An industry push to rate cabling products according to their performance could provide consumers with clearer information and cablers with upsell opportunities, writes Caroline Reidy.

The National Broadband Network (NBN) is giving industry fuel for growth and is providing opportunities for cable installers to offer and upgrade in-home cabling, connecting applications to the wider network.

An ambitious Federal Government plan to deliver high-speed broadband to Australians via a wholesale-only, open access high-speed network, the NBN involves the laying of optical fibre cable to 93% of Australian homes, schools and businesses, with remaining areas to be connected via a combination of next-generation high speed wireless and satellite technologies.

The NBN is promising broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps, which is up to 100 times faster than those most Australians have ready access to today, and the possibility of even greater speeds in the future. In order for home owners to take full advantage of these speeds, however, the cabling connecting applications in the home needs to be the ‘perfect match’.

“This goes further than simply meeting minimum compliance requirements. It’s about optimal performance,” says Anixter Australia business development manager Barney Tomasich.

Anixter is a global supplier of communications and security products and services.

“There’s a gap there at the moment. The fibre’s coming in but the home might have less than Category 3 cabling, which means there’s going to be a bottle neck. This is going to annoy people because they think they’re going to get a certain performance level of which the cable may not be capable.”

Current initiatives only guarantee that the wires will be there, but there is no guarantee of performance, he says.

“It’s all very well having a pipe running into a home but if that home doesn’t have the appropriate cabling, then you’re totally wasting your time,” Barney says.

“We’re trying to ensure that that pipe actually matches what’s in the home and works for the customer.”

Anixter was part of the original push to differentiate cabling types through the creation of standards. Its Levels Program, which was created in the late ‘90s, introduced cabling levels 3, 4, and 5 which rated a cable according to its performance. The standards bodies picked up on this concept and introduced Categories 3, 4 and 5.

As a member of the Australian Communications and Electrical Alliance (ACEA) Cabling Advisory Group (CAG), Anixter is now part of the larger industry group that is currently working to translate this information for the consumer, so they can make a more informed decision.

“People in the industry today understand Cat 5e, 6 and 6A, but you need to somehow convert that to language that a home owner will understand,” Barney explains.

“We’re trying to demonstrate why marrying upcoming applications like high definition video (e.g. HDBaseT) with a Cat 6A cable, makes sense. This is to help the consumer understand that if they want certain applications to run optimally, they will need better in-home cabling.”

The CAG proposes translating this information via a ‘performance star’ rating system, similar to the to the Green Star rating that helps contractors explain to consumers in simple terms why one type of cable suits their particular application over another. And why it might cost a bit more.

“Without this there’s no simple way to explain to someone who’s paying the money why their application will or won’t work.”

The CAG submission on this performance rating system currently sits with the ACEA Board for review. The aim is to bridge the gap between the Copper Development Centre’s Smart Wired Quick Guide book, which assists cablers in selecting compliant home cabling products, and ratings currently being proposed to apply to the NBN hardware.

“At the end of the day, the customer doesn’t care about the cabling. They just want to make sure that their application works. It really has to be about consumer choice.

“Currently the NBN is working on 1, 2 and 3 star ratings for the active side. So it’s up to us to come up with similar performance ratings for the cabling that the applications plug into.”

As an example, a 1-Star cabling performance rating might be a 100Mbps-capable Cat 5e cable with a bandwidth of 100MHz that is suitable for standard internet and IP telephony applications, analogue cameras and basic Power over Ethernet (13W) with a lifecycle expectancy of up to 5 years.

A 2-Star cabling performance rating might correlate to a 1Gbps-capable Cat 6 cable with a bandwidth of 250MHz that is suitable for pan, tilt and zoom IP cameras and Power over Ethernet Plus (25W) with a life expectancy of up to 10 years.

Finally, a 3-Star cabling performance rating might correlate to a 10Gbps-capable Cat 6A cable with a bandwidth of 500MHz that is suitable for HD video, megapixel IP cameras, Power over Ethernet Plus Plus (70W) with a lifecycle expectancy of more than 10 years.

Even though some of these data speeds may seem greater than necessary for the applications listed, higher power usage raises temperature within the cabling derating their performance ability. Consequently, choosing an appropriate performance rating is a delicate balancing act between data and power usage requirements for the application.

“Full test criteria from international standards bodies already exist for Categories 5e, 6 and 6A. We’re proposing that we go a step further and have testing that confirms if it meets these different cabling performance levels while taking power usage into account, so that it will guarantee certain applications that the consumers want,” Barney says.

“With the possibility of being modelled on Green Star, this system could also boost or complement the green push in industry.”

Moving forward, it is hoped the proposed performance rating system would become part of the Smart Wired program, provided to installers as a ‘self-check’ integrated system owned and managed by the industry.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel in terms of the environmental side. This is about performance,” Barney says.

“A greener solution is always the one that’s going to last the longest. When you have to pull something out, no matter how cheap it was, it’s costing the environment, it’s costing in its inefficiency and it’s costing as landfill. So you could argue that the higher the performance rating, the greener the solution.”

With the rollout of the NBN already underway, CAG hopes to see this cabling performance rating come into play soon and in the meantime welcomes input from the wider industry.

“We’re trying to flag this concept with different organisations. We believe the concept is a good one, but we need to put flesh on the bones and start talking to people to make sure it gets into the right hands. If people have ideas and would like to build on what we’re trying to do, we’d be happy to get this feedback and perhaps further suggestions on what needs to happen.”

To provide feedback on the performance rating concept, contact Barney 0404 089 057 or email barney.tomasich@anixter.com