As more building systems including lighting move to the enterprise network, LED lighting deployment is gaining popularity in commercial buildings. This type of lighting system is energy efficient, requires less maintenance and fewer lamp cha...

As one of the representatives for Belden, I attended the final TIA TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems meeting of 2017 a few weeks ago. With several industry experts in the room, many changes and updates to ANSI/TIA standards were discu...

Global IP traffic has been increasing rapidly in enterprise and consumer segments, driven by growing numbers of Internet users and connected devices, faster wireless and fixed broadband access, high-quality video streaming and social network...

With all the new technologies and products available in the data center market, it’s beneficial to plan in advance for potential changes and upgrades. No matter which option you choose, low-loss, high-bandwidth fiber cable used in conjunct...

Its been about 7 years since 802.11n Wi-Fi devices operating in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency ranges hit the market, despite the fact that the standard wasnt ratified until nearly 2 years later. But now a new generation in wireless te...

To support the expanding cloud ecosystem, optical active component vendors have designed and commercialized new transceiver types under multi-source agreements (MSAs) for different data center types; standards bodies are incorporating thes...

With the technology changes happening in todays enterprises, all types of organizations from hotels and gaming facilities to schools and offices are deploying new fiber cabling infrastructure. Before you make the leap, however, its importan...

Over the past 36 years, Ethernet has become the most adopted and widely deployed protocol in our global network infrastructures. Fixed Ethernet connections offer secure, fast, stable and consistent speeds, and easily support the download of...

Making use of fiber links in increments of 12, with 12-fiber connectors such as MPO, Base-12 connectivity was born in the mid-1990s. This innovation helped manage the growth of data center fiber infrastructure as the number of fiber port de...

Base12 connectivity has had its place in the data center for a while now, but that may soon be changing as SR4-based protocols become predominant. Making use of cables based on increments of eight instead of 12, Base8 technology features ei...

We all know that fiber cable doesnt have the capability to deliver power. So how do optical network terminals (ONTs) in a POLAN provide power over Ethernet (PoE) for phones, wireless access points (WAPs) and other PoE-enabled devices? One w...

Since it first came on the scene in July 2003 with the ratification of the IEEE 802.3af standard, Power over Ethernet (PoE) has become a must have for LAN deployments. The first iteration, Type 1, had the ability to deliver up to 15.4 W of...

What sets a quality Category 6A cable apart from the rest? There are lots of Category 6A cables out there, but some offer better design, performance and installation than others. How can you select the one that will offer the characteristic...

There are some exciting new developments in the world of BASE-T Ethernet and wireless. Last November, the IEEE 802.3 working group held a Call for Interest (CFI) on the need to develop the next generation BASE-T for wireless access points (...

Category 6A twisted-pair copper received much attention when it first hit the marketplace in 2005. But adoption has been slow, since the 10 gigabit per second (Gb/s) capacity of Category 6A exceeds the requirements of most LAN applications....

Saving space in your data center has multiple benefits: -Reducing space saves money. When you reduce the amount of space used, you also reduce the amount of power, water, lighting and cooling needed which cuts spending. -When you control sp...

Multi-Gigabit Wireless Requires High-Performance Copper Cable It may seem counterintuitive, but the proliferation of wireless in our industry hasnt led to the disappearance of wire. We may be a wireless world, but we still need wire. We may...

Not So Fast! Field crimping a plastic RJ45 plug on the end of a horizontal cable to directly connect to an IP camera or WAP (wireless application point) may seem like a great idea. After all, plastic plugs are very inexpensive. A horizontal...