Maybe you have heard that bidirectional testing is required for certification when using an OTDR, but do you know why? Check out this article to see what the standards have to say on the topic.
Bi-Direction Testing with an OTDR
Home 10 Gig Network Upgrade for CHEAP – YouTube
Jake and Linus wire up his house for full 10GbE networking for less than $1000. Thanks to Fluke for lending us one of their DSX cable testers.
Cable Testing Means More Uptime – YouTube
If you’re working with Industrial Ethernet, you should know that cabling is by far the number one cause of failures. Watch this webinar replay to learn how to prevent and troubleshoot cabling.
This webinar replay reviews twisted pair cabling standards, cabling issues and testers for pre-deployment and troubleshooting.
Webinar: Ready for Four Pair PoE?
New devices based on the 802.3bt standard will supply up to 90 watts over four twisted pairs, supporting a new generation of PoE-supported devices. This webinar will give you the background you need to specify, install and troubleshoot these devices, including: How it Works, Cable Bundling Considerations, Field Termination Considerations, Cabling Performance, and Installing and Troubleshooting.
Wire Map Testing: It’s Not All About Color
A wire map test may seem like the most basic test for copper network cabling and therefore one of the least important, but it is actually one of the most critical. And while the pair colors of blue, orange, green and brown might help you pass wire map testing, the test itself really doesn’t care about color at all.
Bandwidth and Data Rates
The terms bandwidth and data rates are often used interchangeably, but they are in fact very different if you work in the cabling world. Your internet provider may advertise a bandwidth of 500 megabits per second (Mbps). In that case, they actually mean data rate. In the cabling world, bandwidth is a property of the cable – its ability to transmit a signal that’s intelligible at the far end. Any signal put on a copper or fiber link will degrade as it gets to the far end. This is a result of simple loss, but also more complex factors such as return loss (reflections), and in the case of copper, crosstalk. Vendors design their copper and fiber cabling to be able to deliver these raw signals (bandwidth) at higher rates.
Going for gold: Recognizing substantial levels of innovation
Gold-level awards are earned by organizations whose innovations are judged to be excellent, and whose benefits are clear. Each gold-level innovation makes a substantial improvement over previous methods employed, approaches taken, or products and systems used. 2019 Cabling Innovators Gold Awards include products and customer use cases from AFL, Belden, Chatsworth, CommScope, Corning, Credo Semiconductor, Esticom, Fluke Networks, Drybit, Jonard Tools, Legrand, Leviton, OFS, Panduit, R&M, Rosenberger, Senko, Siemon, Softing, Sumix, Sunbird, Superior Essex, and Wirewerx.
Celebrating groundbreaking achievements with Platinum Innovators Awards
During the 2019 Cabling Innovators Awards ceremony, the final set of awards presented, the Platinums, have been judged to be superb innovations, characterized by a groundbreaking approach to meeting a need, or establishing a new level of performance, efficiency, ease-of-use, and other beneficial qualities. Here the 2019 Cabling Innovators Platinum Award honorees including: AFL, Belden, Cailabs, CommScope, Dura-Line, Cable Ferret, Fluke Networks, Panduit, and the Siemon Company.
Cable Testing 101: Understanding Near and Far End Crosstalk
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?
Cable Testing 101: There’s No Gain with “Gainers”
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.
