CCNA – Semester1

Module 4
Cable Testing

Objectives

• Basic definitions regarding cable testing

• Issues relating to the testing of media
 Background for Studying
Frequency-Based Cable
Testing

Waves

• A wave is energy traveling from one place to

another.
• Networking professionals are specifically
interested in voltage waves on copper media,
light waves in optical fiber, and alternating
electric and magnetic fields called
electromagnetic waves.
Analog signals

• Continuous voltage
• Voltage varies as time progresses
• Typical of things in nature
• Many encodings possible

Digital signals

• Discret, not continuous

• Can only have one or two voltage states
• Voltage jumps between 2 levels
• Made up of particular sine waves
Decibels

• The decibel (dB) is a measurement unit important in

describing networking signals.
• There are two formulas for calculating decibels:
dB = 10 log10 (Pfinal / Pref)
dB = 20 log10 (Vfinal / Vreference)
• dB measures the loss or gain of the power of a wave.
• Typically, light waves on optical fiber and radio waves in
the air are measured using the power formula.
Electromagnetic waves on copper cables are measured
using the voltage formula.

Viewing signals in time and frequency

• Analyzing signals using an oscilloscope is

called time-domain analysis
• Graphs voltage over time
• X-axis represents T, Y-axis represents V, may
observe and compare 2 waves at once
Fourier synthesis

Noise
• Nearby cable carrying electric
signal
• Radio frequency interference
(RFI), which is noise from
other signals being transmitted
nearby
• Electromagnetic interference
(EMI), which is noise from
nearby sources such as
motors and lights
• Laser noise at the transmitter
or receiver of an optical signal
Narrowband Interference and white noise

• Noise that affects all transmission frequencies

equally is called white noise.
• Noise that only affects small ranges of
frequencies is called narrowband interference.

Bandwidth

• Bandwidth is an extremely important concept in

communications systems. Two ways of
considering bandwidth that are important for the
study of LANs are analog bandwidth and digital
bandwidth.
• Analog bandwidth typically refers to the
frequency range of an analog electronic system.
• Digital bandwidth measures how much
information can flow from one place to another
in a given amount of time.
 Signals and Noise

Signaling over copper and fiber optic cabling

• On copper cable, data signals are represented by

voltage levels that represent binary ones and zeros.
• The voltage levels are measured with respect to a
reference level of ground volt at both the transmitter and
the receiver.
• Fiber optic cable is used to transmit data signals by
increasing and decreasing the intensity of light to
represent binary ones and zeros.
• In order for the LAN to operate properly, the receiving
device must be able to accurately interpret the binary
ones and zeros transmitted as signal levels.
Attenuation loss on copper media
• Attenuation is the decrease in signal amplitude over the length of a
link.
– Long cable lengths and high signal frequencies contribute to greater signal
attenuation.
– The resistance of the copper cable converts some of the electrical energy of
the signal to heat.
– Signal energy is also lost when it leaks through the insulation of the cable
and by impedance caused by defective connectors.

Impedance Discontinuity

• If a connector is improperly installed on Cat5, it will have

a different impedance value than the cable. This is called
an impedance discontinuity or an impedance mismatch.
• Impedance mismatch cause attenuation and jitter as a
portion of signal will be reflected back to the
transmitting device.
• The combination of the effects of signal attenuation and
impedance discontinuities is called insertion loss.
Types of crosstalk

• Near-end Crosstalk
(NEXT)

• Far-end Crosstalk (FEXT)

• Power Sum Near-end

Crosstalk (PSNEXT)

Cable testing standards

• Wire map
• Insertion loss
• Near-end crosstalk (NEXT)
• Power sum near-end crosstalk (PSNEXT)
• Equal-level far-end crosstalk (ELFEXT)
• Power sum equal-level far-end crosstalk (PSELFEXT)
• Return loss
• Propagation delay
• Cable length
• Delay skew
Cable Testing Standard

Wiring Fault
Other test parameters

Testing optical fiber

• Fiber links are subject to the optical equivalent

of UTP impedance discontinuities.
• The main concern with a fiber link is the
strength of the light signal that arrives at the
receiver.
A new standard

• On June 20, 2002, the Category 6 (or Cat 6)

addition to the TIA-568 standard was published,
called ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1.
• This new standard specifies the original set of
performance parameters that need to be tested
for Ethernet cabling as well as the passing
scores for each of these tests.

Lab Companion

• 3.1.9 UTP Cable Construction

• 4.2.1 Fluke 620 Cable Tester
Summary

• Sine waves and square waves

• Analog bandwidth and digital bandwidth
• Signals over copper and fiber optic
• Attenuation loss, impedence discontinuty,
crosstalk
• Wiring faults
• Cable testing standards