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Utah network cabling has evolved over several decades, so there are many different types of cabling solutions to choose from these days. For example, virtually all VDV copper cabling has been moved to unshielded twisted pair for several reasons: it is inexpensive, it could already be in place for you, it is familiar to most installers, and it is very easy to install. However, the cost and simplicity of installation has also changed a bit over the years. Unshielded twisted pair cables contain four pairs of carefully twisted pairs of copper wire which have been insulated with carefully chosen material to provide you with high bandwidth, low attenuation and crosstalk. Unshielded twisted pair cables also work well because they are used with transmitters that work on what is called a balanced transmission. This means they transmit equal but opposite signals on each wire of the pair so each wire only has half the amplitude of the final signal. They produce low electromagnetic emissions because the electrical and magnetic fields of each wire are opposite and cancel each other out. The secret ingredient of Cat 5e/6 is the twists. In order to maintain Cat 5e/6 performance, especially crosstalk, you absolutely must keep the twists as close as possible to the terminations. Connector receptacles that have punch-down terminations on the backside and tricks on the inside are typically known as jacks. These prevent crosstalk and are usually the cause of a cable being terminated. Some jacks can snap into work area outlets, while other can be incorporated in rack mount patch panels. There are many possible cable configurations, including intermediate punch-downs, but a direct run from a work area outlet to a patch panel will almost always provide the highest performance. This arrangement is likely necessary is upgrades to fast networks are put in place. Patch-cords and patch-panels can usually be purchased factory-assembled. They are used for connecting network equipment. A modular 8 pin is more commonly referred to as a RJ-45 plug. These plugs use stranded cable for flexibility and require special connectors ordered at a specific length to prevent the mess that patch-panels often become after a few moves or changes to your Utah network cabling arrangement. Cat 3, Cat 5e and Cat 6 are all really easy cables to find hardware for right now. It is easy to see the difference in each cable – higher performance cables have more twists. However, it is a lot hard to tell the difference between jacks. Make sure you connect the proper jack to the right cable, otherwise performance levels could become very low and your network cabling could become very complicated. Rather than using “Categories” like in the United States, Europe and many other countries in the world refer to them as “Classes” to designate different performance levels. No matter where you live, everything that deals with computers and communications is becoming faster and easier to work with. The committee that writes the cabling standards recently approved the standard for Cat 6 cabling after three years of debate, discussion and testing. The Cat 6 standard includes cables, plugs, jacks, patch panels and patch cords – everything you need to install a complete Utah network cabling system. This new standard far surpasses the qualities of the old (Cat 5) – with attenuation and crosstalk performance almost 10 times better. Using Cat 6 will give you a better signal-to-noise ratio, which can give you more robust data transmission on fast networks. While technological advances have increased, so has the cost for those advances. However, the committee has made a goal to ensure that each new generation of Category-rated cable be “backward compatible” so that it will work with any networking product, not just the new and expensive ones.
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