Poll indicates TIA approval will boost Cat 6 installations

Eighty-four percent of the respondents to an online poll conducted over the course of 11 days said they will specify Category 6 systems now that the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA--www.tiaonline.org) has officially approved specifications for such systems.

The poll, conducted on this Web site, posed the following: "In early June, the TIA approved the Category 6 standard. Are you more likely to specify a Cat 6 system now that it's approved than you were before approval?" Respondents could indicate yes, they will specify it now; no, they still will not; or that they had been specifying Category 6 even before it was officially approved. Forty-seven percent of those who responded while the poll was active (June 14 to June 24) said yes, they will now specify Cat 6. Another 37 percent said they had been specifying it before approval, and 16 percent said they still will not specify Category 6.

"Category 6 doubles the bandwidth of Category 5e, vastly improves signal-to-noise margins, and has much better isolation from external noise because of improved electromagnetic compatibility performance," says Masood Shariff, chair of the TIA's TR-42.7 Telecommunications Copper Cabling Systems Committee. "It supports all legacy applications supported by Categories, 3, 5, and 5e, while paving the way for emerging multi-gigabit applications. Now that the Category 6 standard is published, customers should look carefully at the cost/benefit ratio of Category 6 compared to other cabling systems and make an informed judgment on what best suits their current and future needs."

The Category 6 standard, which specifies a useable bandwidth of 200 MHz and performance values to 250 MHz, was in development for several years before final approval. But as promised, the TIA delivered an interoperable and backward-compatible Category 6 specification.

"TIA first started discussing Category 6 at the TR-41.8.1 meeting in Quebec City on August 20, 1997," recalls Shariff. "Based on these initial discussions, a list of objectives was established during a teleconference on August 29, 1997. This list of objectives was communicated to the US Technical Advisory Group for ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC25/WG3 and became the framework for the Category 6 project, both in TIA and in the second edition of IS 11801. It is gratifying to note that TIA TR-42.7 has met all the objectives that were established back in August 1997."

High-frequency performance, interoperability, and backward compatibility of connecting hardware proved challenging for the group. "Connecting hardware was the single biggest technical challenge in the development of the Category 6 standard," Shariff continues. "In addition to developing the requirements for Category 6 connecting hardware, TR-42.7 members had to invent new measurement technology to be able to measure connecting hardware at Category 6 levels. This measurement technology includes detailed measurement procedures, measurement fixtures, and reproducibility requirements to ensure consistent measurements between laboratories. The connecting hardware committee also had to ensure backward compatibility to Category 3, 5, and 5e, as well as plug and jack interoperability between manufacturers to complete the objectives of the Category 6 standard.

"This work required many rounds of round-robin testing, several laboratory meetings where procedures and interoperability requirements were checked out, and extensive simulations and modeling to ensure that Category 6 performance could be achieved with real-world manufacturing ability."

Shariff is quick to add, however, "I would be remiss if I said all of the delay was attributed to connecting hardware. Until March 2001, the Category 6 project was worked as a 'second priority.' Other projects that took precedence over Category 6 include TSB-95, Category 5e, and the revision of the TIA/EIA-568-B series. Once these higher-priority projects were completed in March 2001, the TR-42.7 committee, its working groups, and task groups all went into high gear to rapidly complete the PN-3727 Category 6 project, leading to the publication of ANSI/TIA-568B.2-1 on June 20, 2002."

Shariff acknowledges the work of several other TR-42.7 Committee members in making Category 6 a reality. "All members and participants of TIA TR-42.7, the TR-42.7.1 Copper Connecting Hardware Working Group, the TR-42.7.2 Copper Cable Working Group, and several task groups should be congratulated for their superb contributions that were incorporated into the Category 6 standard. We really had a star-studded committee full of world-class transmission experts that all came together and worked as a team to make Category 6 happen."

Specifically, Shariff pointed out:
* Valerie Rybinski of Hitachi Cable Manchester, "who is the editor of the document, vice chair of TR-42.7, and chair of the TR-42.7.1 Working Group."
* Paul Vanderlaan of Belden and Trent Hayes of Avaya, who "co-chaired the TR-42.7.2 Working Group that developed all the Category 6 cable specifications."
* Shadi AbuGhazaleh of Hubbell Premise Wiring, who "chaired the balance task group that developed cable and connecting hardware balance specifications.
* Henriecus Koeman of Fluke Networks "chaired the modeling task group that developed the models used to add component requirements into channel and permanent link requirements."
* Sterling Vaden of Superior Modular Products "developed many of the test fixtures used to measure Category 6 connecting hardware."

Shariff concluded, "I have to mention the laudable efforts of Paul Kish of NORDX/CDT, David Hess of Nexans, and Wayne Larsen of Avaya, who chairs the connecting hardware measurement task group that developed detailed measurement procedures to guarantee Category 6 interoperability and backward compatibility."