The current international standard ISO/IEC 11801 labels seven classes of structured cabling. The newest one – marked unusually with the roman numerals I/II – may include network components built on the basis of category 8, with operating frequency up to 1.6 GHz and possible overhead for 2 GHz. The new category was presented at the turn of 2012 and 2013, but still it is not a priority among manufacturers of cabling. This year may be the turning point of its development.
Market expectations due to the category 8 are clear – in 2015 or at the beginning of 2016 the production phase should begin. At the moment it would cause limited fabrication of the components for customer trials and sampling. Many of the manufacturers had already announced their offer in accordance with the category 8 products. We would like to present the example of two producers, who already had made an impact on the ascending market.
Commscope – owner of the Systimax brand – is a most noteworthy company, because of its contribution to the category 8. Commscope has been first to present the innovative system which supports 40 Gb/s. Their presentation took place at the IEEE conference in Phoenix. The producer had shown the potential of the copper cabling. Commscope has proven that we should not forget about the structured copper cabling during this time of considerable popularity of the fiber optic cabling.
Leviton on the other hand is the company which had announced its new range of products called Atlas-X1 last week. Altas-X1 is going to be produced on the base of category 8. The producer states that it will be the first system in the industry to support shielded applications from Category 8 to 5e and UTP applications from Category 6A to 5e, all from one unified connectivity platform. Leviton representatives announced that the first demonstration of Atlas-X1 system will take place on the BICSI international conference, to be held on 23th February in Orlando.
