Industrial

Sags
The Threat — A sag is a decline in the voltage level. Also known as “brownouts,” sags are the most common power problem.

The Cause — Sags can be caused locally by the start-up demands of electrical devices such as motors, compressors, and elevators. Sags may also happen during periods of high electrical use, such as during a heat wave.

The Effect — Sags are often the cause of “unexplained” computer glitches such as system crashes, frozen keyboards, and data loss. Sags can also reduce the efficiency and lifespan of electrical motors.

Blackouts
The Threat — A blackout is a total loss of power.

The Cause — Blackouts are caused by excessive demand on the power grid, an act of nature such as lightning or an earthquake, or a human accident such as a car hitting a power pole or a backhoe digging in the wrong place.

The Effect — Of course a blackout brings everything to a complete stop. You also lose any unsaved data stored in RAM and may even lose the total contents of your hard drive.

Spikes
The Threat — A spike, also called an impulse, is an instantaneous, dramatic increase in voltage.

The Cause — A spike is usually caused by a nearby lightning strike but may also occur when power is restored after a blackout.

The Effect — A spike can damage or completely destroy electrical components and also cause data loss.

Surges
The Threat — A surge is an increase in voltage lasting at least 1/120 of a second.

The Cause — When high-powered equipment such as an air conditioner is powered off, the excess voltage is dissipated though the power line causing a surge.

The Effect — Surges stress delicate electronic components causing them to wear out before their time.

Noise
The Threat — Electrical noise, more technically called electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI), interrupts the smooth sine wave expected from electrical power.

The Cause — Noise has many causes including nearby lightning, load switching, industrial equipment, and radio transmitters. It may be intermittent or chronic.

The Effect — Noise introduces errors into programs and data files.

If you manage a heavy-traffic data network and you demand high bandwidth for high speeds, Black Box has what you need to send your data digitally over super-fast T1 or E1 communication lines.

Both T1 and E1 are foundations of global voice communication.
Developed more than 30 years ago and commercially available since 1983, T1 and E1 go virtually anywhere phone lines go, but faster.

T1 sends data up to 1.544 Mbps. E1 supports speeds to 2.048 Mbps. No matter where you need to connect—North, South, or Central America, Europe, or the Pacific Rim—T1 and E1 can get your data there—fast!

Both services provide flexibility for a multitude of applications.
Whether you need to drive a private, point-to-point line or a high-speed circuit; provide corporate access to the Internet or inbound access to your own webserver; or support a voice/data/fax/video WAN that extends halfway around the world, T1 or E1 can make the connection.

Both offer cost-effective connections.
In recent years, competition among telco service providers has led to increasingly more affordable prices for T1 and E1 services. In fact, most companies seriously considering a shift to T1 or E1 find they can negotiate even better rates with just a little comparative cost analysis.

Typical applications:
• Trunking of V.90 and ISDN remote connection to a central location.
• Accessing public Frame Relay networks for voice, fax, and data.
• Merging voice and data traffic. A single T1 or E1 line can give you several additional voice and data lines at no additional cost.
• Making LAN connections. If you’re linking LANs, a T1 or E1 line offers excellent performance.
• Sending bandwidth-intensive data such as CAD/CAM, MRI, CAT-scan images, and other graphics with large files.

The Digital Visual Interface (DVI) standard is based on transition-minimized differential signaling (TMDS). In a typical single-line digital signal, voltage is raised to a high level and decreased to a low level to create transitions that convey data. To minimize the number of transitions needed to transfer data, TMDS uses a pair of signal wires. When one wire goes to a high-voltage state, the other goes to a low-voltage state. This balance increases the data-transfer rate and improves accuracy.

There are different types of DVI connectors: DVI-D, DVI-I, DVI-A, DFP, and EVC. DVI-D is a digital-only connector.

DVI-D is a digital-only connector. DVI-I supports both digital and analog RGB connections. Some manufacturers are offering the DVI-I connector type on their products instead of separate analog and digital connectors. DVI-A is used to carry an analog DVI signal to a VGA device, such as a display. DFP, like DVI-D, was an early digital-only connector used on some displays; it’s being phased out. EVC (also known as P&D) is similar to DVI-I only it’s slightly larger in size. It also handles digital and analog connections, and it’s used primarily on projectors.

The background
As today’s networks expand, the demand for more bandwidth and greater distances increases. Gigabit Ethernet and the emerging 10 Gigabit Ethernet are becoming the applications of choice for current and future networking needs. Thus, there is a renewed interest in 50-micron fiber optic cable.

First used in 1976, 50-micron cable has not experienced the widespread use in North America that 62.5-micron cable has.

To support campus backbones and horizontal runs over 10-Mbps Ethernet, 62.5 fiber, introduced in 1986, was and still is the predominant fiber optic cable because it offers high bandwidth and long distance.

One reason 50-micron cable did not gain widespread use was because of the light source. Both 62.5 and 50-micron fiber cable can use either LED or laser light sources. But in the 1980s and 1990s, LED light sources were common. Since 50-micron cable has a smaller aperture, the lower power of the LED light source caused a reduction in the power budget compared to 62.5-micron cable—thus, the migration to 62.5-micron cable. At that time, laser light sources were not highly developed and were rarely used with 50-micron cable—mostly in research and technological applications.

Common ground
The cables share many characteristics. Although 50-micron fiber cable features a smaller core, which is the light-carrying portion of the fiber, both 50- and 62.5-micron cable use the same glass cladding diameter of 125 microns. Because they have the same outer diameter, they’re equally strong and are handled in the same way. In addition, both types of cable are included in the TIA/EIA 568-B.3 standards for structured cabling and connectivity.

As with 62.5-micron cable, you can use 50-micron fiber in all types of applications: Ethernet, FDDI, 155-Mbps ATM, Token Ring, Fast Ethernet, and Gigabit Ethernet. It is recommended for all premise applications: backbone, horizontal, and intrabuilding connections, and it should be considered especially for any new construction and installations. IT managers looking at the possibility of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and future scalability will get what they need with 50-micron cable.

Gaining ground
The big difference between 50-micron and 62.5-micron cable is in bandwidth. The smaller 50-micron core provides a higher 850-nm bandwidth, making it ideal for inter/intrabuilding connections. 50-micron cable features three times the bandwidth of standard 62.5-micron cable. At 850-nm, 50-micron cable is rated at 500 MHz/km over 500 meters versus 160 MHz/km for 62.5-micron cable over 220 meters.

Fiber Type: 62.5/125 µm
Minimum Bandwidth (MHz-km): 160/500
Distance at 850 nm: 220 m
Distance at 1310 nm: 500 m

Fiber Type: 50/125 µm
Minimum Bandwidth (MHz-km): 500/500
Distance at 850 nm: 500 m
Distance at 1310 nm: 500 m

As we move towards Gigabit Ethernet, the 850-nm wavelength is gaining importance along with the development of improved laser technology. Today, a lower-cost 850-nm laser, the Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL), is becoming more available for networking. This is particularly important because Gigabit Ethernet specifies a laser light source.

Other differences between the two types of cable include distance and speed. The bandwidth an application needs depends on the data transmission rate. Usually, data rates are inversely proportional to distance. As the data rate (MHz) goes up, the distance that rate can be sustained goes down. So a higher fiber bandwidth enables you to transmit at a faster rate or for longer distances. In short, 50-micron cable provides longer link lengths and/or higher speeds in the 850-nm wavelength. For example, the proposed link length for 50-micron cable is 500 meters in contrast with 220 meters for 62.5-micron cable.

Migration
Standards now exist that cover the migration of 10-Mbps to 100-Mbps or 1 Gigabit Ethernet at the 850-nm wavelength. The most logical solution for upgrades lies in the connectivity hardware. The easiest way to connect the two types of fiber in a network is through a switch or other networking “box.“ It is not recommended to connect the two types of fiber directly.

T1 is a digital transmission method for multiplexing multiple voice and data channels over two pairs of wires.

By using a technique called Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM), T1 interleaves both voice and/or LAN data across DS0 subchannels. The primary benefit of T1 is bandwidth—1.544 Mbps—available in 24 easily allocated 64-kbps DS0 subchannels.

T1 sends data in frames made up of 24 eight-bit words (one word for each subchannel) and one framing bit for a total of 193 bits per frame. A T1 channel transmits 8000 frames per second.

The framing bits on successive frames follow a pattern for a superframe format. T1 channel banks check this pattern to make sure synchronization is maintained.

T1 is the most flexible end-to-end digital service option available today. It’s the preferred service for internetworking voice, data, fax, and video signals across an enterprise network. And Black Box is your supplier of T1 hardware with a broad range of solutions for consolidating your global high-speed network management.