10 Gigabit Copper Cabling: UTP and STP Confrontation

Promulgation of the Standard for 10 Gigabit Copper Cabling

As early as June 2002, the IEEE 802.3ae task group promulgated a series of fiber-based 10 Gigabit Ethernet standards, which can support 10 Gigabit transmission distances from 300m (10GBase-SR, OM3 multimode fiber) to 40km (10GBase -EW, OS1 single-mode fiber), this technology is suitable for long-distance campus backbones or vertical backbones in buildings with high data transmission rate requirements and data center server clusters.

However, the 10 Gigabit Ethernet fiber solution is much higher than the solution using twisted pair transmission 10 Gigabit in terms of network equipment cost, installation cost and maintenance cost. As for the 10 Gigabit standard for twisted pair transmission, the TIA/EIA TR-42.7 subcommittee and its coordination committee with IEEE released the latest fifth draft of TIA/EIA 568B.2-10 on July 28, 2007.

Included in the TIA/EIA 568B.2 standard as appendix 10. The draft defines a new set of Category 6A cabling system including connecting devices, cables, jumper technical performance standards and methods for field testing ANEXT for the 100m transmission distance and 500MHz bandwidth requirements of IEEE 802.3an 10Gbase-T.

The TIA TR42 Engineering Committee finally approved the TIA/EIA 6A standard (TIA/EIA 568B.2-10) on February 8, 2008, which represents an advanced set of network cable requirements under the 500MHz definition. The 6A standard is fully compatible with previous standards including Cat.6, Cat.5e and Cat.5.

10 Gigabit Copper Cabling: UTP and STP Confrontation

10 Gigabit Copper – FTP or UTP

With the official promulgation of the TIA/EIA 6A standard (TIA/EIA 568B.2-10), the battle between shielded and unshielded 10 Gigabit copper cables is in front of us again. As more and more 10 Gigabit copper products come out and become more mature, should you choose shielded or unshielded?

In fact, the debate between shielding and non-shielding of the 6A system is like the choice between “fish” and “bear’s paw”, which often makes users not knowing what to choose. At present, although various wiring manufacturers have different opinions in the market, neither the shielded party nor the non-shielded party has the upper hand.

According to statistics, 51% of users will choose non-shielded system when choosing 6A system, and 49% will choose shielded system. The numbers between the two are very close, not even close. Over the years, the competition between shielded (FTP) and unshielded (UTP) of Category 5 and Category 6 copper cables in the integrated cabling market has already reached a consensus in the industry. showdown.

The content of the duel includes such as transmission performance (ANEXT), installation and construction, overall project cost, test convenience and so on.

Conclusion

New technologies often move forward with debates, as does the shielded versus unshielded 10 Gigabit copper cable. The debate about whether the 6A system is shielded or unshielded will continue to be staged, but for users, as long as they clarify their needs, they will be able to find the most suitable products for them. If you are hesitant to choose 6A system shielding or non-shielding, please consult QSFPTEK technical engineers, we will provide you with a satisfactory answer.

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