Copper Challenges

• How long is the cable?
• Are any of the wires broken or is there a bad crimp?
• Is there a short? (2 bare wires touch)
• If there is a break, where is it?
• Are all wires terminated in the right place in the plug/jack?
• Is there EMI from outside sources?
• Is the signal from any of the pairs in the same cable interfering with another pair? Otherwise known as split pair.

Cable testers

• Basic ones only test continuity.
• Better testers can run a wiremap test.
• Typically called a TDR.
  • TDR: Time Domain Reflectometer
• Very expensive ones test crosstalk
• Can test for NEXT and FEXT
  • NEXT: Near End Crosstalk
  • FEXT: Far End Crosstalk
• As signal progresses it can attenuate
• Siganl loss detected in decibal (dB)
• Requires use of expensive Cable Certifiers.