Abstract: This paper describes the performance of various reduced diameter Category 6A cable designs in electrically noisy environments. Noise immunity of cables is becoming more important due to enhanced Ethernet link speeds of 2.5Gb/s and higher that require low noise to properly perform. HDBaseT applications at 4k resolutions also stress the noise immunity performance of all Category cables.
There are several approaches to achieve Category 6A cables with reduced diameter that also offer improved alien crosstalk. However, it has been found that alien crosstalk is not a good predictor of performance in an electrically noisy environment among the different design options for reduced diameters. This paper explores the noise immunity of two different types of barrier designs over the core, and provides comparisons with standard UTP and F/UTP designs. Testing included the effects of the external electrical noise on a 10Gb/s Ethernet link and a HDBaseT link at up to 2160/30p resolution.
