During a web seminar that updated viewers on goings-on within several cabling-standards-making organizations, Nexans’ technical manager for standards and technology Paul Vanderlaan explained that the TIA TR-42.7 Subcommittee has selected “Category 8” as the nomenclature for the next-generation twisted-pair cabling specifications they are in the early stages of developing.
The seminar was held live on October 24 and will be available for on-demand viewing through late April. It was hosted by Cabling Installation & Maintenance, which asked Vanderlaan to provide the latest-available information from TR-42.7 as well as other standards-making groups including ISO IEC JTC1 SC25 WG3 and the IEEE.
The most recent TR-42.7 meeting was held the week of October 1, and Vanderlaan stressed in the presentation that progress on the next-generation twisted-pair cabling specifications is in its earliest stages. One bullet point from Vanderlaan’s presentation effectively sums up that reality:
- All electrical parameters have TBD values
While no “definites” could be stated, Vanderlaan did say that the alien-crosstalk performance values being discussed suggest that Category 8 will be a shielded system. He also added that the anticipated connector interface will be the RJ-45, but the prospect of backward-compatibility of Cat 8 to previous-generation Category RJ-45 interfaces is not guaranteed.
Vanderlaan’s presentation was one of three delivered during the seminar. The others covered developments in the standardization of bend-insensitive multimode fiber (delivered by OFS’s David Mazzarese) and an overview of the TIA-942-A standard as well as the continuing development of the first addendum to it (presented by CommScope’s Masood Shariff).
You can register for, and immediately view, the web seminar in its entirety here.
Reports from TIA’s TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems Engineering Committee and its subcommittees, including TR-42.7, can be accessed from the TIA website here.
