By the Book....

Many manufacturers provide technical information about standards, wiring schemes and network configurations in their catalogs, usually in an appendix. Leviton Telcom (Bothell, WA) has taken this practice to a higher level, publishing a cabling guide with the company?s product information in an appendix at the back of the book. It has been extensively revised, retitled and issued in an expanded third edition.

Originally called Requirements Beyond Jacks and Cable: An Installation Guide, the new book is now called Installation Strategies for Long Term Cabling Success. More than just the name has changed, however.

Growing about one-third in size, to 96 pages, the book includes a new chapter on fiber-optic cable installation, testing and troubleshooting. In addition, the chapter on commercial building wiring has been updated to include information from the revised TIA/EIA-568A standard of the Telecommunications Industry Association (Arlington, VA), and the section on Category 5 testing reflects the approval last fall of TIA?s testing standard TSB-67.

A strong point of the book remains its coverage of residential installation and testing, as covered by the TIA-570 standard, a topic neglected by many other cabling guides. The first chapter introduces current network topologies and their wiring standards, and appendixes include a glossary, information on standards organizations, jack-pin and USOC coding and network diagrams. The new book is better illustrated than the second edition, and contains photos and drawings showing the dos and don?ts of cable installation.

Still priced at $10.00, Installation Strategies for Long Term Cabling Success may be ordered by calling Leviton Telcom at (800) 722-2082, fax (206) 483-5270.