Long-anticipated 10GBaseT standard will require most firms to upgrade their existing cabling

The long awaited 10GbaseT standard is on course for final ratification by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in July this year, say experts, but most companies will need to upgrade their existing cabling to handle the higher bandwidth.

Luc Adriaenssens, senior vice president of technology research and development at cabling specialist Systimax, believes the final 10GbaseT standard will be ‘extremely robust’ over augmented copper cabling that will push 10GbaseT signals over 100m. But the distances that 10Gbit/s signals can travel over existing category 6 UTP wiring are likely to vary at each installation.

“Standard Cat5e cabling is specifically not supported by the 10GbaseT standard. The target distance for Cat6 installations was 55m, but this has been cut back to 37m and even then there are no guarantees [without testing]” he said.

Adriaenssens conceded that compromises have been made in the 10GbaseT standard, but only in coding approaches that would have lead to incompatibilities in applications unless vendors had agreed to do it one particular way.

Systimax joined the Ethernet Alliance this week in the hope that it can help push wiring issues to the forefront of IT managers minds.

“Most people see cabling as a necessary evil, but those that plan aggressively and future proof their networks now will find it easier than getting into react mode later” he said.

Systimax hopes its involvement with the Ethernet Alliance can create a forum for the discussion of new technologies like 100 gigabit Ethernet, which has yet to make it to the project stage with the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), and is probably five to seven years away from commercial deployment.

It will also help finalise adjuncts like 10GbaseT auto negotiation which go beyond the scope of the IEEE’s remit but which network vendors need to agree upon for interoperability purposes.