Zone wiring can carry multiple high-speed signals on copper

TORONTO -- AT&T has developed a way to use a single high speed copper cable
to carry -- error-free -- multiple, simultaneous high speed data signals
for dissimilar applications. The company demonstrated its zone cabling
solution between six workstations during the Building Industry Consultants
Society International's (BICSI) summer conference held earlier this month
in Toronto.

In the demo, an AT&T SYSTIMAX Structured Cabling System (SCS) 2061A 25
pair, Category 5 cable, using insulation made of Teflon fluoropolymer
resin networked six workstations. Two of the terminals were operating
interactive video using video adapter cards, two others accessed each
other to receive video files, and two were handling two-way file
transfers.

Commercially available, cabling components and field test instruments were
used in the demo.

Normal measurement procedures confirmed that AT&T's structured cabling
system will support multiple transmissions of 155 megabits per second
(Mb/s) ATM, meeting -- or exceeding -- most global building wiring
standards including EIA/TIA 568A. The AT&T system also exceeds ISO-1801
Generic Cabling link specifications as well as proposed TIA TSB-67
performance specifications for field testing of UTP cabling systems.

Zone cabling architecture, a method of open office wiring, was used. This
cabling scheme is well-suited to evolving technologies and changing
networking needs of specialized work group areas and open offices designed
to accommodate modular furniture.

Until now, zone wiring had not been shown to meet the needs of high speed
data transport. Using this cabling configuration, horizontal cabling is
divided into a section where permanent cables run from the
telecommunications closet to a second section establishing a cluster, or
group of work areas, or zones.

"AT&T's zone cabling solutions will give our customers a unique set of
options for supporting high speed LAN technology," explained Jack
Horenkamp, director, R&D for SYSTIMAX SCS, Middletown, N.J.

"All LAN administrators appreciate the importance of cost and space savings
in telecommunications wiring closets and cabling spaces. With this cable,
only one, 25-pair cable, rather than six, 4-pair cables are needed,
thereby decreasing installation time. Moves, adds, and changes are also
simplified," he said.

Customers who want additional information on AT&T's SYSTIMAX Structured
Cabling System (SCS) 2061A 25 pair Category 5 cable should contact their
nearest AT&T sales representative or distributor by calling
1-800-344-0223., ext. 5066; or, customers may write to AT&T, at 505 N.
51st Avenue, Phoenix, Az. 85043..

Customers in Canada may call 1-416-756-5245, or write to AT&T Canada 3650
Victoria Park Avenue, Suite 800, Willowdale, Ontario M2H3P7.

For inquiries from other countries, customers should call 1-602-233-5895.

COMPONENTS USED IN THE DEMONSTRATION

To accomplish the zone wiring physical linkage, AT&T used typical
unshielded twisted pair (UTP) links built from AT&T SYSTIMAX Structured
Cabling System (SCS) HIGH-5 product family. This product offering is
comprised of 2061A 25-pair, enhanced Category 5 UTP cable.

The cable uses AT&T's patented, pair twist scheme as well as insulation
made of TEFLON fluoropolymer resin from DuPont. The cable ensures
excellent electrical performance so that multiple signals can be mixed in
the same cable without loss of data integrity. It exceeds stringent
Category 5 requirements including power sum crosstalk as outlined in the
EIA/TIA 568A standard.

Other AT&T components used were: D8AU line cords; a zone box housing M100
Category 5 information outlets; 110 patch cords and connector system
apparatus.

Other equipment in the demo included a Bay Networks' LattisCell ATM switch
and SBus adapter cards. These give customers the benefits of switched
virtual circuit (SVC) connectivity and reduces network administration for
LANs.

The LattisCell ATM switch was connected with a 100-meter link using 2061A
25-pair category 5 UTP cable to 6 Sun SPARC-2 workstations. The
workstations represented an office work area. Each workstation used a Bay
Networks UTP SONET STSc-3 adapter card providing connectivity to the ATM
network. The UTP interfaces are compatible with the Letter Ballot Draft of
the ATM Forum specification for running 155 Mb/s SONET STSc-3 on Category
5 UTP. This specification defines a two level NRZ encoding scheme for use
with Category 5 cabling systems.
 
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