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Latest News on LAN Cable Certification
Until recently, the ISO Class E / CAT6 standards were the measure of all things. Now, proposals for CAT6a, ISO Class Ea, and ISO Class Fa standards are hot on the agenda. While it took four years to adopt the CAT6 and ISO Class E norms, it can be safely assumed that the new standards will be more quickly accepted.
Among technicians and manufacturers there is confusion regarding the impact of these new standards on testing equipment. This article aims to shed light on the current state of testers and where we go from here, including where the new standards will take the testing industry.
Higher Frequency Ranges
As a result of the new standards, the major difference in field-testing equipment will be an increase in bandwidth. For CAT6a and ISO Class Ea the bandwidth will be extended from 1–250 MHz to 1–500 MHz. For ISO Class Fa the measuring range will be increased from 1–600 MHz to 1–1000 MHz. This boost in bandwidth establishes a new definition of accuracy for measuring instruments. For CAT6a / ISO Class Ea there will be a new Level IIIe accuracy specification class and for ISO Class Fa a new Level IVe definition.
It is worth noting that Level IV and Level IVe are downwardly compatible to Level IIIe. In practice, this means that any currently used Level IV CAT7 test device is suitable for CAT6a or ISO Class Ea. Of course, some threshold values will change to accommodate the future 10 gigabit application function. However, this is "only" a software problem for programming the correct threshold value curves in each case.
The manufacturers of field-testing hardware will take these changes in standardization into consideration through corresponding firmware updates. Under the new design standards, so-called "CAT6" testing devices with Level III accuracy are unfortunately no longer acceptable for certification purposes. However, certification instruments for CAT6a / ISO Class Ea/Fa applications are now available.
