Cable Certification

LAN cables need to be either verified or certified before installing a new network and when adding them to the existing infrastructure.  Also cables may deteriorate as time passes, so it is a good idea to re-certify them.  Copper cable certification standards for twisted pair wires are governed by TIA (Telecommunication Industry Association) or ISO.  ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B standard describes cable performance for the following categories: Cat3, Cat 5e, Cat 6 and Cat 6A.

Manufacturers make a wide selection of quality cable certifiers or verifiers.  Many installers or contractors are not certain which type of instrument they need to use, so we suggest quality research into the application requirements, as the cost varies greatly from $500.00 to $15,000.00.

Here is a list of tests an upper-end certifier tester will perform:

1. Wire Map

2. Cable Length

3. Propagation Delay

4. Delay Skew

5. Insertion Loss

6. Return Loss

7. NEXT (Near-End Crosstalk)

8. PSNEXT (Power Sum of NEXT)

9. ELFEXT (Equal Level Far End Crosstalk)

10. Power Sum ELFEXT

11. ThACR (Attenuation to Crosstalk Ratio)

12. PSACR (Power Sum of ACR)

13. DC Loop Resistance

Banks and datacenters are the most likely places where you would need to perform a full scale copper cable certification.  If the network owner does not require you to run all of those tests then you most likely need to use only a cable verifier.  

A copper cable verifier or pre-certification meter usually checks wire map, cable length, and propagation delay to make sure cables were manufactured up to specs and data transmission will be carried through them at a specified speed.

Who makes good but not overly-expensive cable certifiers?  

The Ideal Industries LANtek III is one of the most reliable instruments, yet not overly expensive.

If you need just a cable verifier, check out our selection of testers from Byte Brothers, Platinum Tools or T3 Innovation.

Valuetesters.com is an authorized distributor of all above brands.

We can help you select a proper certifier or pre-certification meter, so please call us at 602-795-8292, chat with us online or send us an email to [email protected]