TOUGHNESS OF AUGMENTED CABLES FOR ETHERNET TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

olusegun ogundapo

doi:10.4314/njt.v43i3.17

Authors

O. Ogundapo Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering, American University of Nigeria, P.M.B. 2250, Yola, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/njt.v43i3.17

Keywords:

Augmented cables, return loss, Near-end crosstalk, Toughness, FSV

Abstract

This paper provides a method of assessing the toughness of augmented cables required for Ethernet technology. The use of augmented category 6 (Cat 6A) in Ethernet-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure continues to grow due to the high demand for services requiring such configuration. The increasing demand for Cat 6A over Ethernet is due to its ability to transmit both data and power to devices used in IoT which is cost-saving. However, the availability of counterfeit and substandard cables in the market disguised as category-rated cables is of great concern to cable installers and engineers. There is also the basic problem of handling stress anticipated during installation as cables could be manipulated in the form of repeated coiling and uncoiling. Therefore, there is a need to have a method of assessing the toughness of the cables before deployment. In this paper, two Cat 6A cables from different manufacturers were selected from the market to be used as samples for the experiment. The Cat 6A cables were exposed to two rounds of coiling to imitate the handling stress anticipated during installation. The return loss and near-end crosstalk (NEXT) of the cables which are the major performance indicators were collected using the DSX-5000 cable analyzer for each of the test processes. This is to evaluate their resilience or otherwise to handling stress. Feature Selective Validation (FSV) which is a standardized method of measuring the degree of agreement between two data sets was used in this research. The results showed the cable with the lowest variations between the first and third test measurements for each of the pairs examined. The method presented showed that it can be used to assess cable measurements which can lead to objective decisions on the cables selected for deployment.

Author Biography

O. Ogundapo, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering, American University of Nigeria, P.M.B. 2250, Yola, Nigeria

Assistant Professor (Senior Lecturer), Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering

References

[1] Nilsson, F. “Intelligent Network Video: understanding modern video surveillance systems”, 2nd Edition, CRC Press, March, 2021.

[2] Betz, A. “Cat 6a: The Ultimate Guide”, The Network Installers, December, 2022, [online]. Available: https://thenetworkinstallers.com/blo g/cat-6-a/ , accessed October 10, 2023.

[3] Zimmerman, G. “Category 6A: “The cabling choice for new installations”, A white paper by CommScope, February 2021, pp. 1-8.

[4] Froehlich, F. “Cat 6A cabling: benefits, cautions and use-cases”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine, February 2020, vol. 42, no.2, pp. 18-19.

[5] Conroy, B., and Suau, L. “Embracing POE lighting as a competitive advantage”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine, vol.31, no.3, Summer 2023, pp. 8-11.

[6] Finnegan, J., and Legrand, J. “Cabling Infrastructure for the Internet of Things”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazi-ne, November 2016, vol.22, no.11, pp. 26-28.

[7] Wynnyckj, R. “POE benefits and applications for smart buildings”, Buildings, July, 2023, [online]. Available: https://www.buildings.com /smart-buildings/article/33017979/poe-benefits -and-applications-for-smart-building, accessed October 5, 2023.

[8] Jones, C., and Tremblay, D. “The IEEE 802.3 bt Standard’s Impact on the Expanding POE Market Place”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine, May 2019, vol. 27, no.5, pp. 4-6.

[9] Peri, F. “Non-Compliant and Counterfeit Cable: A risk too real to ignore”, ICT Today, May/June 2014, vol.31, no.3, pp. 46-52.

[10] Harpel, T. “Non-Compliant and Counterfeit Cable”, BICSI Winter Conference and Exhibit-ion, Florida, USA, February, 2018, pp. 7-18.

[11] Copp, T., and Oliver, C. “How Smart Infrastru-cture can become dangerously dump”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine, February 2021, vol. 28, no.2, pp. 3-4.

[12] Marchant, B., and Schumacher, M. “Channel Performance Degradation from Installation Stresses”, International Wire & Cable Symposi-um, Florida, USA, September, 2023, pp. 63-70.

[13] McLaughlin, P. “Practical impact of bend radius on twisted-pair cable installation”, Cabling Installation and Maintenance Magazine, May, 2019, vol. 38, no.5, pp. 18-20.

[14] Shuman, B. “Is your Ethernet cable tough enough?”, Cabling Installation and Maintena-nce Magazine, September, 2013, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 13-14.

[15] Zeng, Y., Gao, L., Wang, L., and Li, J. “Comparison analysis of calculation results for target scattering cross section based on feature selective validation”, Asia-Pacific Internation-al Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatib-ility (APEMC), Shenzhen, May, 2016, pp. 1142-1145.

[16] Wang, D., and Zhao, J. “LRCS model verificat-ion based on feature selective validation method”, Optics and Laser Technology, vol. 115, no.4, July, 2019, pp. 384-387.

[17] “Datasheet: DSX-5000 CableAnalyzer”, July, 2022, [online]. Available: https://www.fluken etworks.com/content/datasheet-dsx-5000-cable analyzer, accessed October 5, 2023.

[18] “DSX-8000/DSX-5000 Cable Analyzer Manu-al”, January, 2018, [online]. Available: https:// www.flukenetworks.com/findit/9828868, ace-ssed October 5, 2023.

[19] Huntington, J. “Introduction to Show Network-ing”, Zircon Designs Press, October, 2020.

[20] Ruzek, V., Drinovsky, J., and Cupak, J. “Feature Selective Validation of Automotive EMC Pre-Compliance Tests”, April, 2018, Radio Engineering, vol.27, no.1, pp. 134-142.

[21] Chen, Z. “Feature Selective Validation (FSV) Application to S-Parameters Models Directly”, IEEE 71st Electronic Components and Techno-logy Conference (ECTC), San Diego, USA, June 2021, pp.1831-1837.

[22] Bai, J., Li, X., and Niu, X. “Application of the FSV Method in EMC Uncertainty Simulation Results”, IEEE Letters on Electromagnetic Compatibility Practice and Applications, Dece-mber, 2023, vol. 5, no.4, pp. 122-126.

[23] Zhang, G., and Duffy, A. “Applying FSV to the Comparison of Return Path Integrity in High-Speed Circuit Designs”, IEEE Letters on Electromagnetic Compatibility Practice and Applications, June, 2021, vol.3, no.2, pp.78-81.