Power over Ethernet (PoE): A Modern Solution

The evolving standards of PoE

(blogger@L-com.com)

The IEEE standards for providing PoE have been around for almost a decade now, but the actual technology to accomplish this is even older.  The original concept was pretty simple: Category 5 cabling has eight conductors, but the standard really only used four of them.  The low-voltage power could be run along the unused conductors to provide enough power for most simple devices. Through the use of an "injector" at one end and a "tap" at the other end, the power could travel along without noticeable problems with the data. Within a few years, manufacturers of many different types of IP equipment began implementing designs that would accept power directly from the cable, eliminating the need for a "tap".  Next, manufacturers of the Ethernet switching equipment developed PoE Injector Hubs to directly inject the power into the cable, eliminating the need for an "injector".  But there were three big problems:

How to Create RJ45 Ethernet Ports at Drop Points

RJ45 couplers: what is available (blogger@L-com.com)

L-com carries a lot of stuff. In fact, the L-com web site boasts over 15,000 unique product pages. But among all those varied parts, one of the most popular items fits in the palm of your hand and weighs approximately 1 oz. What is it? An Ethernet jack! Here, we're going to talk briefly about Ethernet jacks, but don't miss L-com's exclusive video on the topic!

Category Rated Modular Couplers

Modular Couplers for Phone and Ethernet (customerservice@L-com.com)

One of the great things about modular networks is that they're... well... modular! Networks in these cases are easily set up and customizable to whatever architecture you'd like to employ.

A key component of modular networks are the couplers. Most often these are designed to be panel mountable, so they can be mounted either in a wiring closet rack panel, or in a faceplate or wall plate at a workstation.

Because modular couplers have become so ubiquitous, a large variety of colors, shapes, and make-ups are now available. L-com carries a line of modular couplers called the ECF series that have a flange that can be screwed down to a panel. Apart from that, a popular style of panel-mount coupler is the keystone style. These are designed to snap-in to holes cut to the correct dimensions.

Make sure, when you source your coupler, that you get one that meets your applications. For instance, if you are going to be using shielded twisted pair cabling (STP), you should get shielded modular couplers as well. Also, a network will run at the speed of the lowest category rated component. So, if you have a Category 5e network set up, don't try to put a Category 3 coupler in it because that will slow the whole network. You can use a higher category rated coupler, such as a Cat 6 coupler, but don't go lower.

At L-com, you can get the panel dimensions from our couplers on the engineering drawings, download-able for free from the item level page of each coupler.

Surface Mount Boxes and Wall Plates

How Do You Create Modular Ports for Your Users to Plug Into? (customerservice@L-com.com)

Undoubtedly, one of the most important technological advances of our time is the modular network. Networked together, machines throughout an office, a building, a whole country, or all over the world can all communicate. In order to make a network user friendly, it's a good idea to provide easily accessible ports or jacks where your users' machines are.

Traditionally, there are two main ways of mounting modular jacks: in a wall or in a box mounted on a surface. By far, wall plates and face plates are the most popular way to go. With them, the jacks are flush with the wall, out of the way, but still easy to get to. But in some cases there are either no walls close by, or the walls cannot have anything running inside them. In those cases, surface mount boxes provide a perfect solution.

Boxes and face plates often come separate from the jack itself, allowing you to mix and match the correct jack with the correct mounting medium. Make sure you get a plate with the proper hole size already in it so you can easily mount the jack. The most common hole size is called Keystone, and though it is not standardized it is roughly the same from company to company.

The holidays are drawing to a close, but L-com sales are still on!

Plenum Patch Cables (Fiber Optic and Ethernet UTP) Sell-Off (customerservice@L-com.com)

As the year ends, we took a look around our massive warehouse and noticed many boxes of custom Plenum rated cable products built for one of our customers who didn't end up needing them. Well, we don't need them either, so we've decided to sell them at incredible prices just to give us more space!

The link to the items on sale is here:

http://www.L-com.com/PlenCloseout

Among the items are a variety of multimode and singlemode fiber optic patch cables, OFNP or Plenum rated, and various colors and lengths of Cat 5e and Cat 6 rated Plenum Ethernet cables. And the prices are so low, some of them are even cheaper than our PVC cables!

Along with that, the Overstock Sale that we started a couple of weeks ago is still going on, so check that out as well.

Hope your New Years is a happy and prosperous one!