Cable Testing Technologies, Improve Your Productivity

1
Cable Testing Technologies, Improve Your
Productivity

• BICSI Mumbai
• April 2006
• Vinson Han
• Photonics Measurement Division
• Agilent Technologies Singapore

2
LAN Technology Trends Present

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet on fiber is a reality on LAN
  backbones
• Turn up of triple play services and distributed
  business applications put the networks
  performance at its limits
• Triple play users expect the QoS of todays
  switched circuit phone system and CaTV service

Internet
Data Center
Wiring Closets
WAN Router w/ CSU/DSU
Backbone Fiber
Switch
Firewall
Horizontal UTP Wiring
Backbone Switch / Router
10 Gbps
Work Areas
Patch Panels etc.
10/100 Mbps, 1 Gbps
Web Servers
Email Servers
Application Servers
File Servers
3
LAN Technology Trends Future

• High-definition services like live HDTV streaming
  and real-time online gaming drive the need for
  higher bit rates
• Data centers and increased use of distributed
  processing add to bandwidth needs
• More networked devices will aggregate to
  background traffic on gateways and backbones
• 10 Gbit/s to desktop and 100 Gbit/s on backbones
  will become a reality

Internet
Data Center
Wiring Closets
WAN Router w/ CSU/DSU
Backbone Fiber
Switch
Firewall
Horizontal UTP Wiring
10/100 Gbps
Backbone Switch / Router
Work Areas
Patch Panels etc.
1/10 Gbps
Web Servers
Email Servers
Application Servers
File Servers
4
Cabling Standards is Evolving

• Evolution of Ethernet speed is the pacemaker for
  new cabling standards
• Industry is migrating to Cat 6A, Cat 7/ Class F
• Agilent participates in all of these
  standardization efforts
• With concerted efforts, standards process for Cat
  6A is estimated to be finalized by 2006

5
Standards Developments

• CAT 6A New TIA standard under development for
  unshielded cabling defined up to 500MHz
• TSB 155 New TIA document under development
  extending the specification of existing CAT 6
  cabling to 500MHz
• Class F ISO standard for shielded cabling
  defined to 600MHz
• Class FA Extension of Class F cabling
  specification to 1GHz (under development)

• Support 10GBASE-T to 100m
• Supports 10GBASE-T till at least 55m
• Support 10GBASE-T to 100m
• Support 10GBASE-T to 100m and potential new home
  entertainment applications

6
Cabling Standards Roadmap
Network Physical Layer
TIA Copper Cabling
Cabling Standard
Fiber
Twisted Pair
Category 6 Category 6A
Published 1999
Published 2002
Published 6/98
1 GigabitEthernet 10 Gigabit Ethernet
568-B.2-1
IEEE802.3ab
IEEE802.3z
Published 2002
Expected 2006
Expected 2006
IEEE802.3an
IEEE802.3ae
568-B.2-10
ISO/IEC Copper Cabling
Testing Standard
Cabling Standard
Released 2002ISO/IEC 118012002 2nd
Edition Proposed amendment 1 to ISO/IEC 18012002
2nd Edition
Released 2005IEC 61935-1 2nd Edition
Class E (Cat 6) Class F (Cat 7)
Level III Level IV
Level IIIe
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Test needs in different network segments and
layers
Field Portable Test
Quality of Experience
Application experience testing
Quality of Service
Testing the different layer in a network segment
Network performance testing
Link quality
Physical Infrastructure testing
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Typical Electrical Cable challenges

• Bending inside racks, trays, building
  installation
• Hidden Workmanship defects
• Cable and Connector material failures

Problems get worse with increasing Bit rate, Load
Can lead to

• Increased Crosstalk
• Impedance anomalies
• Excessive attenuation
• Electromagnetic interference (elevators, electric
  machinery, etc)

Resulting in

• Bit errors, Increased packet retransmission
  rates, lost packets

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InstallersSome IM department key challenges

• Verify service quality through objective
  measurements and scores
• Proof of service quality to end customers, get
  sign-off quickly
• Minimize customer site activities
• Reduce the time of technicians at customer site

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Field Test Challenges

• Quality of installation and compliance to new
  certification standards
• Augmented Cat 6/ Cat 6A
• Cat 7/ Class F
• Alien Crosstalk increases with higher bit rates
  and frequencies, and potentially disturbs
  transmission
• Alien Crosstalk measurement on copper is a need
  for those who have to stand in for the 10G
  suitability of their links

11
Consideration for Installation and Certification
of Category 6A

• Similar to Category 6 - to higher frequencies
  (500MHz).
• Tightened test limits for attenuation
• Robust against Alien Crosstalk by design specs
• New Alien Crosstalk (AXT) parameters defined
• PSANEXT
• PSAELFEXT
• Level IIIe tester accuracy
• Being driven by market demand for future
  bandwidth and to create infrastructure,
  specifically 10GBASE-T

Cat 6A
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Cable Testing Speed, Capabilities

• Reduce measurement time to test more cables per
  day
• ? Cat 6 Autotest less than 9-second
• ? Class F Autotest less than
  15-second
• Able to perform both cable and network testing in
  1 box, save the capital expenditure (CapEx) in
  the instrument
• Software upgradeable
• Remote autotest enabled to save the operation
  expenditure (OpEx)
• Speed up the upgrade to 10GE on existing cabling
  with efficient AXT testing
• Measure AXT from all disturbers simultaneously
  and reduced the testing time to less than half

13
Time Domain and Frequency Domain testers
Time domain tester takes discrete samples in
time, whereas frequency domain tester takes
discrete samples in frequency. In both cases,
the original signal is analog, which converted to
a digital form for further processing.
Time domain measurement
Frequency domain display
Measurements can be made either way and converted
to the other domain Frequency domain testers uses
DSP (IFFT) to convert data from frequency domain
to time domain for locator utility
Frequency domain measurement
Time domain display
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Measurement Frequency Range
Now

• Covers todays fastest Ethernet standards
• Ready for next-generation cables
• 50 headroom over Category 6A
• 40 headroom over Category 7/ Class F

Category 7/Class F
Category 6A
Past
Category 6
CAT 5e
Frequency Range (MHz)
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Alien Crosstalk Measurement
Definition Interference caused by a pair of
wires in one (disturber) LAN cable to a pair of
wires of another (victim) cable.

• Calculation
• Get pair-to-pair NEXT/FEXT from wire pair X in
  the victim cable to all 4 pairs of each disturber
  cables
• The sum of the pair-to-pair NEXT/FEXT of all
  cables is the Power Sum Alien NEXT/FEXT

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Alien Crosstalk Testing Today

• Example Network Analyzer
• 1 switch
• 8 baluns in 2 clusters
• Disadvantage
• Only supports Alien Crosstalk testing between 2
  cables at a time thus provides low test
  throughput
• Manual calculation is required for PSAXT
  measurement
• Present technology takes approximately 4-8 hours
  per cable.
• New technology takes only 5 minutes

17
Different Approach of Alien Crosstalk Measurement
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Cable Testing Technologies, Improve Your
Productivity
Thank You!

• BICSI Mumbai
• April 2006
• Vinson Han
• Photonics Measurement Division
• Agilent Technologies Singapore