R&M recently stated that, after in-depth testing and investigation, it confirmed that its Category 6A WARP—WAve Reduction Patterns—unshielded twisted-pair cable dissipates heat more effectively than conventional unshielded cables in Power over Ethernet (PoE) applications. The jacket of a WARP cable, which is characterized as unshielded twisted-pair, contains a foil that reduces alien crosstalk. “These short metal foil segments suppress alien NEXT, but do not have to be grounded, which saves on installation costs,” the company explained. Originally developed to fight ANEXT in 10GBase-T applications, WARP has now also proven its ability to keep cable temperatures down in high-power PoE deployments, R&M asserts.
“WARP cables stay cool and behave just as well as shielded cables,” said Matthias Gerber, market manager for LAN cabling at R&M. “That is an advantage when you are planning a local data network intended to include PoE.” The company added that in large installations with “massive cable bundles and PoE operation,” a WARP cable becomes less-hot than conventional unshielded (U/UTP) cables, thereby allowing a longer-distance link.
Thermal measurements on R&M’s test setups showed that the Category 6A WARP cables behaved the same as shielded (F/UTP) cables. “Whereas a normal U/UTP cable of the same diameter can be expected to heat up by a factor of around 5, the R&M WARP cable can be assumed to heat up by a factor of 3—similar to a shielded cable,” the company said.
“With small cable bundles, the difference between the cable types has only a minimal effect. In large installations involving massive cable bundles, a WARP cable can become as much as 14 degrees Celsius less-hot,” R&M stated. “The link is allowed to be as much as 11 percent longer.”
Gerber added, “With an R&M WARP cable, you have not only the ideal solution for alien NEXT but also decisive advantages for the use of PoE. Under certain circumstances, the temperature difference and the longer link can decide whether a specific installation functions or not.”