Structured Cabling is all about numbers. Some manufacturers believe that bigger numbers are better and that showing bigger numbers than their competitors will give them an edge. Unfortunately this method is misleading. This method is also used to show the number of plugs and unplugs for modular plugs and jacks as greater than the requirements of the Standards. Many manufacturers conduct wear and tear tests on all their products, including the number of plugs and jacks. It is possible to exceed the number of plugs required by the current standard without any degradation in performance. The current standard stipulates a minimum of 750 taps.
Some manufacturers are now specifying much higher numbers than 750. All Standards bodies actually want to reduce the number of plugs and most of the leading manufacturers are already part of this initiative.
The main reason for this is POE and higher power POE+. A number of recent studies have shown that if POE+ is not deactivated before a plug is removed, only one of the pins will generate a small electrical arc of 600mA per pair. When this happens each time the plug is removed, it will cause a small damage to the ‘slip area’ (the point of contact before full insertion) and over time this damage will spread and affect the entire point of contact.
Current discussions are to reduce this number to 200 if the POE+ is energized, so stating that over 1,000 plugs and unplugs can be achieved is very misleading.
The second important reason is related to compatibility. To be able to specify an increased number of plugs and unplugs in this way, this manufacturer must be checking all the components in the Channel, which is not always possible, even with the best efforts. Even if done in the best way this will prove to be almost impossible to keep the installation ‘Sterile’. During the lifecycle of the installation, if not on day one, a patch cable not made by the jack’s manufacturer will be used, and when this happens the number of plugs and unplugs can only be calculated using the Standards.
