[10GBASE-T] PAR and 5 Critters
My turn to Bite...
I will put my voice in with Brad's Sterling's and others, in that it seems to me that we are losing sight of our goals at this point. I believe that the discussion of categories (classes) has gone beyond what is necessary.
To me, the discussion really needs to focus on what SNR is required to achieve 10Gbps, which seems to revolve around a magic number of 16 Gbps to 18 Gbps Shannon capacity. Various presentations have shown that this capacity is available on ALL class F and shielded Category 6 (class E). This capacity has also been shown to exist on the majority of Category 6 installations and possibly some Category 5e. In order to illustrate broad market potential, data on existing installation lengths was provided along with worst case ANEXT measurements showing that more than 70% to 80 % of existing Category 6 installations would support 10Gbps (shorter runs, yielding the benefit of lower Insertion Loss even without ANEXT mitigation). Bare in mind that this only relates to backwards compatibility and existing installs.
As we move forward, we are not constrained by those categories. My recommendation is that we establish the needed capacity (SNR, Shannon, whatever is best...) and frequency ranges, and leave it up to the cabling committees (TR-42, SC25?) to adjust, extend or compliment their categories to provide the channels of the Future. We may have shown that 100m Category 5e and 6 may not support 10 Gbps in the worst case, but that is being studied and hopefully remedied as we speak.
We have illustrated technical feasibility, and seem to be stuck on the confusion of technical feasibility equating to 100% operation on existing cabling categories and installations. Lets focus on the PAR and 5 Criteria and move forward to Task Force so that we can start addressing these concerns and creating the credibility needed to evolve the cabling standard and the market acceptance and the anticipation that is critical to the success of this project.
Regards
Shadi AbuGhazaleh