Structured Cabling Standards

[rules]

Hi All

What are the most common structured cabling standards out there (Commscope, Molex and the like) and which are seen as the most widely used?

We tried Commscope for a while but to be honest between the ridiculous lead times, high cost and the amount of returned patch leads, we are looking for something that will be more worthwhile in the long run. We don't do that many structured cabling installs but they do crop up from time to time and we would like to adopt a standard for our every day work anyway.

Thanks,
R

 

[InvisibleJim]

I think ISO/IEC 11801 is the international standard you would want. European standard EN 50173 is a normative standard ie. it basically adopts the ISO standard as the 'European Norm.' As well as guidelines for designing structured cabling systems, I recall the standard includes calculations for acceptable limits for parameters such as attenuation, Crosstalk etc.

As far as I know, Molex and such are manufacturers standards and in part are concerned with using the manufacturer's specified components. Of the several cabling companies I have dealt with here in SA (I am from the UK originally) I think I have only come across one who were really aware of the ISO standard (mostly I get a kind of blank look closely followed by some BS when I ask about standards) so if you can say that you are designing structured cabling in line with the ISO then you would definitely have a competitive advantage for medium and large installations.

 

[rules]

Thanks Jim, will do some further delving into that ISO standard