I found that when I was standing on a ladder with ceiling tile dust in my hair, my success rate with a punch down tool was much better than with a crimper. That was when I had hair...now I let the younger guys do it ;-) John
From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Nocifore,Matthew Sent: Friday, May 15, 2015 9:27 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [WIRELESS-LAN] Copper Cable Field Terminations for Access Points Hi Mark. We feel that the investment in the cable plant, which has a much longer life expectancy than the APs, is worthy of "proper" termination and labeling. Drexel is currently on its 4th replacement cycle of APs and based on changing equipment sizes and antenna characteristics we have had to adjust AP locations many times. In some replacement cycles we have replaced our short length patch cords between AP and jack, sometimes due to the bends forced on the cables by the RJ location on the APs or other wear and tear. We did have internal discussion as you are having now before we expanded density in our dorms. Even in cases where we pull a cable out of an existing wire stations and move it up to ceiling height (as we have done frequently in our dorms) we still terminate the cable in a jack. The other important factor for us was maintaining a demarcation point to separate CPE from the wire plant. Particularly when working with other department's contractors. This will likely be increasingly important as the the Internet of Things used by University Facilities continues to expand. In the case of access points where the network organization is responsible for both the access point and the cable plant, the staff responsible for access point life cycle replacement (in-house without contracted labor) and break-fix are different from the cable installers. So even in our own organization we like the demarc segmentation. Even as TIA supports RJ plug terminated cables -- personally I'm still concerned about the quality of work that happens when field terminating an RJ plug. In new building construction, installer cable test results will not necessarily demonstrate that the installer managed to obtain proper strain relief in the RJ plug crimp. And the thought of having to do a quality job replacing an RJ plug, standing on a ladder in an occupied office or dorm room seems very daunting in comparison to repairing or re-terminating a punch down connection. Matt Matthew Nocifore, Executive Director Network Infrastructure & Telecommunications, CTI Information Resources & Technology Drexel University E: [email protected]<x-msg://98/[email protected]> T: 215-895-2828 On May 14, 2015 (Thu), at 1:05 PM, Mark H. Wehrle 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/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
