ECE 3821 Communications Cable Characteristics-Transmission, Part A 2016

To be completed in one lab session, part B to be completed next week.

Objectives:
To determine the transmission characteristics of twisted pair transmission line as a
function of frequency including: insertion loss, phase shift, cross-talk, and the effect
of a bridged tap or parallel stub connection.

Equipment:
Computer with MATLAB
SDR-Kits, Vector Network Analyzer v3, aka VNA
VNA is permanently fitted with sma to BNC adapters
UNB Test Board which includes
- Transmitter and receiver connections
- Terminations - short circuit, open circuit, and 100 Ω
- 10 dB Attenuator
- T - connection
Cable Farm - Category 5 twisted pair cable
3 x 30 m lengths
1 x 20 m length
1 x 10 m length
Ribbon cable 4 wire (25 m)
Patch Cords - 1 m lengths of Category 5 cable for interconnections

Bring a means to store electronic data, either on a network drive or USB memory
stick.

Background:
Network communications cable, commonly CAT 5 or more recently CAT 6, is
composed of four twisted pairs of conductors located in a single sheath as shown in
Figure 1 below. Notice that each pair has a distinct color and that they are twisted at
differing rates. The color allows selection of the individual pairs for connection at
each end while the differing twist rates are used to reduce coupling between the lines.
Since these lines are packed closely together over long distances there is opportunity
for coupling from one line to the next. In addition to the transmission line properties
we have been investigating such as attenuation and phase shift we will also examine
the coupling between these parallel lines. This coupling is referred to cross-talk and
is designated as either near-end or far-end depending upon the connections.

The Test Board and VNA in combination will form the test instrument. The VNA
has an internal impedance of 50 Ω and uses coaxial cables which are unbalanced.
The Test Board provides transformers and connectors which convert the 50 Ω, one
side ground, cable to 100 Ω, neither side grounded, cable.
Figure 1 Cat 5 communications cable showing the four twisted two wire cable pairs.
With the VNA connected to the Test Board a calibration at the test board terminals
can be completed which will account for transformer losses and phase shift as well as
any non-ideal impedance variations.

The Test Board provides the capability of measuring both near end cross talk (NEXT)
and far end cross talk (FEXT). This measurement is achieved by moving the
receiver VNA coaxial cable to the indicated connector on the Test Board. This
results in one of the cable pairs being driven by the VNA while the signal on another
cable pair is measured. In ideal cable there would be no interaction between cable
pairs but in real cables there is some connection which can be measured.

Figure 2 shows an image of the Test Board while Figure 3 is the same image with the
various board functions delineated and labeled. The functions, starting from the lower
left, include: The transmit port connection which has two BNC connectors and one
RJ-45 connection. The TxD BNC connector is used for transmission measurements
while the NEXT BNC connector is used for cross talk measurements. The lower
right portion of the Test Board has similar connections but these are for normal
receive function, RxD, and for far end cross talk. The upper left portion of the board
is three RJ-45 connectors all attached in parallel which enables a T connection of
cables. The upper right portion of the board comprises the terminations labeled
SHORT, OPEN, and 100 Ω. Note that the characteristic impedance of the CAT 5
cable is 100 Ω. Finally the central portion of the Test Board is the 10 dB attenuator
with one RJ-45 connector on the top and one RJ-45 connector on the bottom.
Figure 2 Image of CAT 5 Test Board including 10 dB attenuator and terminations.

Figure 3 Image of CAT 5 Test Board showing function of each board region.
Procedure I: Insertion Loss and Phase Shift Measurement

1. Connect the VNA USB cable to the indicated port on your computer. Click on
the VNWA icon on the desktop to start the software. Then select File ->
Retrieve -> Instrument State -> Full, and select the file which you have
previously downloaded from D2L and uncompressed.

2. Select the start and stop frequencies for the measurement, the minimum is 200
kHz limited by the transformer while the cable is specified up to 200 MHz so use
that as a stop frequency.

3. Select the number of steps for the measurement to 1000 in order to capture the
large number of cycles of phase change. This change is made in Settings ->
Sweep -> Number of Data Points. In the same menu adjust the Measurement
Time to approximately 5 seconds.

4. Calibration is achieved by connecting a 1 m length of cable between the CAT 5

Test Port Out and CAT 5 Test Port In of the Test Board and measuring the
insertion loss and phase shift of the equipment alone. Under Measure -> Calibrate
select the ThruCal button to establish this reference.

5. Verification of the instrument calibration is achieved by measuring a known

attenuation which in this case is the 10 dB attenuator which should measure
within ±0.5dB of the designed 10 dB at frequencies below 10 MHz. At higher
frequencies there may be larger variations.

6. Save the measured attenuation by right-clicking on the trace indicator at the

screen bottom and selecting Export Trace to s1p. Plot this data along with the 10
dB ideal showing the ±0.5 dB error limits. What is the lowest frequency where
the measured results exceed the limits?

7. Measure and record the insertion loss and phase shift of a 100 m length of line
and note that the attenuation at 10 MHz is expected to be 6.5 dB or less. Does
your line achieve this? What are possible sources of error in your measured data?

8. A velocity of propagation of 2 x 108 m/s results in a wavelength of 20 m at the 10

MHz operating frequency. This makes the transmission line five wavelengths
long or 1800°. In order to verify that there are five cycles of the waveform on
the transmission line it will be necessary to examine the phase data from the start
frequency of 200 kHz, where the wavelength is 1000 m, up to 10 MHz. By
counting the number of discontinuities or “phase jumps” in the data the number
of cycles on the line can be determined.
9. Observe the transmission response amplitude of the system with only the T-
connector between the two 30 m line segments. It should be smooth with a
slightly increasing attenuation with increasing frequency up to the 200 MHz
limit. Record this waveform. Next, add a 1 m jumper cable to the T-connector
so as to create a 1 m stub. Observe and record the attenuation waveform.
Repeat with a 10 m, 20 m and 30 m stub length. Explain what you observe.

30 m 30 m
Tx Rx

1 m, 10 m, 20 m, 30 m

Figure 4 Transmission lines in a bridged tap configuration where the open circuited line acts as a
transmission line stub.

Note: Insertion Loss and Attenuation - There is a subtle difference between insertion
loss and attenuation that you should be aware of before continuing in the laboratory.
When measuring transmission line loss it is common to use a signal generator at one
end of the line and some form of detector at the other end. The generator and detector
each have an impedance that may or may not be equal to the characteristic impedance
of the transmission line being measured. The general case of this type of measurement
is insertion loss where the generator and detector impedances do not necessarily equal
the transmission line characteristic impedance and part of the loss will be the result of
reflections at the generator transmission line interface and at the transmission line
detector interface. Under conditions where the generator and detector impedances are
equal to the transmission line characteristic impedance then there will be no
reflections and the insertion loss becomes the line attenuation.
Procedure II. Cross-Talk
1. These measurements are similar to Procedure I except that now one twisted pair
is driven with the signal generator while the output of another pair is measured.
To do this move the VNA BNC cable from the Rx port to the NEXT port on the
Test Board.

2. Connect 100 m of CAT5 cable between the Tx port and the Rx port and record
the near end cross talk (NEXT) .

3. Connect 25 m of ribbon cable between the Tx port and the Rx port and record the
NEXT.

Questions to be completed as a group using your team’s data.

1. Using the measured insertion loss data for the 100 m cable plot the insertion loss
of the line as a function of frequency and compare to the maximum specified
values of attenuation given as

From (http://www.belden.com/techdatas/english/1583a.pdf)
PS-NEXT is Power Sum NEXT and deals with multipair cables where the effects of
multiple transmitting pairs are summed at the near end pair under test.
ELFEXT is Equal Level Far End Crosstalk which at the far end compares the signal
on an adjacent pair to the signal on the driven pair. That is, it takes into account
cable attenuation.
ACR – Attenuation Crosstalk Ratio
RL – Return Loss

Is this cable within specification? For distortionless transmission the attenuation

must be independent of frequency. Is this transmission line distortionless over the
measured frequency band? Is it distortionless over a portion of the band?

Using the measured phase shift data for the 100 m cable plot the phase shift as a
function of frequency. For distortionless transmission the phase shift must be a
linear function of frequency. Compare the measured phase to the ideal by plotting
a straight line through the measured data. It will be necessary to remove the phase
jumps from the data set which can be done using the MATLAB function
“unwrap” (use the phase data in radians). Is this transmission line distortionless
over the measured frequency band? Is it distortionless over a portion of the band?
Compute the propagation speed of the line from the phase shift and line length
and plot it as a function of frequency. Is the velocity of propagation constant
with frequency?

2. Plot the insertion loss of the bridge-tapped line and comment on the distortion
caused by the tap.

3. Compare your measured NEXT to the specifications in the table above.

Does this cable meet specifications? Why is NEXT an important cable

characteristic?
Appendix: Interpretation of .s1p files

Option Line
Each Touchstone data file shall contain an option line (additional option lines after the first one shall be
ignored). The option line is formatted as follows:
# <frequency unit> <parameter> <format> R <n>
where
# marks the beginning of the option line.
frequency unit specifies the unit of frequency. Legal values are Hz, kHz, MHz, and GHz. The
default value is GHz.
parameter specifies what kind of network parameter data is contained in the file. Legal
values are:
S for Scattering parameters,
Y for Admittance parameters,
Z for Impedance parameters,
H for Hybrid-h parameters,
G for Hybrid-g parameters.
The default value is S.
format specifies the format of the network parameter data pairs. Legal values are:
DB for decibel-angle (decibel = 20 × log10|magnitude|)
MA for magnitude-angle,
RI for real-imaginary.
Angles are given in degrees. Note that this format does not apply to noise
parameters (refer to the “Noise Parameter Data” section later in this
specification). The default value is MA.
R n specifies the reference resistance in ohms, where n is a real, positive number of
ohms. The default reference resistance is 50 ohms. Note that this is overridden
by the [Reference] keyword, described below, for files of [Version] 2.0 and
above.
Option line parameters are separated by one or more whitespace; the option line itself is terminated
with a
line termination sequence or character. If a parameter is missing, the default value is assumed. With the
exception of the opening # (hash mark) symbol and the value following “R”, option line parameters
may
appear in any order.
In summary, the option line should read:
For 1-port files: # [Hz|kHz|MHz|GHz] [S|Y|Z] [DB|MA|RI] [R n]
For 2-port files: # [Hz|kHz|MHz|GHz] [S|Y|Z|G|H] [DB|MA|RI] [R n]
For 3-port and beyond files: # [Hz|kHz|MHz|GHz] [S|Y|Z] [DB|MA|RI] [R n]
For mixed-mode files: # [Hz|kHz|MHz|GHz] [S|Y|Z] [DB|MA|RI] [R n]
where the square brackets (“[“, “]”) indicate optional information; ...|...|...| means to select one of the
choices; and n is replaced by a positive integer or floating-point number. Though specific cases are
used
for the units above and throughout this specification (e.g., “kHz”), Touchstone files are case-
insensitive.
The reference impedance specified in the option line applies to the network data for all ports, if
[Reference]
is not present.

Excerpt from the “Touchstone File Format Specification” 2009.