEE ARTICLE ON PAGE 11.
OCTOBER 2010 | VOLUME 18 NO. 10
Group Publisher Susan Smith(603) 891-9447; [email protected]
Chie Editor Patrick McLaughlin(603) 891-9222; [email protected]
Senior Editor Matt Vincent(603) 891-9262; [email protected]
Marketing Manager Joni Montemagno
Art Director Kelli Mylchreest
Production Director Mari Rodriguez
Senior Illustrator Dan Rodd
Development Manager Michelle Blake
Ad Trafc Manager Marcella Hanson
EDITORIAL OFFICESPennWell Corporation,Cabling Installation & Maintenance98 Spit Brook Road LL-1Nashua, NH 03062-5737Tel: (603) 891-0123, fax: (603) 891-9245www.cablinginstall.com
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CABLING INSTALLATION & MAINTENANCE © 2010 (ISSN 1073-3108), ispublished 12 times a year, monthly, by PennWell Corporation, 1421 South SheridanRoad, Tulsa, OK 74112; phone (918) 835-3161; fax (918) 831-9497; www.pennwell.com. Periodicals postage paid at Tulsa, OK 74112 and other additionalofces. Subscription rate in the USA: 1 yr. $88, 2 yr. $119, BG $161; Canada/ Mexico: 1 yr. $98, 2 yr. $132, BG $178; International via air: 1 yr. $120, 2 yr. $160,BG $216; Digital: 1 yr. $60. If available, back issues can be purchased for $22 in theU.S. and $32 elsewhere. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted. For bulkreprints, contact Ed Murphy: (603) 891-9260.
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:: FEATURES
DESIGN
5 Considerations to make beoreinvesting in Category 6A cabling
DR. ANDREY SEMENOV AND IGOR G. SMIRNOV
INSTALLATION
11 Meeting 10GBase-S lossbudgets with MTP cassettesGARY BERNSTEIN, RCDD AND DENNIS MAINES
TECHNOLOGY
17 Intelligent building concepthits close to home
PATRICK MCLAUGHLIN
DATA CENTER
21 Enclosures play a role in high-density cable managementPATRICK MCLAUGHLIN
SECURITY
25 IP camera evolution is pushingnetwork bandwidthPATRICK MCLAUGHLIN
:: DEPARTMENTS
2 EditorialOn expectations, met and unmet
29 Editor’s PicksCopper prices, FEP supply
could drive up cable costs
_
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2
on cablinginstall.com
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com
PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Chie Editor
:: EDITORIAL ::
Boarding a ight in the 5:00 a.m. hour
at an airport not ar rom our ofces
here in New Hampshire not long ago,
I was confdent I’d arrive at my desti-
nation—three time zones, one plane
change and more than
seven hours later—in
plenty o time or myscheduled lunch meet-
ing. Well, I wouldn’t be
telling this story i that
had actually happened.
Weather problems in
the city in which I was
to change planes, coupled with the
plane I was in not having enough uel
to stay in a holding pattern or very
long, resulted in a frst or me. We were
diverted to a dierent city, where the
plane reueled and the crew waited or
urther instruction.
Eventually we got to the city in
which I was making the connection.
O course I had missed the connec-
tion by hours and only by the prover-
bial skin o my teeth did I get onto the
next ight as a standby passenger.
Fortunately or me I had that lunch
meeting eventually, only it was two
days later and didn’t include lunch.
But in the time I spent not being where
I had planned to be, I missed other
meeting opportunities that I did not
later bring to ruition.
I think there’s a saying about arm-
ers sharpening their tools on rainy
days, meaning when they can’t do
what they intended to do at a given
time, they remain productive and
accomplish tasks that will pay o or
them sometime in the uture. And I
like to think I spent the majority o that
ight delay doing the equivalent o
tool-sharpening. Admittedly though, I
also spent a little time that day reect-ing on the theme o unmet expecta-
tions. I expected to be at that lunch
meeting; the other party expected me
to be there too. And regardless o the
extent to which we both shrugged and
wrote it o as the nature o air travel,
two parties went to Plan B that day
because what we expected to happen,
didn’t.
That got me reecting internally,
specifcally with respect to the inor-
mation you receive rom this maga-
zine and its afliated inormation prod-
ucts. Perhaps there’s nothing I can
do about the og in Washington D.C.
that wreaked havoc on my business
plans last month. But there’s an awul
lot I can do to ensure that Cabling
Installation & Maintenance is a valu-
able resource or you. In act, my travel
snau provided me some “tool-sharp-
ening” time or exactly that purpose. I
hope you’ll take the opportunity to let
me know anything specifc I can do to
ensure this magazine remains one o
your useul tools.
On expectations, met and unmet
DATA CENTER
E-book addresses
cloud computing, data
center cooling
STANDARDS
Testing underway or IEEE
1588 Precision Time Protocol
NETWORK CABLE
Low-skew UTP cable as
an alternative to RGB coax
or video applications
CONNECTIVITY
Cable crimper is easy
on the hands
PHYSICAL SECURITY
IP video oversees
massive biker rally
WIRELESS
Wireless undamentals
explained in ree,
downloadable posters
DESIGN INSTALL TEST
Queen Elizabeth aircratcarrier uses iber-
cable management
BLOG
Failed cable thie gets
shock o a lietime
Visit cablinginstall.com or
these and other stories
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Even small changes can have a huge impact on the efficiency,
sustainability and profitability of your data center.
Installing a few simple products and implementing a handful of best practices can help you save
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10A0025X0 © 2010 Anixter Inc.
1.800.ANIXTERanixter.com
This data center is
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Innovation is at the core of LANscape® Pretium TM
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One company, every solution.
© 2010 Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.
THE FUTURE IS ON
Leviton products cover every area of the data center, from the
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Building blocks for theentire data center.
__________________
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50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
Category 6
Category 6A
Category 7A
Optical fber
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Relative cost
Link length, m
10G transmission costs or dierent media
5www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010
:: DESIGN ::
The specifcation and selection o
inormation technology (IT) systems
and services oten includes a presump-
tion that structured cabling will serve
as the oundation o the IT inrastruc-
ture. Although an IT cabling inra-
structure oundation is a given, other
types o IT systems (e.g. wireless net-
works and data over power cabling)
are generally considered to be niche
solutions and typically do not play a
defning role in the physical layer inra-
structure planning.
Structured cabling systems eature
a wide range o supported networking
equipment and associated transmis-
sion protocols. Leading IT equipment
manuacturers are able to oer their
customers a variety o products o the
same unctionality yet eaturing di-
erent technical transmission param-
eters. That variety presents a designer
o structured cabling with a challenge
to choose an IT cabling solution that
satisfes present and uture needs o a
particular project.
Balanced twisted-pair cabling has
traditionally been classifed by various
categories o transmission perormance.The higher the category, the better the
electrical perormance and the higher
the maximum rate o inormation trans-
mission. One tradeo to higher peror-
mance, however, is that higher trans-
mission perormance results in higher
component acquisition expenses as
well as increases in cabling installation
and feld-test complexity, which signif-
cantly aects the overall project cost.
In general, the task o choosing the
appropriate category o structured
cabling components may become eas-
ier i a telecommunications application
is used as a reerence point that servesas the ocus application domain o a
certain type o cabling. For the sake o
this article, we will ocus on the deci-
sion matrix leading up to Category 6A
cabling, which represents the most
interesting case because it can be con-
sidered the most advanced type o structured cabling being implemented
on a broad scale.
Category 6A backstory
Category 6A cabling standards
emerged in order to support inorma-
tion transmission rates o 10 Gbits/sec.
Prior to developing Category 6A cabling
components,
manuacturers o
Category 6 cabling
initially ocused
their attention on
redefning the re-
quency range o
interest or Category
6 rom a ceiling o
250 MHz to a ceiling
o 625 MHz. Ater
years o research
and study, it was
determined that a
requency range o 1
to 500 MHz would be required to sup-
port the 10GBase-T application.
Perhaps the most signifcant tech-
nological hurdle to overcome would
be the characterization o alien cross-
talk. Ironically Category 7 cabling,which evolved in the mid-1990s, ully
Considerations to make beoreinvesting in Category 6A cabling
Is it a round peg in a square hole, or a perect it?
BY Dr. Andrey Semenov, IT Co. and Igor G. Smirnov, Signamax Inc.
As link lengths grow, the disparity between Category 6 and
other media—Category 6A, Category 7 and optical fber—
widens.
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5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 >45
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0
Permanent link length, m
Data center permanent link lengths
:: DESIGN ::
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com6
supports the 10GBase-T alien cross-
talk requirements and did not require
any modifcation in order to support
the 10GBase-T application. Category
7 cabling, however, was not widely
accepted at the time the Institute o
Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE; www.ieee.org) was developing
the 10GBase-T standard. Plus, Category
7’s higher perormance is accompa-
nied by the aorementioned higher pri-
cetag, and Category 7 could not ensure
cost parameters required by practical
applications used in common general-purpose networks. For these reasons,
Category 6A cabling standards have
emerged as the predominant cabling
category in support o inormation
transmission rates o 10 Gbits/sec.
Regarding the emergence o
Category 7 cabling in the mid- to late-
1990s, these components were devel-
oped primarily to support 622-Mbit/
sec applications such as Asynchronous
Transer Mode (ATM). ATM-622 did
not use the parallel transmission tech-
niques used by Ethernet applicationsand its perormance is based on binary
encoding o the line signal. When
ATM-622 was developed there was no
task to match active equipment trans-
ceiver parameters to those o the pas-
sive part o the communications chan-
nel. The lack o optimization led to a
situation in which a Category 7 our-
connector, 100-meter channel was
used or a little more than 10 percent
o the its theoretical 55-Gbit/sec chan-
nel capacity as calculated according
to Shannon’s Theory. With such a low-
percentage use o Category 7’s unc-
tional capabilities, it is not surprisingthat Category 7 does not measure up
as an economi-
cally advanta-
geous option
or 10-Gbit/sec
transmission.
From the data
presented in the
chart on page 5
and the consid-
erations already
made in this
article, we can
draw a couple
conclusions.
Category 6A
technology more
precisely matches the physical applica-
tion o structured cabling rom the sys-
tem-level point o view.
For relatively short link lengths and
transmission rates up to 10 Gbits/sec,
balanced twisted-pair cabling and
components are a preerable option or
system users.
To comment briey on the concept
o “matching the feld o application,”
Category 6A was developed with the
objective o supporting 10-Gbit/secEthernet signal rates up to distances o
100 meters. The Shannon capacity o
a Category 6A channel is 18 Gbits/sec,
while some advanced contemporary
systems using screened component
designs increase the Shannon capac-
ity values to between 30 and 40 Gbits/
sec. Either cabling setup both guaran-
tees the normal unctioning o the net-
work interace and ensures good cost
parameters o the cabling inrastruc-
ture solution as a whole. The most sig-
nifcant actor that defned the applica-
tion area o Category 7 solutions was
that the technology did not include anunscreened option.
Technical challenges
The 10-Gbit/sec Ethernet network
interaces use the potential capacity
o contemporary cabling channels to
the highest degree. This achievement
was made possible by the application
o a complex set o technical methods.
Among them are the multilevel encod-
ing intended to minimize the band-
width o communications channels, the
correcting and compensating mecha-
nisms used or separation o valid sig-
nal and noise—known as noise-cancel-
ling techniques—and some additional
and similar techniques. However, the
tenold increase in the transmission
rate o the 10-Gbit/sec Ethernet active
networking equipment compared to its
precursor required more than a our-
old increase o the line-signal spec-
trum’s upper cuto requency. The pro-
portionality distortion in this case can
be explained by the application o the
PAM-16 code in 10-Gbit Ethernet com-
pared to the PAM-5 used in Gigabit
Ethernet.
The operation o unscreenedcabling channels in extended
While permanent-link lengths in commercial buildings
average around 40 meters, average links are signifcantly
shorter in data centers.
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:: DESIGN ::
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com8
to ocus as the strong counterweight
to somewhat worse economic param-
eters, the smaller energy consump-
tion o network interaces, which is
critically important or data centers.
Nevertheless, to use
this advantage in actual
practice is not possible
or several reasons.
The data center
structured cabling has
a distinctive eature important rom
the viewpoint o project implementa-
tion, which, taking into considerationprevailing market rates, is the heavi-
est portion o the materials bil l or both
components and labor. The key here is
the average length o the permanent
link in the data center, which is less
than 30 meters compared to a typical
40-meter permanent link in large com-
mercial ofce buildings.
Two major actors inuence the
data center’s shorter permanent-link
length compared to that o the com-
mercial ofce environment. First is how
compact the data center is as an archi-
tectural acility, which is by design
because o the high cost o real estate.
Second is the inherent availability o
a large quantity o cabling pathways
under the access oor as well as over-
head cabling containment systems
typically located above equipment cab-
inets. The ready availability o cable
distribution systems within data cen-
ters acilitates pathways that provide
the shortest routes or cabling links.
With such short-length perma-
nent links, the network equipment
can work in short-reach mode in the
majority o cases. In such situations,
any optical interace loses its power-consumption advantage.
Taking stock o these consider-
ations, we can confdently assume
the quantity o balanced twisted-
pair and optical fber links in the typi-
cal data center cabling system will be
approximately the same. Taking into
account the higher cost o Category
6A components compared to Category6 (about 50 percent higher on aver-
age), we obtain the total volume o the
Category 6A market, by value, to be
about one-third o the overall volume o
the Category 5e and Category 6 ofce
cabling systems market.
Structured cabling evolution
In the process o Category 6A technol-
ogy development a number o innova-
tive solutions were created that had
no parallels in the previous genera-
tions o structured cabling. One such
development was the partial-screening
technique. The approach was applied
to cabling products in the orm o a
metallic flm screen with gaps in the
metal coating. The gaps prevent or-
mation o current loops without imped-
ing normal unctioning o the screen at
requencies beyond 300 MHz.
The addition o a metallic flm
screen to the construction o distribu-
tion cables, outlet modules, patch cords
and other equipment does not worsen
their mass or dimension parameters;
it does, however, ensure the increased
resistance to external interering elec-
tromagnetic radiation. As a result, sys-tems o this type increase their alien
near-end and ar-end crosstalk peror-
mance, in pair-to-pair and power-sum
models, by approximately 10 dB.
The major advantage o the partial
screening technology is that cabling
may be installed per unscreened
cabling installation rules, making the
requirement to provide a telecommu-nications bonding and grounding sys-
tem—which is eective at requen-
cies within the order o hundreds o
megahertz—irrelevant.
Thereore, rom a technical point
o view, application o such partial
screening design concepts rather
eectively solves the problem o cre-
ating necessary alien crosstalk head-
room, which cannot be ignored in the
upper hal o the 10G Ethernet re-
quency range. From a practical point
o view, partial screening technology
is advantageous because its increased
crosstalk margins noticeably acceler-
ate and simpliy cabling installation.
The aorementioned shorter aver-
age permanent-link distances ound
in data centers has caused the emer-
gence o a new technology that, rom
the perspective o its transmission
perormance, can be qualifed unof-
cially as quasi-Category 6A. Cabling
components that are not in ull compli-
ance with the requirements o the com-
mercial ofce building and data center
structured cabling standards, may in
act still support the desired 10GBase-T
application. The major defcient param-eters o such components are insertion
The average length o the permanent link in
the data center is less than 30 meters.
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:: DESIGN ::
loss (attenuation) and loop resistance. In spite o these per-
ormance in adequacies, cabling channels built based on
quasi-Category 6A components provide the required signal
transmission quality at distances up to 60 meters, which by
a longshot exceeds the practical requirements o data center
cabling. Aside rom that, the electrical-perormance charac-
teristic loop resistance is closely associated with Power over
Ethernet and Power over Ethernet Plus. In the absence o PoE
or PoE Plus, loop resistance turns out to be irrelevant.
The signifcant gain rom the quasi-6A components’ use
instead o the standards-based Category 6A products can be
achieved because o these cables’ noticeably smaller sizes;
the average diameter is a l ittle over 5mm or 0.2 inches. That
makes it possible to improve balanced twisted-pair cablingmass and dimension parameters that are important or data
centers, and to considerably reduce the advantage o optical-
fber links.
It should be noted that current industry standards do not
consider in any manner the interrelationships between cate-
gory o cabling, link/channel length, and telecommunications
applications capacities.
Based on the inormation we have researched and pre-
sented in this article, we draw our conclusions about the
deployment and use o Category 6A cabling systems. 1)
Category 6A technology is a product o transmission-peror-
mance parameter optimization between cabling and active
networking equipment aimed at obtaining new properties
o the integrated product. 2) Category 6A technology has its
own explicit application niche, which is the lower hierarchy
level (i.e. horizontal cabling) within data centers. 3) Present
Category 6A solution volumes should have a steady growth
trend. In the near uture they will be limited to about one-
third o the volume o Category 5e and Category 6. 4) In the
process o Category 6A development, a number o innova-
tive solutions were created and implemented in structured
cabling practices; these solutions may lead to revisions o
some undamental positions o industry standards.
DR. ANDREY SEMENOV is director o business develop-
ment or IT structured cabling systems with IT Co. (www.
it.ru) and head o the structured cabling systems aculty at
the Moscow Technical University o Communications and
Inormatics. IGOR G. SMIRNOV is product manager or Signamax Inc. (www.signamax.com).
___
____
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the RJ-45 Barrier!
Siemon’s Z-MAX is an optimized end-to-end
category 6A UTP and shielded system developedfrom the ground up to shatter the limitations of the
RJ-45 as we know it today.
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To learn more about other Z-MAX innovations, attend a Z-MAX™ webinar or view real
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• Highest level of category 6A margin in the
industry for both UTP and shielded
• Simple termination process combines Best-
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high performance consistency
• Patented PCB-based Smart Plug technology
brings unsurpassed performance optimization
into the patch cord
• Patented/patent-pending Zero-Cross outlets
eliminate pair crossing/splitting to minimizecrosstalk
• Ultra High-Density 48-port , 1U Patch Panels
in both UTP and shielded
• Exclusive hybrid flat/angled outlet design
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Siemon’s Z-MAX 6A
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 11
:: INSTALLATION ::
10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) introduces
a challenging 2.6-dB insertion loss
limit on OM3 fber cabling. This tight
limit has led some industry observers
to suggest it is not possible to meet the
standard using regular, as opposed to
low-loss, MTP cassettes. Some have
also suggested it is not possible to
run fber cabling the ull 300-meter
distance specifed in the 10GBase-S
standard when using MTP cassettes,
whether those cassettes are standard
or low-loss.
This article will describe indepen-
dent testing contracted by Leviton
and conducted by Intertek Testing
Services, to perorm benchmark
testing o OM3 fber system peror-
mance. The testing proved that the
10GBase-S standards can in act be
met with the latest generation o OM3
fber systems using standard MTP
cassettes, up to the ull 300-meter
length limit. In addition, the results
show the ability o the tested system
to support migration to 40- and 100-GbE applications.
Multimode standards and challenges
For many years 62.5/125-μm (OM1)
and conventional 50/125-μm (OM2)
multimode fber have
dominated shorter-dis-
tance communications
applications, such as
within a building or on
a single-site campus.
The fbers easily sup-
port applications rang-
ing rom 10-Mbit/sec
Ethernet to Gigabit
Ethernet. Their rela-
tively large core sizes
simpliy connections
and are ideal or use
with low-cost light-
emitting diode (LED)
transmitters.
With the introduc-
tion o, and demand
or, 10-GbE, typical in data centers,
the physical limitations and properties
o multimode optical fber are being
severely tested. Multimode fber pro-vides many allowable paths or light to
travel down the fber, and due to inter-
modal dispersion not all pulses arrive
at the destination simultaneously. This
characteristic, as well as other issues,
ruled out the use o OM1 and OM2
fber to support 10GbE.The Institute o Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE; www.
ieee.org) created the 10GBase-S (“S”
standing or short wavelength) multi-
mode fber specifcation with the goal
o providing 10GbE operating dis-
tances o 300 meters. Laser-optimized
OM3 fber was specifed in TIA-
492AAAC to support both the IEEE
standard and economical vertical-cav-ity surace-emitting lasers (VCSELs)
Meeting 10GBase-S loss budgetswith MTP cassettes
Third-party testing demonstrates
lexibility in 10G network designs.
BY GARY BERNSTEIN, RCDD AND DENNIS MAINES,
LEVITON NETWORK SOLUTIONS
_____
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Confguration 1300-meter channel with 6 mated pairs
Storage
equipment
Core
switch
oretora e
Confguration 253-meter channel with 8 mated pairs
Storageequipment
Serverequipment
tora e Server
Confguration 362-meter channel with 9 mated pairs
Storageequipment
Serverequipment
Stora e rv r
Test setup
Mandrel
Lightsource Mated connector
pair with matingadapter
Mated connectorpair with mating
adapterOptical
power meter
Lossin dBLink
under test
ptical
Lightctor M t nn t rMated conn
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com12
:: INSTALLATION ::
that operate at the 850-nanome-
ter and 1300-nm wavelengths. Fiber
that meets the standard delivers an
eective modal bandwidth o 2000
MHz•km at a distance o 300 meters.
The TIA-568-C.0 standard allows
or a maximum 2.6-dB insertion loss
and 300-meter length with OM3 fber
cabling systems. While manuacturers
requently submit their copper cables
or third-party testing to veriy peror-
mance that meets or exceeds applica-
ble standards, they typically have not
had fber cabling systems, includingOM3, tested. This lack o independent
verifcation can leave designers and
operators o OM3 fber networks uncer-
tain what the true parameters are in
designing premises applications.
For example, the maximum inser-
tion loss or MTP-LC cassettes or mod-
ules as stated in the TIA specifcation
is 1.5 dB. An unusually complicated—
but not extreme—confguration might
consist o our cassettes with a total
o eight mated pairs. I each o these
cassettes was at the headroom limit,
then the insertion loss o 6.0 dB would
exceed the allowable limit. Some ven-
dors have addressed this possibility
by oering low-loss cassettes. These
cassettes typically come at a cost pre-
mium o approximately 50% over stan-
dard cassettes.
Channels approaching the 300-
meter maximum allowable distance
or 10GbE have the same potential
issue. Insertion loss or OM3 cable is
typically 3.0 dB per kilometer. The TIA
standard allows 0.75-dB insertion loss
per connector mated pair. For exam-
ple, a 300-meter channel confgura-
tion with six mated pairs could have amaximum insertion loss o 3.9 dB, well
above the 2.6-dB limit. Undoubtedly,
this explains why some vendors have
recommended that users stay wellbelow the 300-meter standard-speci-
fed length limit.
Putting fber to the test
How much headroom does a 50/125-
μm laser-optimized fber system actu-ally provide relative to the specifca-
tion, and what is the impact to the
network designer? To address these
Confguration 1, set up as shown here, was a 300-meter channel with 6 mated pairs.
Confguration 2, set up as shown here, was a 53-meter channel with 8 mated pairs.
Confguration 3, set up as shown here, was a 62-meter channel with 9 mated pairs.
The tests conducted by Intertek were set up as shown here, in accordance with
TIA-568-C.0 Generic Telecommunications Cabling or Customer Premises, Annex E:
Optical Fiber Field Test Guidelines.
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 13
:: INSTALLATION ::
questions, we at Leviton contracted
with Intertek Testing Services to test
our OM3 fber system including MTP
trunk cables, MTP-LC cassettes and
harnesses, MTP adapter brackets and
LC-LC OM3 patch cords. The testing
included three dierent OM3 channel
confgurations, as ollows.
300 meters, 6 mated pairs
53 meters, 8 mated pairs
62 meters, 9 mated pairs
All channels were set up and bidi-
rectionally tested with readings mea-
sured against maximum allowableinsertion loss as specifed in TIA-
568-C.0, using Annex E guidelines.
Specifcally, Intertek perormed the or-
ward-direction link measurement by
placing a reerence-quality jumper on
a Riocs-brand optical meter and mea-
suring the link insertion loss by con-
necting the test jumper o the source
to one end o the cabling link, and
the test jumper o the meter to the
cabling link’s other end. Both ends o
the link were disconnected and the
ends were interchanged and recon-
nected to perorm the reverse-direc-
tion measurements.
For Confguration 1, the 300-meter
channel with 6 mated pairs, the aver-
age maximum channel insertion loss
was 2.04 dB, providing a 0.56-dB mar-
gin under the 2.6-dB limit.
For Confguration 2, the 53-meter
channel with 8 mated pairs, the aver-
age maximum channel insertion loss
was 1.83 dB, providing a 0.77-dB mar-
gin under the 2.6-dB limit.
For Confguration 3, the 62-meter
channel with 9 mated pairs, the aver-
age maximum channel insertion loss
was 1.87 dB, providing a 0.73-dB mar-gin under the 2.6-dB limit.
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14 OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com
:: INSTALLATION ::
All three confgurations were ound
to comply with all applicable criteria
o the TIA-568-C.0 standard. The con-
nectors tested not only meet the maxi-
mum published perormance require-ments, but also the insertion loss
specifcations spelled out in the table.
It is clear that 10GbE specifcations
can be met without the additional
cost o low-loss cassettes. These tests,
providing independent verifcation o
OM3 fber channel perormance, show
substantial margin under TIA inser-
tion-loss limits or 10GbE using stan-
dard cassettes. With the assurance
o these results, network designershave the reedom to use the complete
10GBase-S standard including dis-
tances up to 300 meters and the maxi-
mum number o specifed connectors.
In addition, the test results show
that the latest-generation OM3 fber
systems provide a solid ounda-
tion or uture installations o 40GbE
and 100GbE. The IEEE approved the
802.3ba standard in June 2010; it speci-
fes a maximum insertion loss o 1.9 dB
or 40/100GbE using OM3 cabling. The
systems tested here are already right
on the border o meeting that specifca-
tion, indicating that organizations will
be able to upgrade with either no or
very limited system changes.
GARY BERNSTEIN, RCDD is director
o product management, fber and datacenter and DENNIS MAINES is senior
applications engineer, fber and data
center, with Leviton Network Solutions
(www.leviton.com). This article is based
on their white paper “Overcoming OM3
perormance challenges.”
It is clear that 10GbE specifcations
can be met without the additional
cost o low-loss cassettes.
OM4 is on the horizon. Get ready with LaserWave® Fiber.
The future is here. LaserWave 550 fiber from OFS exceeds the requirements
of the new OM4 standard for high-speed networks. No multimode fiber offers
higher bandwidth for tomorrow’s 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s applications. And it’s
DMD-tested to deliver more than twice the bandwidth for lasers that launch
power in the fiber’s center. Enjoy fast, reliable transmission and easier connectivity. To learn more, ask your cabler about OFS or visit ofsoptics.com/fiber.
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“This is one impressive piece of hardware. Other punch-down tools
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ICC Elite Installer s get free tools. Curious? Give us a call or e-mail us.
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We see enclosures differently.
© 2010 Delaware Capital Formation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. DOVER®, the DOVER® Logo, Crenlo®, the
Crenlo® Logo, and Emcor® are registered trademarks in the United States [and various other countries] of
Delaware Capital Formation, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dover Corporation.
When Emcor creates new products, we develop them with a purpose in mind. As an industry leader in
the design, manufacture and integration of high-quality enclosures, Emcor offers a range of standard,
modified and custom products for any application. The only thing stronger than our enclosures is our
commitment to customer satisfaction. At Emcor, we see enclosures differently.
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 17
:: TECHNOLOGY ::
The concept o intelligent buildings
can be likened to that o convergence.
As one industry veteran has stated
oten, we have been six months away
rom convergence or the past 15 years.
Similarly, the idea o intelligent or con-
nected buildings, in which build-
ing systems are able to communicate
with each other through a common
platorm and consequently run highly
efciently, has made logical sense
or a long time. Yet it has rarely been
implemented.
Earlier this year, however, a provider
o cabling products and systems and a
proponent o intelligent buildings held
itsel up as an example o what can be
achieved with intelligent buildings.
Panduit (www.panduit.com) opened
its new 280,000-square-oot corporate
headquarters in Tinley Park, IL as a
showcase or its products and technol-
ogies and those systems’ benefts. As
a result, the new corporate headquar-
ters is a LEED-certifed building rom
which the company says it is alreadyreaping benefts.
Built-in intelligence
Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com)
equipment, including local area net-
work (LAN) systems as well as the
Cisco Connected Real Estate rame-
work and several other systems, are
built into Panduit’s headquarters.
Cisco used the installation as one o
its customer case studies. In explain-
ing the rationale behind going “intel-
ligent” as well as “green” with its new
building, Panduit’s vice president o
global strategic marketing said, “One
o our motivations or constructing
a sustainable headquarters build-
ing was to minimize our power and
cooling costs. More importantly, we
wanted to do the right thing or the
environment and society.”
Cisco explained that by Panduit
integrating all its systems on the same
network, the company not only elimi-
nates redundant network and opera-
tional costs, but also enables auto-
mated business processes that reduce
costs, accelerate event awareness andreduce energy consumption. Darryl
Benson, global solution manager or
connected buildings with Panduit,
explained how the Connected Real
Estate ramework unctions, and what
it accomplishes. “Every piece o inor-
mation we can extract rom the build-ing is available on the Cisco network,”
he said, “including air temperature, air
quality, humidity, energy consump-
tion, light output and lighting needs.
By enabling real-time monitoring o
our electrical consumption, the Cisco
Connected Real Estate ramework con-
tributed to energy costs per square
oot that are $0.63 lower than the aver-
age non-connected building, sav-
ing $176,000 annually and more than
$880,000 over fve years.”
According to the two companies,
Panduit displays the 200 most impor-
tant metrics rom building systems
on a Web-based dashboard, which
acilities personnel consult to monitor
progress and spot anomalies. To auto-
mate notifcation about out-o-normal
conditions that might waste energy,
Panduit is integrating certain sensors
with the Cisco IP Interoperability and
Collaboration System. When a sensor
transmits an alarm, Cisco IPICS auto-
matically notifes appropriate person-
nel by sending a prerecorded voice
message to their phones.
The type o al l-encompassing com-
munication and notifcation now inplace at Panduit’s new headquarters
Intelligent building concepthits close to home
A vendor in the cabling industry walks the walk
by building intelligence into its new headquarters
acility. But what about the rest o the market?
BY PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
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OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com18
:: TECHNOLOGY ::
acility is the hallmark o intelligent
buildings, touted by many and realized
by ew. Why have so ew building own-
ers built intell igence into new acilities,
and is the uptake o intelligent build-
ings likely to change anytime soon?
Looking at the market
A peek into the market or intelli-
gent buildings might be accomplished
by reading the results o a market
research report, completed last year,
by BSRIA Proplan (www.bsria.co.uk).
The report examines the world marketor building controls and includes cov-
erage o what it describes as intelligent
building controls – environmental,
which it reers to as IBC(e). Overall the
report indicates that, l ike the major-
ity o markets worldwide, the eco-
nomic crisis has hampered growth in
the building controls market in many
countries. From 2006 to 2008, the con-
solidated world market had witnessed
healthy growth rates o more than 7
percent. BSRIA Proplan anticipated
negative growth last year and this.
Even so, the total global IBC(e) busi-
ness reached a level o $18 billion in
2008 and, as BSRIA Proplan explained
when announcing the report’s avail-
ability, “The IBC(e) service and main-
tenance market remained buoy-
ant through this turbulent time with
expected growth o 1.4 percent during
2009-2010.”
The report specifcally points to
Saudi Arabia as a bright spot. In that
country, the government plays an
important role in the national econ-
omy and continues to encourage pri-
vate sector investment, such as in the
electricity generation and transmissionnetwork, BSRIA Proplan explained.
Consequently, the Saudi Arabian
economy was expected to continue
its steady growth, “which has had a
knock-on eect on the building con-
trols market,” the researcher said. It
continued, “Between 2006 and 2008
the market grow by over 30 percent,
with urther investment and building
projects in the pipeline. BSRIA’s report
expects the market to grow by just
over 6 percent in 2009-2010. The prod-
uct and service markets are expected
to experience the largest growth over
the period o 2009-2010, with 6.8 per-
cent and 8.3 percent respectively.
Drivers behind this healthy growth
include growth in new construction,
including various new projects already
in the pipeline and signifcant spend-
ing on education and universities.”
Despite the act that Saudi Arabia
and perhaps other Middle East nations
are where the market is growing, the
BSRIA Proplan study points out that
the United States remains the larg-
est single market or IBC(e) products.
It said, “Total manuacturer’s turnover
reached just over $14 billion world-
wide in 2008; America accounted or
the largest share with 39 percent o
the global market, closely ollowed by
Europe, which enjoyed 37 percent o
the total manuacturer’s turnover.”
The United States is also the world’s
market-share leader in installed sys-tems, accounting or 40 percent while
Europe accounted or 37 percent.
Asia and the Middle East collectively
accounted or 23 percent o installed
systems in 2008.
European energy legislation is mak-
ing a signifcant impact on this market,
according to the study. In particular,
the Energy Perormance o Buildings
Directive—in place in the United
Kingdom, Germany and France—
is making its presence known. “The
new energy legislation is an impor-
tant driver behind the growth o these
markets, as it demands that buildings
must be energy-saving and energy-
efcient,” BSRIA noted.
Commenting on the types o users
deploying these systems, BSRIA noted,
“Installation o IBC(e) products and sys-
tems vary rom region to region. Ofces
and industrial buildings are dominant in
Europe and collectively hold 43 percent
o the European market. A dierent sce-
nario is evident in the Americas where
recent demand has been driven strongly
by education and other public build-
ings. The Middle East market has been
driven by demand or IBC(e) products in
ofces and commercial and retail build-
ings, while in Asia ofces and industrial
buildings have been the main segments
or installation.”
Research and advocacy
In North America, a group that hastaken the lead in promoting and
The European legislation Energy
Perormance o Buildings Directive is
making an impact on the market.
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19
:: TECHNOLOGY ::
www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010
researching intelligent building sys-
tems is the Continental Automated
Buildings Association (CABA; www.
caba.org). For years the group has
researched and advocated the intel-
ligent building marketplace. Among
CABA’s most recent initiatives is the
North American Intelligent Buildings
Roadmap research project, which is
being carried out by CABA’s Intelligent
and Integrated Buildings Council and
new Research Program.
The project will be designed to pro-
vide a current snapshot o the intelligentbuilding industry in North America by
highlighting industry trends and met-
rics, and evaluating the prospects and
challenges that ace numerous industry
stakeholders. According to CABA, the
project will also execute a review o the
evolving trends in building technology
convergence with a particular empha-
sis on smart-grid inrastructure. Areas
o interest will include energy efciency,
renewable energy technology, inorma-
tion-technology convergence and the
integration o buildings with the smart
grid.
Research organization Frost &
Sullivan (www.rost.com) will con-
duct the project on CABA’s behal. The
project will investigate the current
and uture direction o the intelligent
building market in North America—the region holding the greatest share
o products and systems according
to BSRIA Proplan’s recent research.
CABA’s project will uncover the oppor-
tunities the market represents or par-
ticipants within the value chain. It will
also seek to understand the inuence
o current and emerging intelligent
building technology solutions, with an
analysis that considers commercializa-
tion, market preerences and product
acceptance.
The old joke about perpetually
being six months away rom conver-
gence may go by the wayside. Many
o today’s structured cabling sys-
tems support converged applications,
including IP voice and security sys-
tems. In many ways convergence is
now the “current” big thing. Intelligentbuildings remain the “next” big thing,
and how soon they will emerge in
greater numbers remains to be seen.
Patrick McLaughlin is chie editor o
Cabling Installation & Maintenance.
NextLAN AXi Copper Cabling SystemThe first UTP cabling system to guarantee 4dB of Alien Crosstalk isolation.Visit NextLANsystems.com/copper/AXi for more information.
PERFORMANCE WITHOUT COMPROMISE© 2010 Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc, and Superior Essex Inc. All Rights Reserved. D/10 3225
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and captive mounting nuts for easy mounting. What’s more, they’re available in the most popular standard industry
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 21
:: DATA CENTER ::
Regardless o what you might hear on
national news outlets about sputter-
ing, not-yet-recovering real estate mar-
kets around the country, one statement
that was true pre-recession remains
true today: The real estate, or physical
space, within a data center is a coveted
asset. Data center managers, whether
they operate collocation or stand-
alone acilities, are charged with ft-
ting the maximum possible computing
power within the physical space avail-
able. The consequences o this need
or higher-density computing power
have been well documented, here and
in many other places, and most dra-
matically include the huge task o man-
aging heat loads within data center
acilities.
Lylette Maconald, training pro-
gram manager with Legrand Ortronics
(www.ortronics.com), explained,
“Because we’re trying to save space
and maximize the physical real estate
in the data center, the density in racks
and cabinets has gone up signif-cantly, averaging 20 servers per rack.
What that means to us is, not only
are powering requirements going up
exponentially, but also energy costs
associated with it.”
She pointed to a Gartner (www.
gartner.com) study that said energy
costs rom two racks flled with serv-
ers can exceed $105,000 annually.
Macdonald then pointed out that this
density raises chal lenges at the net-
work’s physical layer that, though
potentially overlooked, can adversely
aect a acility’s cooling techniques.
“What we’ve looked at historically,”
she noted, “over the past decade serv-
ers and storage equipment have typi-
cally been changed every two to fve
years. When we get into environments
that have larger switches and routers,
the turnover o that equipment is a lit-
tle longer, more like fve to seven years.
But there is a misal ignment between
network equipment and the capacity o cabling required. It is changing much
more rapidly than the physical layer
that is designed to support all these
migrating systems.”
Helping or hindering?
As an organization, she explained,
Legrand has examined some o the
Enclosures play a rolein high-density cable management
As part o an overall cable-management
system, the use o enclosures can either help
or hurt airlow in high-density data centers.
BY PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
This version o the N-Series TeraFrame
network cabinet rom Chatsworth
Products is engineered specifcally to
support the Cisco Nexus 7018 switch,
while also supporting a mix o patch
panels and fber enclosures above the
switch. The enclosure’s integrated
network switch exhaust duct captures
and guides the hot exhaust rom the
side o the switch out the rear o the
enclosure, ideal or hot/cold-aisle setups.
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Flexible power solutions
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com22
elements o cable management that
can threaten network perormance.
“This absolutely includes proper air-
ow, so we’re not impeding the cool-
ing requirements. In addition to mini-
mizing impact on consumption o
energy, we want to make sure we’re
allowing network equipment to work
at its maximum bandwidth capacity,
and network perormance is not
impacted. We have exible cable-
management solutions available that
do support more energy-efcient envi-
ronments and can handle the density
being thrust upon us.”
Legrand has developed a concept
called “Layer Zero,” something o a
takeo on the act that a cabling inra-
structure resides on a network’s layer
one, or physical layer, in accordance
with the OSI network model. While
the cabling system supports network
operations, the hardware that supports
the cabling system is at the heart o
Layer Zero. Legrand describes the
concept as “a new oundation or the
OSI model to address the critical rolethat inrastructure plays in network
perormance and provide a new level
o stability to the network. This inno-
vative approach to network design
emphasizes best practices in pathway
and physical support design to maxi-
mize network perormance in data
center or LAN environments.” Legrand
oers a set o products, including
racks and cabinets rom Ortronics, in
its Layer Zero solution set.
Macdonald summarized some o
what Legrand ound through its analy-
sis o data center management, which
ultimately led to the creation o the
Layer Zero concept. “Oten when we
look at large projects, particularly data
center environments, budgets are
pretty well protected when it comes
to network equipment,” she said. “But
users start to try to conserve money
in cable-management solutions. The
physical layer, including cable man-
agement and pathways, has always
been seen as a necessary evil but not
something that got much attention.
Now, we’re fnding out that we’re cre-
ating air dams and having a negativeeect on network perormance.” The
Layer Zero concept and brand name is
in part an eort to bring more atten-
tion to that oten-overlooked part o
a network. As such, part o the eort
was to “defne ways we can provide
better practices that will support thisrapidly expanding communications
network.”
Legrand boiled its fndings down
to seven elements—each
o which provides either an
opportunity to enhance, or
a threat to deter rom, a data
center’s overall perormance.
The seven elements are as
ollows.
Airow management
Network perormance
Flexibility
Energy efciency
Density
Protection
Scalability
Designers and manag-
ers o data center cabling
systems can take a number
o measures to help ensure
that the physical inrastruc-
ture—traditionally layer one
and also Legrand’s branded
“Layer Zero”—at least do
not harm a network’s peror-
mance and in many cases
even improve it. The list is
long and includes eliminat-ing pathway overcongestion,
According to Gartner, energy costs
rom two racks flled with servers can
exceed $105,000 on an annual basis.
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When it comes to providing flexible,
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wherever you need them.
www.cablinginstall.com
proper selection o cable baskets or
trays, proper routing o cables either
overhead or under a raised oor, and
management o cables and patch
cords within the rack or enclosure
itsel. (Editor’s note: The quotes from Legrand Ortronics’ Lylette Macdonald
that appear in this article were taken
from a presentation she made during a
webcast seminar entitled “Can cabling
really be green?” The webcast can be
seen and heard in its entirety at www.
cablinginstall.com ).
Network equipment considerationsMacdonald pointed out that less-than-
ideal management approaches can
lead to premature port ailure on net-
work equipment: “Poor patch-cord
management has proven to limit cool
air getting to outside ports on net-
working equipment, which causes
early ailure.” She also noted that every
incident o a patch cord being pulled
hard to the side o a vertical man-
ager, sometimes to stretch a cord to or
beyond its maximum length, can dam-
age the port within the equipment.
Having to repair or replace the port
because o poor cooling or poor patch-
cord management is a potentially
expensive risk.
Another enclosure-centric manage-
ment step that can be helpul relates
to switches that incorporate side-to-
side rather than ront-to-back airow.
Cisco’s Nexus 7018 switch is a prime
example. Macdonald explained, “You
can introduce air-handling baes
that allow the support o passive air-
ow with side-breathing equipment.
Making sure the hot air is routed away
rom the adjacent switch is very criti-
cal to managing the ambient tempera-ture in the data center space.”
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Network Test and Certification
24 OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com
:: DATA CENTER ::
Some o Legrand’s enclosures are
built with vertical cable-management
pathways or exactly this purpose.
Recently, Chatsworth Products (www.
chatsworth.com) introduced a ver-
sion o its N-Series TeraFrame network
cabinet engineered specifcally or the
Nexus 7018. This particular version
o the N-Series TeraFrame is a wide-
ramed enclosure that the company
says supplies high-density thermal
management and physical support.
The enclosure includes an integrated
network switch exhaust duct that
captures and guides hot exhaust rom
the switch’s side out the cabinet’s
rear. By doing so, the enclosure con-
verts the switch’s side-to-side airow
into a ront-and-rear airow pattern.
This capability enables the Nexus
7018 to be used in a hot-aisle/cold-
aisle confguration.
Overall the N-Series TeraFrame
enclosures are designed to both man-
age airow and manage the cabling
that reside within them.
Macdonald said it is important or
proessionals designing data cen-ter pathways today to look orward,
toward what those pathways will have
to support in the uture. “You’re look-
ing at applications 10 to 15 years down
the road,” that these pathways will
need to support, she asserted. “Today
we’re designing pathways to support
Category 6, 100Base-T, 1000Base-T
and now 10-Gig. As we get into
10-Gig, unifed computing and 40-Gig
applications, we need to be shiting
between copper and optical fber. And
we’re looking at greater density or
patch cords.”
She provided a orward-looking
point to consider or those designing
systems today. “Looking at designs
that get the layer-one interace
between cabling and connectivity out
o the active networking and server
cabinets allows users to maximize
that space or proper and eective
cooling rather than introducing pas-
sive components that can block proper
airow.” In other words, consider path-
ways that allow connectivity to reside
outside the enclosure.
Patrick McLaughlin is chie editor o Cabling Installation & Maintenance.
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 25
:: SECURITY ::
I the recent projections o an analyst
studying the network-camera market
are accurate, in just a ew years the
majority o network cameras sold will
have megapixel capability. In a report
entitled “The World Market or CCTV
and Video Surveillance Equipment,”
Gary Wong o IMS Research (www.
imsresearch.com) concludes that 2014
will be the crossover year when mega-
pixel network cameras will account or
more than hal o all network cameras
shipped.
New cameras with megapixel and
other capabilities are coming onto
the market rapidly. Over the summer
Toshiba Surveillance and IP Video
(www.toshibasecurity.com)introduced
the IK-WB16A-W IP camera, a 2-mega-
pixel pan/tilt/zoom camera that is
equipped with 802.11n wireless con-
nectivity. The non-wireless version o
the camera is equipped with Power
over Ethernet unctionality.
When the camera was introduced,
Toshiba’s director o sales and mar-
keting Sergio Collazo explained that
the camera’s megapixel resolution“enables a single IK-WB16-A-W to
wirelessly capture overviews o very
large indoor areas, such as shopping
malls or casinos, as well as high detail
situations including close-ups on indi-
vidual aces or items being checked
out by a cashier.”
These high-resolution capa-
bilities are among the chie con-
tributors to the need or local area
network (LAN) cabling systems to
have enough throughput capacity
to handle surveillance video. In a
recent webcast seminar hosted by
Cabling Installation & Maintenance ,
Aaron Saks, a senior product trainer
with Panasonic Systems Networks
Company o America (www.pana-
sonic.com/security) and Carol Oliver,
RCDD/ESS, marketing analyst with
Berk-Tek, a Nexans company (www.
berktek.com), discussed the emerg-
ing capabilities being built into net-
work cameras and the impact the situ-
ation is having on structured cabling
systems.
H.264 compression
Saks described in some detail the hot-test video-compression standard,
H.264. Also known as MPEG-4 or
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), “H.264
allows us to lower the bandwidth
needed or a camera,” Saks explained.
“Less video-recording storage is
needed per camera, and it allows usersto go to higher resolution per cam-
era,” he explained. Previous com-
pression technologies used or high-
resolution images, particularly JPG,
consumed a lot o bandwidth. By low-
ering the bandwidth required or high-resolution images, H.264 is al lowing
IP camera evolutionis pushing network bandwidth
Advancements in the capabilities o surveillance
cameras can put structured cabling systems to the test.
BY PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Toshiba’s IK-WB16-A-W IP camera
might be the Frankenstein’s monster o
IP convergence. It is a 2-megapixel pan/
tilt/zoom camera that is equipped with
802.11n wireless connectivity, while the
wired version has Power over Ethernet
unctionality.
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26 OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com
:: SECURITY ::
high-resolution image quality on sur-
veillance systems run over a LAN,
without those high-resolution images
choking the network’s throughput
capacity.
H.264 compression technology is
built into a camera, and that gave Saks
reason to provide several notes o cau-
tion during his presentation. He said
it is important or users to continue
choosing cameras based on the criteria
they have always used, including low-
light perormance, lens type and power
requirements. While H.264 allowshigher rame rate and higher resolu-
tion, ultimately producing a better fnal
output, it does not solve pre-existing
issues with a camera, Saks stated. “A
poorly perorming camera using H.264
will stil l yield a poor image,” he added.
“Many low-cost systems incorporate
H.264,” he said, noting that the simple
incorporation o this compression tech-
nology into a camera does not neces-
sarily elevate that camera to a better
level o image perormance.
Adding to the complexity is that
there are multiple H.264 profles,
not all o which perorm the same.
“There are our main profles,” Saks
explained. “They are: baseline, main,
extended and high.” He commented
that lower-end devices without much
processing power, such as webcams,
may incorporate baseline profling.The lower profles, he added, do not
measure up to the higher profles in
terms o picture quality, noise reduc-
tion and other perormance charac-
teristics. Following is an overview o
the applications or which the profles
are typically used and some qualita-
tive inormation about each mode. The
inormation is taken rom the presen-
tation Saks delivered.
Baseline profle: Low-cost appli-
cations such as videoconerencing,
mobile applications and some security
cameras. Few tools are used and CPU
requirements are low.
Main profle: Broadcast and stor-
age applications, though rarely used.
Extended profle: Streaming
video; high compression capability. Itoers additional robustness compared
to lower-level profles or reduced
data losses and quicker server-stream
switching.
High profle: Broadcast and disc
storage applications, typically used in
HDTV applications such as Blu-ray.
Used by some manuacturers o video
surveillance cameras.
Saks also addressed high-defnition
(HD) camera capabilities and poten-
tially sought to clear up some mis-
conceptions about HD and megapixel
cameras. HD, he explained, multiplies
the amount o storage and bandwidth
required because each individual HD
image has more pixels than lower-size
images. HD is actually a picture or-
mat—a combination o aspect ratio
and pixels. He then warned, “Just
because a camera says it is HD, does
not necessarily mean it provides a bet-
ter picture. Just a bigger picture.”
Megapixel and HD
Looking at HD and megapixel, he
pointed out that a 3-megapixel cam-era produces higher-resolution images
“Just because a camera says it is HD
does not necessarily mean it provides
a better picture. Just a bigger picture.”
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 27
:: SECURITY ::
than what is requently reerred to
as “ull-HD”—HD1080P. Likewise,
a 1.3-megapixel camera produces
higher-resolution images than an
HD720P camera. Saks suggested it is
important or users to understand the
dierences between megapixel and
HD characteristics, as well as their
impact on bandwidth consumption,
because these users are receiving a
number o messages about megapixel
and IP—some o them mixed.
Saks summarized by saying there is
no single “best” compression system
and that the most appropriate system
or a given environment is application-
specifc. For example, scenes with
many ashing lights or changing col-
ors are not well-suited or H.264. Still,
H.264 compression technology has the
ability to dramatically decrease fle
size and corresponding bandwidth as
well as storage capacity. He gave the
example o the data stream coming
rom a 1.3-megapixel video surveil-
lance camera running at 10 images per
second. Using JPG compression, the
data stream rom that camera would
consume 13 Mbits/sec o through-
put. Storing 30 days worth o 24-hour-
per-day video rom the camera would
require 4.5 terabytes o capacity.
Using H.264 compression, the same
stream rom that camera would con-
sume 1.5 Mbits/sec o throughput and0.5 terabytes o storage capacity or 30
days worth o 24-hour video ootage.
During his presentation, Saks also
discussed some other new capabili-
ties being built into IP cameras that
may not greatly aect the amount o
bandwidth the cameras consume.
Regardless o their direct impact on
bandwidth, these eatures are mak-
ing cameras more attractive and more
popular. He noted in particular that
progressive-scan capabilities elim-
inate blur in images with motion,
whereas interlace-scan technology
can yield blurry images.
Cabling’s role
Finally, he teed up a discussion o
high-perormance cabling systems by
explaining that bad cabling, or poorly
instal led cabling, can have a real
eect on systems that use H.264 or
MPEG-4 compression. That is because
the technology uses previously deliv-
ered rames as reerences. “I a certain
packet gets lost, those changes will
continue to propagate until you get to
the next reerence rame,” he explains.
“Having better-quality cabling to
ensure there are no dropped packets is
important in the H.264 world.”
In her presentation during the
webcast seminar, Berk-Tek’s Oliver
covered several topics, including
the benefts o installing better-per-
orming cable such as Category 6over Category 5e. “Category 6 has
better electrical characteristics,” she
explained, adding that it is wise or a
user to install a better cabling system
i that cabling system will be used
well into the uture, and i it is pos-
sible that other devices will be added
to the network and supported by that
cable. She pointed out that compared
to Category 5e, Category 6 has “twice
the bandwidth and it perorms better
in conditions such as heat or noise.”
Oliver presented results rom sev-
eral tests perormed in-house. One
such test compared perormance o three cables at elevated temperatures.
The cables under test were Category
5e, Category 6, and “enhanced”
Category 6—a cable that is not at
the perormance level o Category 6A
but perorms with headroom over the
Category 6 specifcations. Not surpris-
ingly, the better-rated the cable, the
ewer errors it produced at elevated
temperatures.
Other tests pitted a premium
Category 6 cable against a minimally
compliant Category 6 cable, both sup-
porting baseband video, and a stan-
dard-compliant Category 6 against
a non-standard-based twisted-pair
cable, both supporting video with
electrical intererence nearby. Neither
test yielded any surprises, with the
better-perorming cable perorming
fne and the minimally compliant and
non-compliant cables ail ing to deliver
the video stream consistently.
As manuacturers o network cam-
eras add capabilities to their devices,
LAN managers will have more band-
width-consuming devices to handle.
Patrick McLaughlin is chie editor o Cabling Installation & Maintenance.
Having better-quality cabling to
ensure there are no dropped packets
is important with H.264 compression.
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www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010 29
:: EDITOR’S PICKS ::COMPILED BY PATRICK McLAUGHLIN
Copper prices, FEP supply could
drive up cable costs
The steady rise in copper prices over the past 24 months,
coupled with recent changes in the FEP supply avail-
able to cable manuacturers, could soon drive up the
price o UTP cable as well as other twisted-pair cable
constructions.
A steadily upward price trend or copper has occurred
since the bottom ell out o the worldwide economy two
years ago.
A more recent turn o events aecting the supply o
uorinated ethylene propylene - FEP - is likely to have a
greater impact on the cost to cable manuacturers o pro-ducing twisted-pair cable and quite possibly the cost to
consumers that buy it. Dyneon, one o three suppliers o
FEP to cable manuacturers, announced it is exiting the
FEP business early next year. That will leave Daikin and
Dupont as the two FEP suppliers to the cable industry.
Overall, uorine-based products including FEP have
risen in price throughout 2010. All three FEP suppli-
ers have already increased the prices they charge cable
manuacturers or the material and have suggested that
another price increase is looming. They also have lim-
ited or allocated the supply o FEP to cable manuacturers,
although no cable manuacturer has stated that they either
currently have or oresee a shortage that would delay their
production o cable.
Stil l, signs point to the potential or a price increase.
Why China’s to blame or FEP-supply situation
For several years China’s ravenous consumption rate o
just about everything has made an impact on supply-and-demand levels o, well, just about everything. In the
past we have reported about the price o copper being
aected by China’s consumption o the metal or its
inrastructure builds.
Immediately above, we report on the double-
whammy that we expect will increase the price o
twisted-pair copper cable soon. In addition to the
steadily rising price o copper over the past cou-
ple years as well as recent news o its expected ur-
ther price jump, the supply o FEP has become an
issue within the cable manuacturing industry. FEP
is commonly called Teon, the way acial tissues are
commonly called Kleenex and the things we stick too
ar into our ears are commonly called Q-Tips. Teon is
Dupont’s trade name or FEP, but cable manuacturers
get FEP rom two other suppliers as well: Daikin and
Dyneon. At least, or now. Dyneon is exiting the FEP
market early next year.
One o the three FEP suppliers packing up its gear
to leave the market comes at a time when the produc-
tion o a key raw material used to make FEP has allen o.
Fluorspar production is reported to have contracted 16 per-
cent last year.
(This is the part where I start to blame China.)A report rom the United States Geological Survey indi-
cates that China dwared all other countries in its mine
production o uorspar in 2008 and 2009. The report says
that in June 2009 “the United States had requested World
Trade Organization dispute settlement consultations with
China regarding China’s export constraints on numerous
important raw materials. The dispute concerned China’s
policy that provides substantial competitive advantages
or the Chinese industries using these raw materials
inputs, including uorspar.”
For comparison’s sake, China produced 3.25 million
metric tons o uorspar in 2008 and 3 million in 2009.
United States production or those years, combined,
totaled a big at zero. The report also indicates that China
has 21 mill ion metric tons o uorspar in reserve. The
U.S.’s reserve is equal to its 2008 and 2009 output. What
was that number again? Oh, right. Zero.
That may change, however, as in mid-August WKMS
in Kentucky reported on the opening o what it says is thefrst uorspar mine to go online in the U.S. in 20 years. In
the story Michael Mil ler o the USGS, who authored the
aorementioned report, explained that China exported
approximately 200,000 o the 3 mill ion tons it produced
last year. He told WKMS, “It basically boils down to
they’re not exporting it because they’re consuming most
o it domestically in China.”
China consumes like a teenager with an overactive
pituitary gland. Don’t those teenagers usually enter
some kind o rebellion period that can wreak havoc on a
household?
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:: EDITOR’S PICKS ::
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com30
:: BULLETIN BOARDS
Snake Tray implements
all-solar manuacturing
Cable-management product provider
Snake Tray has taken its manuac-
turing operations o the power grid,using solar energy exclusively to oper-
ate its manuacturing plant in Bay
Shore, NY. Snake Tray installed hun-
dreds o photovoltaic panels on the roo
o its United States actory. The com-
pany said it expects to produce 100
percent o its load and 120 percent o
its energy consumption annually.
Roger Jette (pictured), Snake Tray’s
president, says, “We are commit-
ted to providing our customers with
cost-eective green products or cable
management and power distribution
and as a company we want to prac-
tice green principles in the way we
operate. This is a giant step toward
achieving this goal.”
In conjunction with its o-
the-grid initiative, Snake Tray
introduced two lines o solar
products: the Solar Snake Tray,
which is an al l-weather hand-
bendable cable conveyance
system; and industrial and
residential solar panel mount-
ing racks.
TIA Cat 7 spec may be
on the horizon
A source with connections to the
Telecommunications Industry
Association’s TR-42 Engineering
Committee says that sometime next
year, the group may take up an issue
it has long tabled - the development o
specifcations or Category 7 twisted-
pair cabling systems.
Category 7 and Category 7A specs
have been part o the ISO 11801
cabling specs, which are recognized
as an international cabling stan-
dard whereas the TIA-568 series o
standards serves North America.
Apparently an eort by some mem-
bers o TIA TR-42 would have that
organization adopt the ISO Cat 7specs just about verbatim.
There are a ew practical reasons
why supporters o the eort would
want the TIA to take on a Cat 7 stan-
dard. Several cabling manuacturers
have been vocal in their support o
using shielded twisted-pair cabling
systems or high-speed applications
such as 10GBase-T. Some o those
same companies have begun to drum
up interest in a “Base-T” version o
40-Gbit Ethernet. A Cat 7 spec would
help that cause.
But also, a TIA Cat 7 spec will indi-
cate to North American users o struc-
tured cabling systems that Category
6A is not the end o the line or twisted-
pair cabling capabilities. That may
increase users’ willingness to pur-
chase Cat 6A, knowing that twisted-
pair cabling has a uture beyond it.
When the Cat 6A spec was fnalized,
cable suppliers saw a boost in their
Cat 6 sales. The aorementioned sug-
gestion that users were more willingto buy Cat 6 knowing their migration
path could eventually continue to Cat
6A is one point to consider. Another
is that with Cat 6A ratifed and there-
ore viewed as a real standard by many,
there likely was some hesitancy on the
part o consultants to speciy Cat 5e
cable, which was then two generations
behind the best-available standardized
twisted-pair technology. Likewise, i a
Cat 7 spec comes to ruition, then Cat
6 cabling will be two steps rather than
one step behind the best-available
twisted-pair technology. With that in
mind, do not be surprised i there is a
decent level o support or Cat 7 within
TIA sometime soon.
White space WiFi researchunderway at Rice
Researchers at Rice University have
received a $1.8 million grant rom
the National Science Foundation to
test white space WiFi - the use o a
broad spectral range including dor-
mant broadcast television channels
to deliver broadband Internet service.
The fve-year project pairs Rice with
Houston nonproft group Technology
For All; they will add white space_________
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31www.cablinginstall.com Cabling Installation & Maintenance OCTOBER 2010
:: EDITOR’S PICKS ::
SHOWCASE ::
technology to the wide-spectrum WiFi network they
already jointly operate in a Houston neighborhood.
Lin Zhong, an assistant proessor at Rice and a co-prin-
cipal investigator in the research project, says one area o
study will be to determine how the combination o white
space and WiFi can help users extend battery lie and get
improved reception. The research will also examine poten-
tial energy savings derived rom powering down WiFi
nodes and covering large portions o the network with a
small number o white-space transmitters during o-peak
hours. Zhong says, “White space and WiFi have quite com-
plementary characteristics. While a WiFi node can provide
a higher data rate, a white space node can cover a much
larger area. The project will study how a dynamic networkarchitecture can combine these strengths.”
White space reers to the unused requencies that are
set aside or television broadcasters. Currently WiFi net-
works operate in requency ranges unlicensed by the
Federal Communications Commission; the existing Rice-
TFA network operates in requencies between 900 MHz
_____________
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:: EDITOR’S PICKS ::
OCTOBER 2010 Cabling Installation & Maintenance www.cablinginstall.com32
Group Publisher Susan Smith(603) [email protected]
Associate Publisher/National Sales Manager/Reprints Ed Murphy
(603) 891-9260;fax: (603) [email protected]
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AFL Telecommunications LLC ......................................................7
Anixter, Inc. ................................................................................ 3
Bel Stewart Connector ..............................................................13
Berk-Tek ................................................................................... C4
Byte Brothers ............................................................................24
Cooper B-Line .......................................................................... 20
Corning Cable Systems ............................................................ C2
Crenlo LLC ................................................................................16
Data Comm for Business ...........................................................31Diamond Ground Products, Inc. .................................................31
Fluke Networks, Inc. .................................................................31
ICC Premise Wiring ....................................................................15
Leviton Network Solutions .....................................................4, 19
Live Wire and Cable .................................................................. 30
OFS Optics ................................................................................14
Optical Cable Corp. ..................................................................... 9
Siemon Company ......................................................................10
Universal Electric Corporation .............................................22-23
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INDEX OF ADVERTISERS
and 5 GHz. The recent NSF grant will allow research-
ers to deploy WiFi in the licensed but unused TV spec-
trum between 500 and 700 MHz. According to research-
ers, the new network will dynamically adapt its requency
use to meet the coverage, capacity and energy-efciency
demands o the network and its users.
“Engineers oten reer to the UHF requencies between
500 and 700 megahertz as being the beachront property
o spectrum,” said Edward Knightly, principal investiga-
tor on the project and a proessor o electrical and computer
engineering at Rice. “As many WiFi users know, you don’t
have to move very ar beore you drop out o a hotspot. Low-
requency TV signals are dierent. One more wall or one
more tree is not going to push you beyond the reach o thenetwork. That’s why rabbit-ear antennas served most o the
country quite well beore cable and satellite came to domi-
nate the market. ... The use o white space should elimi-
nate many o the problems related to WiFi dead zones so the
overall user experience should improve.”
The grant money will pay or development and testing o
custom-built network gear and user devices.
3-in-1 tape combines cable-pulling unctions
L.H. Dottie Company is now oering its 3-in-1 Premise
Muletape. The company says the high-quality pull ing tape
substantial ly reduces cable-installation labor, material, and
inventory costs by providing threading line, measuring tape,
and winch line all in one product.
The prelubricated tape reduces riction levels and
eliminates duct cutting, a common issue with conven-
tional polyester ropes rubbing against conduit walls,
says the company. Lower elongation reduces pulling
time, improves saety or workers, and prevents crushed
capstans.
The material is lightweight and easily blown through
conduit or innerduct. Accurate sequential ootage markingsenable monitoring o cable location during a pull, eliminat-
ing the need or measuring tapes and indicating exactly
how much tape remains on the roll.
The 3-in-1 Premise Muletape is available in two variet-
ies: PMT1300, which is 1300’ in length and rated at 1800
pounds o strength; and PMT4500, which is 4500’ in length
and rated at 400 pounds o strength.
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