Cat 8 cable development and test process described
June 7, 2013
The Category 8 cable development process started with a design concept.
Official contributors to the IEEE 802 group's recent official "Category 8 Cabling Demonstration" (Nov. 2012) included Paul Kish of Belden, Antoine Pelletier of Intertek (ETL), Wayne Larsen and Richard Mei of Commscope, and Theodore Brillhart of Fluke Networks.
The contributors stated that the Category 8 cable development process started with a design concept. Known design parameters such as R, G, L and C and known empirical and materials parameters are being used to size the cable's construction for performance at targeted transmission speeds. Ongoing prototypes will explore further design options. Transmission performance is being compared with expected results for all parameters. Several design iterations later, the cable's design was said to be refined to where all targeted results have been functionally achieved.
The group's test summary for Category 8 F/UTP cable revealed that the cabling uses outer shielding, but does not have individually shielded pairs. The cable is round with a diameter less than 0.300" (<7.62mm). Smooth transmission performance up to 2000 MHz is virtually assured.
The group noted that a perceivable NEXT spike at 200/250MHz is a known and understood cabling design parameter that will be addressed in forthcoming prototype iterations. The contributors said that the cable's low frequency RL margin is known to be related to impedance centering. Additionally, a certain high frequence IL roughness was attributed to known process parameters that will be addressed in future prototypes.
