LIB-4400/4424 Installation Guide
| MANUAL Page 50 of 65
now specified to 500 MHz. To reach this frequency, Category 6A or better balanced twisted pair cables
specified in ISO/IEC 11801 amendment 2 or ANSI/TIA-568-C.2 are needed to carry 10GBASE-T up to
distances of 100 m. Category 6 cables can carry 10GBASE-T for shorter distances when qualified
according to the guidelines in ISO TR 24750 or TIA-155-A. 10GBASE-T cables and connectors are
similar to, but not the same as the cables used for 1000BASE-T.10GBASE-T cables are Cat6a (Category
6 augmented), also known as Class EA cables. These support the higher frequencies required for 10Gb
transmission up to 100 meters (330 feet). Cables must be certified to at least 500MHz to ensure
10GBASE-T compliance. Cat7 (Category 7, Class F) cable is also certified for 10GBASE-T compliance,
and is typically deployed in Europe. Cat6 cables may work in 10GBASE-T deployments up to 55m, but
should be tested first. Some newer 10GbE switches support 10GBASE-T (RJ45) connectors.
SFP+
10 gigabit Ethernet (10GE or 10GbE or 10 GigE) refers to various technologies for transmitting Ethernet
frames at a rate of 10 gigabits per second (10×109 or 10 billion bits per second), first defined by the IEEE
802.3ae-2002 standard. Its adoption has been more gradual than previous revisions of Ethernet: in 2007,
one million 10GbE ports were shipped, in 2009 two million ports were shipped, and in 2010 over three
million ports were shipped.
Like previous versions of Ethernet, 10GbE supports both copper and fibre cabling. However, due to its
higher bandwidth requirements, higher-grade copper cables are required: category 6a or Class
F/Category 7 cables for links up to 100m. Unlike previous Ethernet standards, 10 gigabit Ethernet defines
only full duplex point-to-point links which are generally connected by network switches. Half duplex
operation and hubs do not exist in 10GbE.
The 10 gigabit Ethernet standard encompasses a number of different physical layer (PHY) standards. A
networking device may support different PHY types through pluggable PHY modules, such as those
based on SFP+. At the time that the 10 gigabit Ethernet standard was developed, interest in 10GbE as a
wide area network (WAN) transport led to the introduction of a WAN PHY for 10GbE. The WAN PHY
encapsulates Ethernet packets in SONET OC-192c frames and operates at a slightly slower data-rate
(9.95328 Gbit/s) than the local area network (LAN) PHY. Both share the same physical medium-
dependent sublayers so can use the same optics.
The WAN PHY can support maximum link distances up to 80 km depending on the fibre standard
employed.
To Next Page
Loading...