Kazio Networks

There will soon be a new cabling infrastructure standard for healthcare. TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) has proposed and started work on defining new requirements for healthcare facilities e.g. hospitals and clinics/clinical environments. The standard will target topologies for cabling, cable manufacture, distance requirements, locational/routing requirements for most healthcare systems.

Areas of focus (but not limited to) would be Patient Services, Surgery/Procedure/Operating Rooms, Emergency, Ambulatory Care, Women’s Health, Diagnostic and Treatment, Caregiver, Service/Support, Facilities, Operations, and Critical Care.

The working group has recommended that “work areas” for heathcare systems are expanded (as opposed to non-heathcare infrastructure standards) and that the required permanent links for each necessary cabling established.

The standard will also support biomedical systems (RFID, BAS, nurse call, security, access control, pharmaceutical inventory, etc.) that use, or have the potential to use, IP based infrastructure systems.

This standard is developed by the TR.42 Premises Telecommunications Cabling TR-42.1 Commercial Building Cabling Subcommittee.

Be aware that Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has issued an alert on the circulation of counterfeit Systimax Cat 6 cables. It bears a counterfeit SYSTIMAX® Solutions logo, print message, label and UL Mark for the Untied States and Canada. It has the following descriptions: “SYSTIMAX® SOLUTIONS, GigaSPEED® XL Cable, Communications Cable, 1000 Feet, No. 1069.”

The quantity currently in circulation is unknown and is distributed by Ke Jie Electronic Appliance Store, Booth G241, Zone B, Pacific Computer Market, Tianhe District, Guangzhou B G241 CHINA.

We can’t stress enough the importance of using cables that conform to particular category specifications. The criticality of using counterfeit cables within Industrial environments is a definite show stopper. It could result in catastrophic occurrences as the cables may not withstand or perform within its category specifications.

Systimax® is the flagship brand of Commscope.

(Image Source: http://www.ul.com)

TIA (Telecommunications Industry Association) has released the TIA-568-C.0/ C.1 standard. This replaces the older (but commonly used) TIA-568-B.1 and its addenda.

The standards doc. TIA-568-C.0 and C.1 will be combined with the TIA-568-C.3 Fiber Optic Cabling Components Standards (published mid ‘08) and TIA-568-C.2, Balanced Twisted-Pair Telecommunications Cabling and Components Standard (release date: TBA) to form the “TIA-568-C suite of standards”.

What does TIA-568-C standards give you over the older TIA 568-B?

The new standard will be more of a generic structured cable document emphasizing on efficiency and effectiveness. It aims to put all common cabling information within a single source; allowing cable usage in different types of facilities and premises within a multi product/ multi vendor environment. The TIA-568-C.0 standards document will cover cabling requirements, structure, topologies, distances, installation, performance and testing.

TIA-568-C suite of standards breakdown:

TIA-568-C.0 Generic Telecommunications Cabling for Customer Premises
TIA-568-C.1 Commercial Building Telecommunication Cabling Standards – Part 1 General Requirements
TIA-568-C.2 Balanced Twisted-Pair Telecommunications Cabling and Components Standard (release date: TBA)
TIA-568-C.3 Optical Fiber Cabling Components Standard

Here is a podcast from TIA’s Henry Cuschieri and TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems Engineering Committee Chair Herb Congdon, Manager of Standards and Technology for AMP NETCONNECT Systems at Tyco Electronics, discussing the recent updates to TR-42 cabling infrastructure standards, the recent updates to TR-42 cabling infrastructure standards, the work underway in the committee’s Green Issues Task Force, including the revision of the Building Automation Standard (BAS) TIA-568-C series.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Press Release

TIA Online

Purchase TIA-568-C.0, TIA-568-C.1, TIA-568-C.3 here.

If you want to build your own multi wire cable tester for less than $10, Andy Collinson (from zen22132) shows you how to do it. Built with three ICs, some resistors and LEDs — the tester will show open circuits, shorts, reversals, earth faults and continuity. It can be used for alarming, Cat 5/6 cables and more.

[Info. and diagram courtesy of zen22142.zen.co.uk]

For standard ethernet network cable installations, use the wiring standards/ pinouts below.

To wire it properly, the wire being inserted should have the pinout numbered in sequence from 1 to 8 (left to right) with the modular plug’s gold contact side on the top, directly facing you (see top view of plug on the right). You will know you have positioned it the right way when the plug clip is on the bottom, facing away from you on the opposite side.

EIA/TIA 568B is used for Cat 5e/ Cat 6 network wiring and should be wired as such at both ends. Cat 6 cables are derived from the manufacturer’s cable specification (although the pinouts are the same).

To make a crossover cable, use the EIA/TIA 568A pinout at one end and the EIA/TIA 568B pinout at the other.

It is important to uniformly use the same standard throughout your network. If not, you may end up with some of the cable pairs crossed, causing data communication problems.