Siemon Copper Cabling Systems confirms 10GBASE-T performance

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Testing with Solarflare Communications confirms 10GBASE-T performance for Three Siemon Copper Cabling Systems.

Recent testing performed by Solarflare Communications confirms that Siemon’s 10G 6A UTP, 10G 6A F/UTP and Category 7/Class F TERA copper cabling systems meet or exceed all 10GBASE-T performance parameters dictated by the now ratified IEEE 802.3an-2006 standard.

Three separate Siemon cabling systems were individually tested at Solarflare’s test facility (Irvine, CA). Utilizing Solarflare’s compliant IEEE 802.3an-2006 10GBASE-T 10Xpress™ PHY products, all tests were performed on 100 meter channel lengths, based on a worst-case six around one (6A1) alien crosstalk configuration.

The 10GBASE-T standard requires that all PHY products claiming compliance with the standard perform on this 100-meter worst-case channel. More specifically, the 6A1 configuration simulates a worst-case alien crosstalk environment, with six disturber cables bundled tightly around a seventh victim cable. Full line rate 10Gb/s bi-directional Ethernet traffic was launched on each channel. A tota

l of fourteen Solarflare 10GBASE-T compliant PHY cards were required to simulate a fully stressed environment (i.e. seven PHY’s utilized on each end of 6A1 configuration).

Under these challenging worst-case conditions, Siemon’s 10G 6A UTP, 10G 6A F/UTP and TERA end-to-end solutions satisfied the 802.3an standard’s stringent bit error ratio (BER) requirements for 10Gb/s performance. The TERA S/FTP channel performed particularly well when compared to a typical category 6A UTP channel. The TERA channel exhibited on average an SNR margin of 30.2 dB, which is approximately 6 dB better than a typical category 6A UTP channel.

These tests underscore the commercial viability of 10GBASE-T by confirming overall compliance to full 802.3an system requirements as well as the interoperability of Solarflare's10 Gb/s electronics with the following cabling constructions recognized within IEEE 802.3an: Category 6A UTP, Category 6A F/UTP (screened) and Category 7 S/FTP (shielded), all with 1

00 meter reach. The two companies will conduct testing on Category 6 UTP at 55 meters in the future.

"Siemon’s extensive research and design capabilities were highlighted by Solarflare’s results,” states Director of Siemon Labs, the company’s R&D arm, Daniel J Mullin. “In addition to our 10G6A UTP solution, the verification of 10G 6A F/UTP and TERA systems confirms the market practicality of screened and shielded systems. This is a great validation of Siemon's expertise and significant investment in screened and shielded technologies over the years”.

According to Vice President of Marketing at Solarflare, Bruce Tolley, “The successful testing of Siemon’s three copper cabling products paves the way for many enterprise data centers and networks to cost-effectively move to high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet, It’s another important step toward market adoption of this key technology.”

"The confirmation from Solarflare's labs is a significant development as it will hel

p assure prospective customers intending to migrate to high performance networks about Siemon's 10G Ethernet capabilities," said Country Manager, The Siemon Company, Rajesh Kumar.

Solarflare is the first company to publicly demonstrate 100-meter, standards-compliant 10GBASE-T products, and the first company to deliver samples to customers. These customers require 100-meter reach on their cabling system and demand support of and interoperability with the 10GBASE-T standard. Solarflare products undergo a rigorous test and validation process to ensure 10GBASE-T compliance and 100-meter performance. The 6 around one testing with Siemon shows how robust the 10Xpress solution is at 100 meters.