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Design for flexibility & scalability

A major factor in network reliability is sound network cable design and installation.  Poor network design, or a flawed installation adversely affect the performance of your network.

Repair service and add-on network connections are often the way to migrate into today's technology and future standards.  We install cable schemes that allow for growth while in a renovation phase or when you need more connections.

MH Net Sdn. Bhd. is fully prepared to design, setup and implement any size LAN cable infrastructure from Five to Five Hundred cable runs.   We use only the best termination hardware exceeding category 5e/6 specifications.  With MH Net Sdn. Bhd. professional installations you can take comfort knowing your cable is protected by MH Net Sdn. Bhd and manufacturer's warranty.

We can provide these services during business hours or non-business hours to minimize down time.

Knowledgebase about Networks

Introduction

What does the future of your network hold? A brief review of the latest networking publications probably leaves you wondering. Networking products seemingly evolve every month. From contention to connection based, from routed to switched, from low speed to high. Change is constant. One thing is clear: tomorrow’s networks will rub faster, support a number of applications and provide service to an increasing number of geographically diverse users.

With network requirements changing constantly, it is important to employ a cabling system that can keep up with the demand. Cabling systems, the backbone of any data communications system, must become utilities. That is, they must adapt to network requirements to demand. When a network needs more speed, the media should deliver it. The days of recabling to adopt new networking technologies are past. Today’s structured cabling system should provide seamless migration to tomorrow’s network services.

One media that provides utility-like service is optical fiber. Fiber optic cabling has been used in telecommunication networks for over 15 years, bringing unsurpassed reliability and expandability to that industry. Over the past decade, optical fibers have found their way into cable television networks — increasing reliability, providing expanded service and reducing costs. In the local area network, fiber cabling has been deployed as the primary media for campus and building backbones, offering high-speed connections between diverse LAN segments.

Today, with increasingly sophisticated applications like high-speed ISPs and e-commerce becoming standard, it's time to consider optical fiber as the primary media to provide data services to the desktop. In this paper, examples of fiber-based structured cabling systems are presented. We review the standards, discuss next generation cabling systems and show how fiber can be used effectively to reduce costs and improve network connectivity.

Category 5: How Did We Get Here and Where Do We Go Next?

Is the reliable performance of your network infrastructure important to your organization's bottom line? According to a study commissioned by LeCroy, a high-end test and measurements equipment manufacturer, failures at the physical layer (structured cabling) account for an average loss of $250,000 per year per 100 users. Losses are measured in user productivity, network manager effort and business downtime. Couple this with the fact that the physical layer represents only about 10 percent of the overall network installation costs, when including the computers, software, structured cabling and support costs, and you can see a big reason to be concerned. Fortunately for the people responsible for cable infrastructure, a system of acceptable standards exists that defines the expectations and limitations of cable, and provides structure and direction for technological advances.

Looking back: wire was wire!

In 1989, Anixter Inc. began a dialog with customers about what seemed to be indiscernible differences in communications cabling construction. After all, isn't all wire created equal? At about the same time, the computer electronics industry was all a buzz about a tiny startup company in Texas that promised to obsolete the coaxial cable and connectors we all had learned to love and hate. Sure, we got great performance from our Ethernet transceivers and cabling (affectionately called Thicknet and Thinnet) when it worked, but when it didn't we had a hard time locating the problem. Today, words like "reflection," "terminator" and "vampire tap" have quickly faded from memory in the wake of robust and reliable 10 and 100BASE-T LANs and "categorized" unshielded twisted pair cabling systems.

The Anixter engineers, concerned that vendor hype would distort the facts, developed and published a "Cable Performance Levels" purchasing specification for communications cables that emphatically stated that all cables are NOT created equal. The specification was their attempt to create some measurement of electrical uniformity and performance assurance in the cable manufacturing process. Three years later EIA/TIA published the cabling standard that set the baseline for interoperability in structured cabling and provided a consistent platform for networking devices to be built to.

The original "Levels" Someone entering the industry today wouldn't know (or care) about Level 1 telephone voice-grade copper cableor "POTS" (Plain Old Telephone System) cable, as it was called. Level 2 handled IBM mainframe and minicomputer terminal transmission, as well as some early slow-speed (12 Mbs) LAN technologies like Arcnet. Level 3 was designated as the minimum quality twisted pair cable that would handle 10 Mbs Ethernet and 4/16 Mbs active Token Ring without errors at the desktop.

The seven years since these original Levels were defined have seen America being rewired, information transmission technologies advancing and standards ratified. In 1992, a group of manufacturers marketed a copper version (CDDI) of an FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) transport system using thin coax and IBM Type 1 cabling products. And in that same year, Anixter authored a Level 5 purchasing guide for 100 Mbs over UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cable and delivered it to cabling manufacturers for specification compliance.

In 1993, ANSI ratified TP-PMD (twisted pair-physical media dependent) for FDDI over Category 5 UTP. Shortly after that, EIA/TIA signed the "568" standard document, followed immediately by TSB36, which adopted in total the "Levels" requirements set forth earlier by Anixter although EIA/TIA defined these levels as "categories." The Anixter engineers then worked with Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. to create the UL LEVEL testing and follow-up program, which assured end-users that the manufacture of cables would fully meet these levels/categories programs, and would give them an independent yardstick for cable performance.

It wasn't until the birth and availability of affordable 100BASE-T in 1996 that institutions and organizations saw a reason to enable 100 Mbs desktops, and then largely because it was an inexpensive and well-understood insurance policy. For a little extra money, whether turned on or left dormant, dual 10/100 Mbs Ethernet network interface cards became a "no-brainer" for network managers. Fiber optics and FDDI remained in the campus backbone, and became the server superhighways and intercloset infrastructures. In five short years (since Level 5 was introduced) the physical layer transport of the most future-thinking planners has become "maxed out" in terms of the high-speed networking options of the near future!

Isn't Cat 5 enough?

"I might give my users 100 Mbs at their desktops since it's inexpensive and my support groups know Ethernet very well and I've heard that intranets could very well deliver some high-bandwidth enabled applications soon."

This is not an uncommon statement these days. Few of us can conceive of the need for anything beyond 100 Mbs. For example, 155 Mbs ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) is seen by many to be a technology in search of an application, but we should remember how much things can change in a five-year period. In 1991, an article in PC Week magazine reported an analyst's opinion on the newly introduced 486 processor: "Outside the niche of graphics and CAD applications, there's no need to have a 486 sitting on your desk." Few mainstream applications existed to take advantage of the increased processing power. The article further observed: "Overall, the greatest impact of high-end 486s will probably be on applications that have not been computerized yet." At that time, Windows 3.0 was the greatest boon to the IBM-based PC since the Macintosh was introduced. It wasn't until later that WIN95 (code named "Chicago") made a ripple in the back pages of PC Magazine, and the Internet was just a scholarly and governmental vehicle to pass data back and forth.

Today in the age of Pentiums, the chicken and egg routine continues. Processing power ultimately drives innovation in user applications, specifically media-rich and collaborative functions, and these business and learning-enabled applications ultimately drive the need for more bandwidth when it's needed. Transport technologies like switching and ATM will likely catch on as the economic and sociological benefits of multimedia, distance learning and mediaconferencing are realized. When thinking about where applications will be in five years, think about the size of hard drives and modem speeds in 1991. Hundredfold increases in performance and plummeting costs make these technology innovations solid drivers in today's corporate America, as well as in education and healthcare.

If we consider that five years ago our high-end wiring choice was Category 5 cabling in the LAN and multimode fiber-optic systems in the backbone, when LAN speeds were 10, 16 and 100 Mbs, the "headroom" or additional capacity we built into our systems seemed more than adequate for the future.

This past year the ATM Forum put its seal of approval on 155 Mbs ATM to run on existing Category 5 systems, and the first interface products have just recently started to appear on the market. We may ask what applications will require more than 100 or 155 Mbs at the desktop; but the more visionary question is: Will my Category "X" cabling system have enough additional "headroom" or TRUE electrical bandwidth to provide error-free transmission when I do need the extra throughput?

A few issues need to be explored to answer this question satisfactorily. All high-speed LAN standards require compliance with generic cabling specifications plus many additional parameters that are defined only in the specifications and standards for the network interface products. These extra requirements define the actual electrical and digital signaling, and usually assume a well-behaved and consistent cable and connectivity system. Figure A shows the relationship between cabling standards (center ellipse) and networking standards (outer ellipse), and demonstrates, unfortunately, that cabling requirements are just a subset of the overall requirements for a smooth-running network.

All high-speed standards need to conform to SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratios) and maximum noise thresholds. But pair skew and propagation delay characteristics are important supplemental requirements for 100BASE-T, 100BASE-VG and for ATM above 100 MHz. Pair skew applies to technologies using multiple pairs for signaling. In essence, signals are divided between pairs and must be reassembled at the receiving end. If they arrive at different times, skewing of the signal occurs, resulting in transmission errors. Propagation delay, the time it takes for the signal to travel to the receiver, is a factor of the efficiency of the cable in moving the signal relative to the theoretical speed of electricity (light). Also known as the velocity of propagation, it is expressed as the percent of the speed of light represented by the cable's speed.

Network electronics manufacturers deal with electrical loss across cable distances by incorporating equalizers into their receivers. These equalizers attempt to amplify the received signal based on what they assume happened through attenuation or the electrical loss during transmission through the channel. This same received signal must also be identified within the noise picked up during its transmission and receipt, and in most cases a little bit of the noise is also reamplified. If this results in an incorrect representation of the original signal it is called a "bit error." Bit errors often lead to garbled information and/or retransmissions of the data.

As in the case of 155-Mbs ATM running on Cat 5 cable, anomalies can occur above the Cat 5 maximum signal frequency (in excess of 100 MHz and as far out as 200 MHz) that when seen by the equalizer are amplified as if they were part of the signal. This results in higher than acceptable bit errors and therefore corruption of the information. No additional headroom will help in this case. If the attenuation performance of the cable is not smooth, then the ATM signal will probably not be interpreted correctly even though the cable installation passes Cat 5 requirements below 100 MHz!

Aren't all Cat 5 cables created equal? Isn't this a standard?

Let us preface this section by saying that as active participants in the standards organizations, we at Anixter are firm believers in the need for standards and think the public needs to know about the standards process. Standards by definition are derived by consensus and often are open to interpretation. "Delay Skew" is an addendum to the ANSI/EIA/TIA-568-A specification that requires another test be performed on the cable before it leaves the manufacturer. The TIA task group has rejected suggested names for the addendum (Category 5.1 or Cat 5-1997), and has elected not to have the cables that would comply with the new standard marked differently from the other seven billion feet of four-pair cable already manufactured and currently installed in North America. The only way to know for sure if your cable meets this new requirement will be to get a copy of the actual product specification the manufacturer used to make the exact cable you purchased at that time. When was the last time you consulted the cable manufacturer's spec sheet? So, enhancements to cable can only be determined by looking at exactly what parameters the manufacturer has tested and guaranteed.

Performance is directly related to the chemical compounds used in the manufacture of cable. To date and largely because of a worldwide shortage of FEP (Fluorinated Ethylene-PropyleneTeflon, a registered trademark of DuPont, and Neoflon, a registered trademark of Daikin) from early 1994 on, there are more than 105 different electrical designs of plenum cables, including 15 high-end Cat 5 plenum designs and 33 standard and high-end non-plenum designs all with varying electrical performance characteristics, yet still Cat 5-compliant.

In addition, a high-speed system must display Category 5 characteristics from input to output; in other words, across all connectors, cross-connects, patch panels and outlets. So, assuming our Cat 5 cable tests out at 155 Mbs, we still must contend with the quality of the components and the installation. Some of the various plenum "flavors" that used different numbers of Polyolefin pairs mixed in with the FEP pairs to reduce the amount of FEP consumed, were very installer-friendly; others were not. This mixing of different materials can cause the propagation delay skew to exceed the 45 ns specified in the revised TIA-568 standard and has resulted in a recent addendum.

It's ironic that the original EIA/TIA-568 was signed in the summer of 1991 and only covered what essentially was 10BASE-T electricals, or the then current Category 3. Immediately after the standard was issued, the committee came out with TSB36 (Technical Systems Bulletin) for "Additional Cable Specifications for Twisted Pair Cables," which defined the new Category 3, 4 and 5 electrical performance requirements based on the Levels Program developed by the Anixter engineering staff and the work done at NEMA (National Electrical Manufacturers Association) and ISO.

A TSB is not a standard but a preliminary look at what a standard might be as generated by the TIA working group. That is, if they publish such a standard it might look like the TSB after the voting is done. So, a new standard can be approved then immediately made obsolete by the same working group. A rewrite of the 568 standard was signed into existence in October of 1995 as ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-A, and ANSI formed a working group to explore the issue of delay skew, resulting in another change or addendum. Many standards are obsolete the day they are signed because they cover existing, implemented and proven technologies that by design must be available from a number of different sources.

Frost & Sullivan, an information company specializing in high-technology market research, addresses the effect of standards on cable manufacturing in its 1997 report on the North American Premises Wiring Transmission Media Market, stating "Standards have become so prevalent that brand awareness has become less of an issue. ... Because of this, many manufacturers tend to minimally meet specifications, which in turn fosters a market environment where the products become commodities. ... As a result, the advent of standards has impeded manufacturers from developing products that exceed the qualification of standards."

What's next?

We may see the promise (or opportunity) of deploying even higher-speed technologies in the next five years as applications and processors address new creative and competitive business needs, and continue to consume more and more of the available bandwidth. The Gigabit Ethernet Alliance has concluded that this technology will have a significant impact on cabling. It will push the limits. Regardless of product and installation quality, there will be no slack if implemented on the current Category 5 cabling.

So while it seemed, a mere five years ago, that Cat 5 would be all that would ever be needed in the horizontal cable infrastructure, it appears that headroom and "structural return" concerns will open the books again with the help of the new Anixter Levels (sm) Program. This timely Performance Assurance Program is based on a stringent purchasing specification that requires Anixter suppliers to qualify their high-performance unshielded twisted pair products. (In order for any product to be acceptable to Anixter, it must be tested for compliance to the purchasing specification through a lot sampling procedure by the ASCL, Anixter Structured Cabling Laboratory, an independent certified lab connected to the Anixter Technology Center in Mount Prospect, Illinois.)

This new purchasing specification sets guidelines for electrical bandwidth in excess of 100 Mhz by reaching for a performance mark that has over twice the actual usable electrical bandwidth of the current Category 5. It also extends the data bandwidth to the 1.2 Gbs performance mark, making it useful in developing Gigabit Ethernet systems while incorporating less sophisticated encoding schemes than those required for conventional Cat 5 cabling.

The original Level 5 specification from 1992 was modified to cover the performance requirements for existing Cat 5 cables. The more stringent requirements for what has been called High-End Cat 5 or Cat 5+ cables are referred to as Level 6 in the updated levels program. And a new generation of recently launched products that meet the twice Cat 5 bandwidth requirement constitute Level 7. The chart in Figure B gives the basic requirements for these new performance Levels. Note that Level 5 is different from the standard Cat 5 in that it now must meet the more stringent requirements included in the international standard document ISO 11801. This standard allows cables meeting these requirements to be used globally. This new definition for cable performance creates a "super-set" of the original Category 5 requirements.

At a recent meeting, the working group of a major standards organization elected to use the Anixter Levels '97 specifications as a guide for its new draft of the UTP Technical Requirement Standard.

Copper cabling technology has certainly come a long way in less than a decade! Beyond this, it looks like fiber optics is mandatory. Even today fiber is the clear "future protection" of choice.

As is usually the case, the implementation of a cabling infrastructure should fit the need. Corporations, financial institutions, healthcare providers, and colleges and universities are poised in many ways to take full advantage of the technology wave to enhance their competitive advantage. Is your organization ready to deploy tomorrow's technological advances? Is your physical layer infrastructure up to the task? Thankfully, there are cost-effective, future-proofing solutions in high-end copper still in the works. And as we move into the world of lightwave communications over optical fiber, the same guiding principles of price, performance and ease of installation and maintenance are at work in the engineering and standards committees of the industry.

Why Fiber?

What value does fiber provide in the horizontal network? Fiber has the largest bandwidth of any media available. It can transmit signals over the longest distance at the lowest cost, with the fewest repeaters and the least amount of maintenance. Fiber is immune to EMI and RFI. It cannot be tapped, so it's very secure. Fiber transmission systems are highly reliable. Network downtime is limited to catastrophic failures such as a cable cut, not soft failures such as loading problems. Interference does not affect fiber traffic, and as a result, the number of retransmissions is reduced and network efficiency is increased. There are no crosstalk issues with optical fiber. It is impervious to lightning strikes and does not conduct electricity or support ground loops.

Fiber-based network segments can be extended 20 times farther than copper segments. A typical LAN grade multimode fiber has a length-to-bandwidth product of 500 MHz over one kilometer. Since the current structured cabling standard allows 100 meter lengths of horizontal fiber cabling from the telecom closet, each length can support several GHz of optical bandwidth. Recent developments in multimode fiber optics include enhanced glass design to accommodate even higher speed transmissions. With capabilities well above today's 10/100 Mbps Ethernet systems, fiber enables the migration to tomorrow's 10 Gigabit ATM and SONET networking schemes without recabling.

What about upgradability? A key point to remember is that optical fiber is independent of the transmission frequency on a network. There are no crosstalk or attenuation mechanisms that can degrade or limit the performance of fiber as network speeds increase. Further, the bandwidth of an optical fiber channel cannot be altered in any manner by installation practices. Once a fiber is installed, tested and certified to be "good," then that channel will work at 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps. This guarantees that a fiber cable plant installed today will be capable of handling any networking technology that may come along in the next 15 to 20 years.

Designing Networks with Fiber

Over the past decade, a new term has become associated with data networks— structured cabling. Structured cabling, as opposed to the proprietary data networks of the past, is a way to provide vendor-independent interconnection of various network hubs, switches, routers and bridges. TIA/EIA-568-A defines the requirements for building and campus structured cabling systems. It sets the structure and specifications for the cabling products and connectorization or interconnect products used in a cabling plant. It defines the rules for electrical, optical and mechanical interoperability of various physical layer components. It also defines fiber and copper horizontal cabling systems.

The horizontal distance limitations placed on fiber by TIA/EIA-568-A (see table 1) are based on the performance characteristics of copper cabling. Several committees, TIA/EIA-568-B.3 among them, are currently evaluating the extended performance capabilities of optical fiber. These committees are trying to take advantage of fiber's bandwidth and operating distance characteristics to create more robust structured cabling systems. Terms like "centralized cabling," "multi-user outlet" and "zone cabling" have found their way into the standards language.

What are these designs and how do they leverage fiber to provide cost-effective, performance-based networks? A review of the current standard will facilitate an understanding of these terms and the designs they describe.

Typical TIA/EIA-568-A Cabling System

Whether a network is copper- or fiber-based, TIA/EIA-568-A (see chart) recommends multiple wiring closets distributed throughout a building. A network can be vertical with multiple wiring closets on each floor, or horizontal with multiple satellite closets located throughout a plant. The basic cabling structure is a star-cabled plant with the highest functionality networking components residing in the main distribution center or MDC. The MDC is interconnected via fiber backbone cable to intermediate distribution centers (IDCs) in the case of a campus backbone, or to telecommunications closets (TCs). From TC to desktop, up to 100 meters of Cat 5 UTP cable or optical fiber cable can be deployed. Typically, lower level network electronics are located in a TC and provide floor-level management and segmentation of a network. A TC also provides a point of presence for structured cabling support components, namely cable interconnect or cross-connect centers, cable storage and splices to backbone cabling.


Figure 1


*This current standard will be superceded by ANSI/TIE/EIA-568-B.1 in the year 2000.

Collapsed Cabling Design

By leveraging fiber's natural distance performance, a horizontal distribution system can be redesigned to more efficiently use networking components, increase reliability and reduce maintenance and cost. One approach is to collapse all horizontal networking products into one closet and run fiber cables from this central TC to each user. Since optical fiber systems have sufficient transmission bandwidth to support most horizontal distances, it is not necessary to have multiple wiring closets throughout each floor. With this network design, management is centralized and the number of maintenance sites or troubleshooting points is reduced. Cutting the number of wiring closets saves money and space. It reduces the number of locations that must be fitted with additional power, heating, ventilating and air-conditioning facilities in a horizontal space. Testing, troubleshooting and documentation become easier. Moves, adds and changes are facilitated through network management software rather than patch cord manipulation. With this architecture, newly developed open-office cabling schemes (TIA/EIA TSB 75) can also be easily integrated into a network.

Centralized Cabling

Of course, collapsed cabling is only the first step. The natural extension of fiber's distance performance is summed up in a centralized cabling scheme. In a centralized cabling system, all network electronics reside in either the MDC or IDC (Figure 2). The idea is to connect the user directly from the desktop or workgroup to the centralized network electronics.

There are no active components at floor level. Connections are made between horizontal and riser cables through splice points or interconnect centers located in a TC. For short runs, a technique called fiber home run is used. It connects a workstation directly to the MDC. Low count (2 or 4 fibers) horizontal cable can be run to each workstation or office. Also, multifiber cables (12 or more fibers) can support multiple users, providing backbone connections to workgroups in a modular office environment.

A centralized cabling network design provides the same benefits as a collapsed network: condensed electronics and more efficient use of chassis and rack spaces. By providing one central location for all network electronics, maintenance is simplified, troubleshooting time reduced and security enhanced. Moves, adds and changes are again addressed by software. Centralized cabling is described by the Technical Service Bulletin TIA/EIA TSB 72, which recommends a maximum distance of 300 meters to allow Gigabit applications to be supported, as shown in Figure 2.

 

Figure 2


Fiber Zone Cabling

One design concept is an interesting mix between a collapsed backbone and a centralized cabling scheme. Fiber zone cabling is a very effective way to bring fiber to a work area. It utilizes low-cost, copper-based electronics for Ethernet data communications, while providing a clear migration path to higher speed technologies.

Like centralized cabling, a fiber zone cabling scheme (Figure 3) has one central MDC. Multifiber cables are deployed from the MDC through a TC to the user group. A typical cable might contain 12 or 24 fibers. At the workgroup, the fiber cable is terminated in a multi-user telecommunications outlet (MUTO) and two of the fibers are connected to a workgroup hub. This local hub, supporting six to twelve users, has a fiber backbone connection and UTP user ports. Connections are made between the hub and workstation with simple UTP patch cords. The station network interface card (NIC) is also UTP-based. The remaining optical fibers are unused or left "dark" in the MUTO for future needs.

Dark fibers provide a simple mechanism for adding user channels to the workgroup or for upgrading the workgroup to more advanced high-speed network architectures like ATM, SONET or Gigabit Ethernet. Upgrades are accomplished by removing the hub and installing fiber jumper cables from the multi-user outlets to the workstation. Network electronics also need to be upgraded. This process converts the network segment to a fiber home run or centralized cabling scheme. It is a very flexible and cost-effective way to deploy fiber today while providing a future migration strategy for a network. Further, an investment made in UTP-based Ethernet connectivity products is not wasted; it is, in effect, extended.

Two new cabling products have entered the marketplace, offering zone cabling enclosures. One style mounts above a suspended ceiling, holding fiber and copper UTP cross connects, between hubs, switches and workstations. The other style, a much larger unit, replaces a 2' x 4' ceiling tile and has enough room to house a hub or other active electronics, as well as cross connects.

Evolving Standards and Technology

Over the past year, several new products have been developed that will aid in the deployment of optical fiber to the desk. To date, the standards committees are evaluating new, higher-performance optical components that offer increased performance, ease of installation and lower costs. Among some of these exciting developments are small form factor connectors (SFFC) and vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL).

Advancements in fiber connectors are continuing to make fiber as viable an answer as copper. Traditionally, fiber systems required twice as many connectors as copper cabling— crowding telecommunication closets with additional patch panels and electronics. Recently, manufacturers have introduced small form factor connectors that provide twice as much density as previous fiber connectors. These mini fiber connectors hold the send and receive fibers in one housing. This reduces the space required for a fiber connection. But more importantly, it decreases the footprint required on the hubs and switches for fiber transceivers. The net result is a cost reduction of nearly four times a conventional fiber system.

Complimenting the SFFC components are new vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers. This fiber optic transmission source combines the power and bandwidth of a laser at the lower cost of an LED, or light-emitting diode. VCSELs, when integrated into SFFC transceivers, allow for the development of higher speed, higher bandwidth optical systems, further extending the reach and capability of the FTTD cable system.

Small Form Factor Connectors

Figure 3.




 

Summary benefits of Enhanced Cat 5 cable  

   q  It can give a bandwitdth of 100Mhz

q  it's inexpensive

q  Can reached a maximum length of 100m

q  Purchase of network card is cheaper then a fiber network card

q  Enhanced cable have enhanced electrical performance attributes design to ensure that the cable will support applications that require additional bandwidth.

q  Change to meet the demands of full duplex operation and multi-pair, bi-directional transmission in order to support the high bit rates demanded by these application.

Summary benefits of Fiber Optics

      q  Easy Installation

q  Maximum performance

q  No electric emissions

q  Multiple lighting from a single light source

q  Very safe and highly dependable

q  Suitable for inaccessible or hazardous locations

q  Energy efficient - very low in power consumption

q  Bright, clear light

q  Dramatic special effects - spectacular starry ceilings, automation, vibrant color change

q  No heat or UV emissions - explosion proof, safe for showcasing fine art, perishable foods, etc.

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Last Modified : 08-04-2008