More than anything else, I’d like to open this, my first editorial as Connector Specifier’s chief editor, with a statement of appreciation for the opportunity to serve the connectivity industry. For years, I have observed this publication mostly from a parallel plane, but from time to time intersecting with it-and in all cases, being fascinated by the industry and the technology that drives it forward.
For the last several years, I have been on staff at Cabling Installation & Maintenance (CI&M) magazine, which could be considered a sister publication of Connector Specifier. Both are published by PennWell Corp. and come out of the company’s Advanced Technology Division in Nashua, NH. More importantly, both publications are keenly tuned in to connectivity technologies of different sorts. CI&M concerns itself by and large with communications cabling in customer-owned networks. It pretty much hangs around at Layer 1 of the OSI Network Model, and terms like Ethernet and Internet Protocol are part of its everyday lexicon. “Structured cabling” is the term most commonly used to describe the collective set of products and technologies that make up the publication’s area of focus.
Connectivity technology is in some ways the prime mover in the structured cabling realm. Engineers tell me it’s relatively easy to manufacture an unshielded twisted-pair cable that meets a specific performance level, such as Category 6, or the latest, Augmented Category 6. But creating RJ-45-type plugs and jacks that are interoperable with other manufacturers’ RJ-45s, and backward-compatible with previous-generation connectors, is quite another story.
So, while connectivity is not the quickest-in fact, it’s typically the slowest-technology developed, a structured cabling system can’t reach a given level of performance until the connectivity is in place.
The optical side of the equation is in some ways simpler, and in other ways more complicated. Extremely low-loss fiber connectors for transporting ultra-high-speed signals are readily available. The flipside is, so many interfaces have penetrated the market for so long, users often find themselves with a heterogeneous selection of interfaces in their networks. Consequently, they frequently use mating adapters to connect dissimilar fiber interfaces to one another-potentially introducing more loss as a result.
One of the latest crazes on the cabling side of things, and something I’d like to hear more about from all of you who have an interest, is Power over Ethernet. In short, it’s a technology that sends a limited amount of Direct Current down copper data lines to power the networked device on the end of the line. Most often, those devices are IP telephones, wireless access points, or network cameras. Advocates of the technology, and there are many, point out it opens up the opportunity for the RJ-45 to be the universal interface not only for data, but for power as well. International travelers often can be identified by their stable of power adapters, each of which works only in a single country. Power over Ethernet suggests it can make such devices passé. A far-fetched, overblown claim? Sure. But it does make me stop and think about the widespread impact a connector interface can have.
This page has focused on some aspects of connectivity as they relate to structured cabling, because it’s what I know best and is the topic I’m most comfortable addressing “out of the blocks.” But I’ll couple my earlier statement of appreciation with a promise to continue the commitment of my predecessor, Valerie Coffey-to cover the connectivity industry’s many aspects, niches, and perspectives, and to do so in a manner that aims to allow you to do your job a little bit more efficiently.
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Patrick McLaughlin
Editor-in-Chief
patrick@pennwell.com
