Taking on a myth about IP convergence and cabling

In his latest blog post, CommScope Enterprise Solutions' director of channel development and training James Donovan addresses what he calls "a myth in the infrastucture market" concerning IP convergence and structured cabling.

The myth, he says, is that one of IP convergence's prime benefits is the need for less cabling. The post encourages network managers to focus on convergence's other benefits because the "fewer cables" mantra could leave them short of the infrastructure support their networks will need.

"IP applications mean a 'single type of cable,' but not necessarily a 'single cable,'" Donovan advises.

You can read his entire blog post here.

Social Security is more messed up than you think

As a Generation Xer who cynically believes that each year I get farther away from retirement rather than closer to it, I long ago gave up on the notion that I will ever receive a Social Security payment from the United States government. In that vein, recently I began watching the Frontline episode entitled Can You Afford to Retire? Even though it was produced before the global economic meltdown of 2008, the program seemed to do a prescient job of offering gloom-and-doom to Baby Boomers and the generations that follow them.

I say "seemed to do" because I was unable to stay awake for the show's entirety. I'm thankful that my three children exhaust me to the point of collapse on a regular basis because, had I mustered the energy to watch the rest of that Frontline episode, I bet I would have been unable to sleep afterward.

Before this turns into a political rant, which is not what you came here for, I told the above story because even if I did have a high level of confidence in our country's Social Security Administration (SSA), that optimism would have been dashed after reading some of the testimony recently given to a joint Congressional subcommittee concerning the state of the SSA's data center.

In early February the SSA's deputy commissioner of systems Kelly Croft described the unsightly scene beneath the raised floor of the administration's National Computer Center (NCC).

After explaining that it may soon be impossible to find replacement parts for the NCC's custom-made uninterruptible power supply, Croft said, "We face even more fundamental problems at the NCC, such as tangled and overcrowded telecommunications and electrical cables beneath the data center floor. Tangled cables can block the underfloor airflow that cools our servers, and we cannot work on the cables safely without shutting down the affected systems.

"Similarly," he noted, "troubleshooting problems is difficult when we cannot isolate cable pairs easily to determine whether the problems exist in the cables or in the IT equipment. There is also an elevated risk of data corruption, because electromagnetic interference from the electrical wires that are located too close to the telecommunications wires can distort data transmission."

Plans for the SSA's new data center apparently are already pretty far behind schedule. Even though I'm not expecting a Social Security payment anytime in the future, I'm concerned for those receiving payments today and the state of the information systems that, if they crashed, I have to believe would put those payments in peril at least temporarily.

I think it'd be worthwhile to alert my Congressional representatives to the sad condition of the SSA's data center, as well as the potential ramifications of an outage of any duration. Maybe you'll consider doing the same.

Dissing fiber? Me?

Recently I had the opportunity to break bread with a handful of professionals who are fully immersed in the business of fiber-optic cabling systems for local area networks. (Read: A vendor that sells fiber systems took me out to lunch.) As the conversation wound down and we were all about to be late for our next appointments, a member of the group offered me an, "Oh, by the way ..." message. It was from another member of the organization who was unable to be present at the meeting, although I now wonder if it was one of those thinly veiled questions asked on behalf of "a friend." Regardless, the message was that this friend was taken aback by the scant few mentions of fiber-optic technologies I included when I assessed the 10 most compelling cabling stories of last year.

At that moment, I was taken aback by the observation. What? I'm being accused of dissing fiber? Couldn't be. But then I mentally scanned through the stories I chose as the biggest of 2010, and the focuses of those stories. Price of copper? Check. 10GBase-T? Check. Increasing the density of the RJ-45? Check? Wireless? Check!

I guess maybe there was some justification for the feeling of disrespect among those who advocate the use of fiber-optic systems, and do so because of their genuine faith in the medium's superiority over other options.

In all fairness, fiber did make its way onto the list in a couple ways. The OM4 standard was mentioned, as were the fiber-rich outside-plant cabling projects taking place with funding from the Broadband Stimulus Act.

But it was the final item on that top-10 list where I apparently did a good job of hiding fiber-optic cabling. I rolled up a number of items under the heading "continuous improvement." The reason I chose that theme as one of last year's top stories is that virtually anytime we posted on our Web site information about a practical resource relating to fiber optics, it was eagerly consumed. By "resource," I mean a reference to a fiber-optic text book or training. The single-page poster on fiber safety produced by The Fiber Optic Association was a particularly big hit. In that sense, fiber was among the most popular topics of 2010.

My hypothesis is that fiber-optic cable as a medium is a stable technology. Its users don't have to "plug and pray" that it will work. So you don't see dozens of articles along the lines of "How to make sure your fiber-optic cabling system will successfully transmit 10-Gbit Ethernet." Looking at the hands-on installation of fiber is where it gets more interesting. I believe many installers are paying more attention to fiber than they had before. For some, perhaps for the first time. Based not on scientific polling but rather on a "finger-in-the-air" approach, I believe that many contracting firms used to have one or more fiber-optic installation specialists on staff. Many of these specialist positions were cut once the economic collapse of 2008 took hold. And now the situation is an example of the jobless recovery we're experiencing. Professionals with fiber-optic installation expertise are not being hired back, and now that - dare I say it? - demand for fiber systems is picking up, installers and technicians with lots of experience in copper cabling but little if any in fiber cabling are looking for all the information they can get.

What I'd really like to hear is your experience from the real world. How close to reality is my assessment?

Guest Blog: Good start to BIMMF debate, but it may be prudent to wait

by Eric Leichter, manager of training and technology, CommScope

I appreciate the balanced view that an industry publication like Cabling Installation & Maintenance offers by providing two sides of the bend-insensitive multimode fiber (BIMMF) story. In its January issue, the magazine published two articles that provide opposing viewpoints on this topic. The first article, Compatibility issues with bend-insensitive and standard multimode, warned that a higher connection loss could be seen when matching legacy and BIMMF. The second article, The facts about BIMMF, did not disagree with this claim, stating, "... differences in designs in BIMMF result in differnces in performance." The article went on to describe the deficiencies in some of these designs. After reading and digesting both, a key takeaway for me was that there is no standard that can make a user of these technologies certain of what performance to expect.

Both TIA and IEC have formed working groups to further investigate this new technology; however, it may take some time for the industry to properly define the performance characteristics of a "standard" BIMMF and to develp the new test procedures that will likely be required. Today's test procedures were developed for a traditional graded-index profile fiber and may not be relevant for fibers with a trench profile. "Testing" can include factory testing by the manufacturer (i.e. core diamter, numerical aperture or bandwidth) or testing in the field by an installer (i.e. source, type of patch cord fiber and mandrel to use). Beyond the unknown timing of BIMMF standards, it is also not possible to say now which, if any, of the available BIMMFs will be compliant to a new standard.

It may be best simply to continue to focus on system performance, as high bandwidth and low bit error rates are the keys to high data throughput. For this, we already have standards-based OM3 and OM4 fibers that provide 100G performance. Today, there's no real need to look any further.

CommScope has authored two white papers that explore the issue in further depth. You can access one white paper here and the other one here.

Eric Leichter, CommScope's manager of training and technology, also blogs on CommScope's website. You can see his CommScope blog here.

While TE was buying, TI was selling

At the same time Tyco Electronics (soon to be known as TE Connectivity) was finalizing its purchase of ADC, Tyco International (which I'll call TI here just because I'm calling the other one TE) was finalizing the sale a majority interest in its electrical and metal products busines to a private-equity firm.

TE and TI are separate entities.

In late December TI sold a 51% stake in that business to Clayton Dubilier & Rice LLC. The agreement was announced in November. TI will receive total cash proceeds of approximately $720 million, the VC firm said in an announcement that the deal was completed.

The business will operate as a standalone entity under the name Atkore International. It designs, manufactures and sells galvanized steel tubes and pipes, electrical conduit, armored wire and cable, metal framing systems and building components. Products are sold under brand names including Allied Tube & Conduit, AFC Cable Systems, Eastern Wire and Conduit, Unistrut and Cope.

One person's resolution for 2011: Steal cable

Perhaps trying to keep up with the one entity that is rumored to have possession of half the world's copper, another entity in Richmond, Kentucky took advantage of the quiet New Year's weekend to make off with 3,100 feet of copper cable from an AT&T facility there.

WKYT in Richmond reports that the thief cut through a chain-link fence then broke through locks on the racks that secured the cable. The cable was valued at approximately $7,600.

One particularly compassionate commenter to the WKYT story regretted that the fence was not electrified. "THEN THE UNDERTAKER COULD MAKE SOME MONEY," the commenter wrote (in all caps, of course). "IF IT DON'T BELONG TO YOU, LEAVE IT WHERE YOU FIND IT."

Hear, hear.

CommScope shareholders overwhelmingly approve Carlyle merger

CommScope has reported that 99 percent of the shares voting at a special stockholder meeting held December 30 voted in favor of the adoption of the company's merger with The Carlyle Group.

That overwhelming majority represented 74 percent of CommScope's total outstanding shares of common stock as of the December 3 record date.

CommScope's prediction that its Carlyle Group merger would take place in Q1 2011 looks to be right on track.