A presentation by Eric Lawrence of Berk-Tek (www.berk-tek.com), a Nexans company, at the Cabling Systems Conference is intended to give its audience some insight into what the industry faces as engineers hammer out the intricacies of running 10-Gigabit Ethernet traffic over twisted-pair cabling.

Lawrence's presentation, entitled "Category 6 Cabling for Modern Communication Systems" will report, among other things, the results of high-frequency testing of Category 6 systems. It is generally accepted that in order to run 10-Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair cabling, the transmission will take place at frequencies as high as 625 or 650 MHz. Lawrence will present these results, as well as network-performance results in the presence of electrical and electromagnetic noise. Additionally, he will cofer the relationship of cable balance and insertion loss to noise immunity and the effect of dynamic environmental conditions on Ethernet performance.

The testing that is the basis of the presentation was conducted at Nexans' Data Communications Competence Center, of which Lawrence is the director. These original results from Category 6 system tests will paint a picture of how well-equipped Category 6 cabling systems are to the unique challenges presented by modern communication systems.