In a blog post, CommScope's director of channel development and training James Donovan outlines the potential risks that users take on when they complete their cabling channels by adding "just any" patch cords to installed permanent links. According to Donovan, even checking a patch cord's jacket for a stamp of standard-compliance does not ensure a top-notch cabling channel. As he notes, "standards specify minimum requirements only, and do not cover all the coupling and reflection effects that may occur within or between components."
Add to that Fluke Networks' recent assertion that most patch cords are only tested for wiremap, regardless of what is inkjetted on the jacket, and the perilous patch cord becomes a system component that deserves closer attention than it gets, in the opinion of many.
Donovan describes some of the measures CommScope takes to ensure its patch cords perform at the highest possible levels, and also gives an earful of what users might be in for if they are laissez faire (or, dare I say it, cheap) when it comes to patch-cord selection. Among the possible outcomes is intermittent continuity, which Donovan describes as "a network manager's worst nightmare."
You can read Donovan's complete blog post here.
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