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Overview & History

Industry Evolution

In a 1984 court decision the Bell operating system was forced to
breakup, "divest" into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies
(RBOCs) Among many other things, this divestiture meant that
customer would now own, and be responsible for the telephone cabling
inside their buildings.

The early 1980's also saw the birth of the personal computer (PC). As
the capabilities of the PC grew, companies quickly realized the potential
benefits if these machines could be networked together. IBM, Digital,
Hewlett Packard and others, seized this opportunity and developed
systems, known as local area networks (LANs) to do just that.

As LANs have flourished, the desire for faster transmission of larger
quantities of data for applications such as video conferencing, and
CAD/CAM imaging, continues to grow. This has driven the networking
industry to continually introduce new, higher performing products.
These faster networks need cable infrastructures that are capable of
supporting them.

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Networking Over UTP

As technology advanced, it was determined that both voice and data,
transmissions could be done over "phone wire", however, data needed
really good phone wire. Voice transmissions use a single pair of UTP
wires located in the center of a 4, 6, or 8 conductor modular jack. If two
line or commercial phones are in use, the four center positions (for two
pairs) of the jack are utilized. This procedure follows a wiring scheme
used by AT&T called USOC, or Universal Service Order Code.

In 1985, a networking protocol called Token Ring was developed by
IBM which also transmitted over these same two pair. Token ring was
fast for its day, transmitting information at 4 Mbps and later increasing
to 16 Mbps.

1989 brought about the form of networking technology most widely
used even today - 10 BaseT Ethernet. 10BaseT means that it transmits
data at 10 Mbps, using baseband signaling over unshielded twisted
pair. 10BaseT uses two pairs for transmission on pins 1,2,3,and 6 of an
8 position (R J45)jack.

Today, Ethernet is still the protocol of choice, and many advancements
are being made in its performance. Gigabit Ethernet (1000Base T) is
right around the comer, and to get this performance, very high quality
UTP is required and all four pairs will be used for transmission. Industry Evolution

In a 1984 court decision the Bell operating system was forced to
breakup, "divest" into seven Regional Bell Operating Companies
(RBOCs) Among many other things, this divestiture meant that
customer would now own, and be responsible for the telephone cabling
inside their buildings.

The early 1980's also saw the birth of the personal computer (PC). As
the capabilities of the PC grew, companies quickly realized the potential
benefits if these machines could be networked together. IBM, Digital,
Hewlett Packard and others, seized this opportunity and developed
systems, known as local area networks (LANs) to do just that.

As LANs have flourished, the desire for faster transmission of larger
quantities of data for applications such as video conferencing, and
CAD/CAM imaging, continues to grow. This has driven the networking
industry to continually introduce new, higher performing products.
These faster networks need cable infrastructures that are capable of
supporting them.

Recognized a Need for Standards

In 1985, the EIA, responding to concerns expressed by members of the
computer and telecomm unications industries, developed working
groups to address the lack of standards for telecommunications cabling
systems. These working groups eventually became part of the
Telecomm unication Industry Association (TIA) and the TIA/EIA
designation was adopted.

In the late 1980's Anixter, the largest data communications distributor,
developed the levels program as a purchasing specification to define
the transmission requirements for telecommunications cabling. These
requirements were adopted by the TIA/EIA and have become the
category classification system we are familiar with today.

The Building Industry Consulting Services International, (BICSI) a
leading telecommunications industry association has furthered the
standards effort by promoting standard design and installation methods.
They provide installer and designer certification programs to promote
adherence to these methods.

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Why Standards?


in the early days of computer networking, components were not always
made to be compatible with the equipment that preceded it. This meant
that upgrading your system usually involved replacing your computing
hardware. In addition to this, the first systems were proprietary and
used their own cabling schemes. This forced customers to pull new
cable when they changed their hardware. This lack of flexibility made
reconfiguring computer networks difficult and costly.

The development of the TIA/EIA standards created structured cabling
systems (SCS). This method of cabling allows the end user the
flexibility of using anyone's networking hardware. This is also called
"Open System Architecture".

One of the most important benefits the standards provide are the
performance criteria for cables and connectors. These criteria give us
the benchmark comparison used to certify an installation.

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Codes vs Standards


Codes are rules that Electricians live with every day. Your life and that
of your customer depends on workmanship and practices that are in
accordance with the National Electdc Code.

TIA Standards are not code, and they're not enforced by any governing
agency. The Standards are created by users, manufacturers, and
consultants in the industry to promote uniform design criteria for
telecommunications systems. While there is no "network police"
following you around to ensure compliance with the Standards. Today
nearly every bid includes a requirement for cable certification that
proves compliance to the latest TINEIA standard as part of the
specification.

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Standards

The documents that make up the standards for building
telecommunication cabling infrastructures are TINEIA 568-B, 569-A,
570-A, 606, and 607.
TINEIA568-B was ratified in the spring of 2001. It replaces any of the
standards that came before.

Copies of the TIN/EIA Standards can be obtained through:
Global Engineering Documents ( www.global.ihs.com )

1-800-854-7179

Distance limitations when running cable:

The distance limitations for backbone cable depend on the type of cable
being used, and/or the application of the cable. The following gives
distance limitations for each cable type.

Multi-pair Unshielded Twisted Pair

800 Meters (2625 FT) Voice

90 Meters (295 FT) Data MultiMode Fiber Optic Cable

2000 Meters (6560 FT) Voice and Data

Single-Mode Fiber Optic Cable

3000 Meters (9840 FT) Voice and Data