IER Trade, Sept 2004

By Matt Porter

A high percentage of so-called Category 6 compliant systems are not Category 6 compliant, - and Kedington has the test results to prove it! “This is the story that the industry does not want you to acknowledge,” writes Matt Porter of the Kedington Group.

“We have written hundreds of articles in the past, but we always stopped short of this one. However, I am spurred on by my memories as a consulting engineer, when I would get angry with colleagues from within the industry for not releasing important information about products and installers to enable us to specify the correct products and installers, so as to ensure the client got the best value for money.”

Many of these so-called Category 6 systems come with approved installers, warranties, test results, statements of Category 6 compliance...but they do not comply with the industry standards! Furthermore, I would say it is almost impossible for you (on the fringe of the IT structured cabling industry) to find this out, unless it is disclosed from within.

Amazingly, almost 60% of those systems tested failed to comply with the industry standards! The fact is that over a year after the standards have been ratified there are still companies struggling to comply fully with the Category 6 channel requirements; 30% of the systems tested even failed the most basic Near End Crosstalk (NEXT) and Return Loss (RL) tests.

Check the Fine Print

So how the companies get away with saying that their systems ‘comply’? The answer, as always, is in the fine print. If you look at the fine print you will see references to words such as ‘typical performance, average – worst case, margin over standard, typical average, sample results, independent labs verified’. What you will not see is the word ‘guaranteed’ and you will not see the name of a reputable test laboratory.

Consider the following statement, commonly used to ‘bend the truth’ in support of false statements of compliance with the Category 6 specification:

• We make our own product, write our own warranty, test our own product...and by the way, it is Category 6 compliant!

• We buy different products, put them together, badge them with the same name, sell them as a ‘system’, test them ourselves...and by the way, they are compliant!

• We select ‘sample’ product and sent it for independent testing...and by the way, the bit we sent passed, therefore it is all compliant!

What we should see (and can see if you are in know like Kedington!) is the company saying:

• We have requested a certain reputable test laboratory (the name will be stated and well-know globally) to independently test our product. We have not sent them a ‘selected’ piece of product as a sample, but rather we have asked them to purchase our product anywhere in the world on the open market and test it themselves. At a glance you can easily see there is a world of difference between the four statements above. We at Kedington know how you can avoid being fooled. There are only two elements that you need to make sure you get right:

One without the other will lead to tears. The simplest of pre-qualifier questionnaires (and Kedington will gladly provide one) will flush out the men from the boys. Beware of false truths and half-truths in answers to the questionnaires and do your own homework to check that the answers are correct. This, as you know, will lead to a successful network and value for money.

20 Year Life spans

Remember, the cabling system will probably have a life of 20 years, during which time the software will change every three years, the PCs every four years, and the LAN switching every five years – each change placing ever-increasing demands on the cabling infastructure.

Your recommendation regarding the cabling infrastructure today will impact on your client’s operational efficiency for the next 20 years. We know from various studies that downtime can cost clients thousands of Euros every month.

The fact is that the industry is at a crossroads. The market is flooded with cheap systems and semi-skilled/poorly trained installers, and they are trying to fool everyone with their ‘compliant’ stories. This is the talk of our trade. At the same time, the world has already moved away from slow and forgiving 10Mbps networks to the faster and more onerous 100Mbps networks – and we are about to witness the next step to 1,000Mbps.

Category 6 networks should support all three speeds (10, 100 and 1,000Mbps) but some of them will not, while others do not have enough headroom to guarantee that the network will operate properly! There are numerous cases of problems regarding this shift to the faster speed and every day we hear of another problem. Only recently we tested a site (previously tested, passed and ‘certified’ as Category 6 compliant) and over 70% of the points failed. Yet another client was sent away to read the ‘fine print’ of his warranty in the hope that he can resolve a very serious problem for his business – and we doubt if his warranty will say anything meaningful.

The fact is that Category 6 UTP is about to be pushed to its outer limits with 1,000Mbps speeds (and 10,0000Mbps cable platforms will be out before the end of this year!). These are not speeds that poorly engineered products can support and poorly trained installers can deliver. Last year we read with interest as one leading global manufacture told us that 1% error re-transmissions can cause your network to drop by 80% of its capacity. Who would accept this return on an investment ....a network working at 20% of its designed capability? This is not value for money.

If you consider for a moment the problems that 100Mbps switches are experiencing on some so-called Category 6 compliant networks, what do you think will happen when those networks are asked to support 1,000Mbps speeds? They simply will not work – and 1,000Mbps systems are already here! One of our clients has over 650 computers on his network today, all working at 1,000Mbps (1Gbps). Thankfully, he invested in a good product – and a good contractor! We believe that a high percentage of the networks in Ireland that are certified to support 1,000Mbps will fail to do so properly when clients purchase the already available 1,000Mbps electronic switches over the next few years.

Knowing the Difference

Your task is not easy, however your clients rely on you to make the right decisions. They rely on you to know (or find out) the differences between the available products and installers. At Kedington, we have worked arduously to bring the best of breed products and methods of installation to the forefront of our industry in Ireland. We will continue to lead the way and provide ‘certified’ networks that are guaranteed to deliver ‘exactly what they say on the tin’!

We are pleased to be able to continue to support you with information about our products, our industry and the standards, and we will continue to assist you in whatever way we can in the design and implementation of quality compliant cabling systems for your clients.

Watch this space for the 10,000Mbps cabling systems that we will have available at the end of the year!

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