Specifications

27
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Installation & Testing
Work area
equipment cable:
Up to 5 m (16.4 ft.)
Channel and Permanent Link
Optional
consolidation
point
Cable testing
Once you install your structured cabling infrastructure,
you have to test its performance. Just because you
bought the best materials and followed all the
installation recommendations, it doesn’t mean your
system is going to work flawlessly. Transmission
performance depends on a number of factors:
– Cable characteristics
– Connecting hardware
– Patch cords and cross-connect wiring
– Number of connections
– Installation practices
Specific performance requirements are listed
in TIA/EIA-568-B.2 for balanced twisted-pair cable
and TIA/EIA-568-B.3 for fiber optic cable.
Field testing copper.
There are two ways to check a copper cabling
system: channel tests and permanent link tests.
Channel. This provides the most reliable results
for actual transmission performance. Channel tests
are performed after all the telecommunications
equipment is in place. The channel includes:
– Horizontal cable, up to 90 meters (295.3 ft.)
– Work area patch cord, up to 5 meters (16.4 ft.)
– Work area telecommunications outlet connector
– Optional consolidation point connection
– Two TR patch cord connections
The total length of the channel must not exceed
100 meters (328 ft.). The total length of equipment,
patch, and work area cords must not exceed
10 meters (33 ft.).
Many manufacturers now have their channels
pre-tested and verified by independent laboratories,
such as ETL
®
Semko.
Permanent link test. This test provides installers
and technicians with a method of verifying the
performance of the permanently installed cable,
minus any patch cord connections. It measures
performance before any telecommunications room
equipment or office furniture is installed, and is not
as accurate as the channel test. The permanent link
includes:
– Horizontal cable, up to 90 meters (295.3 ft.)
– Two connections, one at each end
– An optional consolidation point connection
Copper test parameters.
The primary copper test parameters are:
– Wire map – Return loss
– Length – Propagation delay
– Insertion loss – Delay skew
– Near-end crosstalk
(NEXT)
– Power-sum near-end crosstalk (PS-NEXT)
– Equal-level far-end crosstalk
(EL-FEXT)
– Power-sum equal-level far-end crosstalk (PS-ELFEXT)
For explanations, see the Glossary on pages 41–43.
For more copper performance parameters and
10-GbE test information, see pages 28–29.
Patch panel
Patch panel cords: total
of work area and patch
cords not to exceed 10 m
(32.8 ft.)
Permanent link: 90 m (295.3 ft.)
Channel: 100 m (328.1 ft.)