Confidence with Cable Certification
Data, data, data…it’s all consuming in our lives both personally and professionally. Everything is connected these days at home and especially at work. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the current era of technological advancements that is transforming the workplace environment, and the underlying connectivity infrastructure is often an overlooked component. It’s easy to be enamored with cool technology such as AI and what it can do to improve productivity, but we must not lose sight of how advanced data and smart device PoE requirements have put additional demand on the network and cabling infrastructure. Unfortunately, too often the use of substandard components and/or substandard installation practices lead to data transmission issues. An effective way to head off issues is to certify the cable infrastructure with test equipment such as the Fluke Network Versiv Platform. Small business or large, data errors and network downtime have an impact on the bottom line. When having to make capital investments in cabling infrastructure to keep up with the modern data demands, can you afford not to certify your investment?
Wired uses what we believe to be the best network cabling tester on the market in Fluke Networks Versiv Platform. This platform offers industry leading flexibility with its modular design that allows us to test and certify both copper and fiber optic cable. For today we’ll focus specifically on the DSX CableAnalyzer modules for TIA copper cable certification, and we’ll leave fiber optic testing to another day.
Data rate testing as defined by TIA test standards for CAT 3, 4, 5, 5e, 6, 6A and 8 are widely accepted as the industry standard. In the modern commercial office and manufacturing environments we’re currently seeing a broad and even deployment of both CAT 6 and CAT 6A cabling as data speed requirements have standardized on gigabit and 10 gigabit ethernet. Data Center environments are using up to 40 gigabit ethernet and CAT 8 cable to support the high bandwidth operating needs of the modern equipment room. The rapid 2-way Autotest, tests the full paraments of the corresponding standard which ensures our deployments will be fully functional when put into service.
PoE (Power over Ethernet) is on the rise as the modern commercial space and building continues to add smart devices to the building automation system. Category cable has now become the prevalent media not only for phones and wireless access points but also for security cameras, door access, environmental sensors, temperature control, automated lighting and many more applications. These edge devices are often powered by the network switch over the same cable transmitting the data. When enabled, the DSX CableAnalyzer will not only test the TIA test parameters, but also the PoE transmission capability of the same cable link to ensure that the device will be powered and ready for configuration.
Administration records are the bane of existence for the network manager. Keep your cable test records organized with seamless integration and storage in LinkWare and ProjX Management. The DSX CableAnalyzer uploads all your test results from multiple testers, multiple sites for multiple projects and gives you an easy to navigate platform for reference. Matching your test results with the corresponding as-built records gives an offsite network manager a powerful tool to help facilitate moves, adds and changes, troubleshooting, or deployment of new devices in the workspace.
There’s a lot of options from many good manufacturers in the cable industry. Choosing a reputable product that has a partnership program with installing contractors ensures the components will be installed by well-versed and trained technicians. Through certified partnerships, extended warranties from fifteen to twenty-five years can be provided by the manufacturer but only with the verification of the certified test results. Fluke Networks Versiv platform test results are accepted by all manufacturers as the standard of the industry.
Investment in network cable infrastructure can be considerable and disruptive to the workspace. Whether it’s a newly constructed building or space, a remodel of existing space, or just a cable upgrade, choosing a contracting partner that recognizes the challenges of the client and the current technology trends is important. At Wired Communications we partner with a wide variety of industry leading manufacturers, offer extended warranties, test and certify all of our installed products and provide the client with the confidence that their investment will work as it should from day one.
Nick Bowsher - General Manager
