We had the contractors use field installable, certified, CAT6 RJ45 ends on our AP circuits; throughout our new residence hall last year (46 of them). Has worked out great. And recent changes in the cable certification criteria now allow for such terminations in the testing.
It would be a good argument as to which system is less/more labor intensive, never mind the cost issue. A practiced technician, in either scenario, would make a for good race. I’ll go with the direct connect termination, in the field, any time. Phil From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Philippe Hanset Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2015 2:14 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Copper Cable Field Terminations for Access Points I remember arguing with cabling crews about that exact issue: ME: I want to have the RJ-45 connector crimped on the cable for two reasons: -It saves money (on one jack and one patch cable, that’s about $10 per AP) -It prevents patch cable theft (not huge but very annoying especially in Residence Halls) CABLING CREW: we want to terminate on a jack because: -It is a pain to terminate a RJ-45 connector on the cable (unless new connector designs exist) and the money saved in equipment is wasted in labor -We cannot properly label the circuit on a cable but we can do it on a jack In the end, they won the argument. Some may argue that terminating on a Jack also gives the option to add a longer patch cable if needed, but we always left a service loop anyway! Philippe Hanset www.eduroam.us<http://www.eduroam.us> On May 14, 2015, at 1:05 PM, Mark H. Wehrle <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Good afternoon all, We are faced with some challenges in upgrading our access points in our residence halls this summer. Our existing installation has access points wall mounted and we terminate Cat5E cable on a Cat5E type biscuit jack on the wall near where the access point is mounted. From there we place a short cable from the jack to the access point. In current state, this makes for easier troubleshooting to decipher cable versus AP problems, however it's understood that there could be other problems associated with multiple termination points etc. In our current project, we are looking install access points with internal antennas and we are looking to move these to ceiling mounts in most/all of these rooms where we can. We made this choice because we've found that some students will vary the positions of antennas, which have impacted RF coverage and we have added more access points in some areas to compensate (we cannot easily get into student rooms to inspect access points). The question I was asked before we move these jacks is whether we should save costs and time by just making a field termination of the Cat5E cable with an RJ45 connector crimped right on the cable then plug this cable directly into the access point and avoid the biscuit jack and short station cable. I'm wondering if anyone is doing this, was doing this and stopped, plans to do this etc? Does this present any problems like bad mechanical connection problems etc? Thanks for your feedback. --Mark Wehrle Phone: (215) 898-9664 Technical Director, ISC Network & Telecom Operations Fax: (215) 898-9348 University of Pennsylvania 3401 Walnut Suite 221a Email:[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Phila. PA 19104-6228 ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
