More than half of Industrial Ethernet problems can be traced to cabling. Testing cables when installed can speed the startup process and prevent problems in the future. This webinar co-hosted by Fluke and Panduit reviews twisted pair cabling standards, cabling issues and testers for pre-deployment and troubleshooting.
From measuring 5G to 4G handovers to testing signal distortion, executives from several top network-testing firms say that 5G is so dramatically different from LTE that operators are spending a lot more time testing their networks than in previous network upgrades. Interestingly, test equipment makers say that operators launching the non-standalone (NSA) version of 5G in millimeter-wave spectrum such as 28GHz and 39GHz are now considering moving to the standalone (SA) 5G version more quickly because of the complexity of non-standalone 5G.
Crosstalk is the phenomenon by which a signal transmitted on one pair or one channel creates an undesired affect on another pair or channel. It causes interference on an affected pair of conductors or overall cable creates errors or prevents data transmission. But are you aware of the difference between the near end and far end crosstalk parameters you need to test for in balanced copper network cabling systems?
Cat8 (Category 8) is ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1 specified. Cat8 cable has a 2GHz (2000MHz) frequency function, facilitating higher bandwidth while shielding is minimized. It is a modern standard that Cat8 cable is a new alternative for facilitating 25GBASE-T and 40GBASE-T networks.
A fiber optic connector that puts out more power than it receives? Sounds like a miracle, but it’s actually a mistake. Read about the infamous “gainer” and why it’s not a good thing. Gainers can show up when using an OTDR to measure loss from one end of a fiber link, and they occur due to the way in which an OTDR measures reflected light along the length of the fiber. An OTDR assumes that fiber characteristics such as core and cladding size are consistent along the length with no variations, and it calculates signal loss based on the amount of reflected light, or backscatter, that it detects.
The amount of energy that a signal loses as it travels along a cable link used to be referred to as attenuation.The longer the cable, the greater the attenuation. For network cabling, standards now more correctly use the term “insertion loss” which refers to the loss of the signal strength at the far end of a link and includes the attenuation caused by the cable and any connection points along the way (i.e., connectors and splices), as well as any signal lost to reflections of the signal. Despite this correction in terminology, the limits, test procedures and requirements have not changed.
Fluke Networks has teamed up with RealWear of Vancouver, WA to demonstrate a “hands free” solution for fiber endface inspection using the RealWear HMT-1 wearable rugged Android tablet. The demonstration will pair the Fluke Networks FI-3000 FiberInspector™ Pro camera with the HMT-1, allowing the inspection of Multiple Push-On (MPO) fiber optic connectors to ensure error-free communications. Come and give it a try at #BICSIFall next week in Las Vegas.
The 400GE BiDi MSA Group founded in July focuses on promoting interoperable 400GE optical specifications that utilize multi-mode fiber (MMF) for applications up to 100m link distances. The MSA leverages BiDi technology that has been widely deployed by Cisco and others for 40GE and 100GE applications over duplex MMF. With the arrival of 400GE applications, customers will finally have no choice but to start using MMF transceivers that require more than duplex fiber. 400GE ports can be used to aggregate traffic from 100GE ports, still leveraging the duplex MMF from 100GE BiDi modules to 400GE modules in a breakout configuration as shown in the diagram below.
In 2017, the IEEE-SA Standards Board approved IEEE Standard 802.3bs. This resulted in the official launch of 400 Gigabit Ethernet. In theoretical terms, it is the advancement from 100G Ethernet and can operate four times faster than 100G. Not only is this, but it also offers a denser configuration and a better economy of scale. Unlike 100G transceiver modules, the 400G transceivers come with 8 channels and utilize PAM4 encoding to accomplish 50Gbps per channel.
VIAVI is introducing new solutions at ECOC including: The T-BERD/MTS 400G Network Tester, which provides rate integration spanning from 400GE down to T1/E1 in addition to fiber optic testing using OTDRs and WD Channel Checkers along with interfaces such as QSFP-DD and SFP-DD. The MAP-300 photonic metrology and test automation platform delivers the precision required for laboratory testing, combined with configurability to meet the demands of the manufacturing process. Remote automation functionality, along with multi-user architecture, helps increase capital utilization and dramatically reduce the cost of testing.The modular OTU-8000 Optical Test Unit with a tunable DWDM OTDR and the ultra-compact OTU-5000 rack-mounted OTDR supports rapid, automatic identification of fiber events such as bends, crushes, breaks and malicious tapping. A single optical test head can test hundreds of fiber links, and auto reports the GPS location of a fault within minutes, dramatically reducing the time and cost of construction and repair.
