Copper Challenges #

• How long is the cable?
• Are any of the wires broken or is there a bad crimp?
• Is there a short? (2 bare wires touch)
• If there is a break, where is it?
• Are all wires terminated in the right place in the plug/jack?
• Is there EMI from outside sources?
• Is the signal from any of the pairs in the same cable interfering with another pair? Otherwise known as split pair.

Cable testers #

• Basic ones only test continuity .
• Better testers can run a wiremap test.
  • Typically called a TDR.
    • TDR: Time Domain Reflectometer
• Very expensive ones test crosstalk
  • Can test for NEXT and FEXT
    • NEXT: Near End Crosstalk
    • FEXT: Far End Crosstalk
• As signal progresses it can attenuate
  • Siganl loss detected in decibal (dB)
  • Requires use of expensive Cable Certifiers.