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In many cases the losses and potential interference with sending RF signals over long runs of coaxial cable results in inadequate hybrid fiber-coax (HFC) network performance. The reason is that the losses and interference susceptibility for RF coaxial cables used to keep network infrastructure costs reasonable are much greater than fiber or even higher quality coaxial cables.... Read more

Counterfeit currency, travel papers, and professional certifications are almost as old as the official paperwork or coinage that counterfeiters are attempting to duplicate. Unfortunately for the safety and reliability of Ethernet and other data communication, counterfeit cabling is now a growing trend.... Read more

Even with many consumer, commercial, industrial, and even automotive electronics moving to wireless technology for networking, many local area networks (LANs) are still wired using physical cabling and applications with reliability concerns still heavily use physical cabling. As there are a wide range of application requirements for Ethernet cabling, there are also a wide range of cabling types at different performance and price points to accommodate these various needs.... Read more

Wi-Fi 6e is an enhancement of Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and builds on that standard to provide higher performance using extended frequency capability. Like Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6e uses Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) to use available bandwidth more efficiently. Wi-Fi 6e is also capable of multi-user multi-input multi-output (MU-MIMO) for up to eight streams, as is Wi-Fi 6. Both standards allow for very high order modulation to 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (1024-QAM). There are also battery and energy efficiency aspects built into both standards, such as Target Wake Time (TWT) that allows for devices to sleep until a given target time.... Read more

Optical networks, relying on optical fiber and other optical hardware, make up the networks that are the nerves of the internet. Outside of a home or office, the electrical cables typically connect to optical cables, which provide the interconnect among data centers and optical line terminals (OLT) at user locations. There are a variety of optical fiber network technologies, including several passive optical networks (PONs).... Read more

HDMI 2.1 is an update of the HDMI specifications that boosts the video resolution and refresh rate capability of the HDMI standard. HDMI 2.1 specifications are able to support throughput to 48 Gbps, which can provide 8k refresh rates to 60 hertz, 4k refresh rates to 120 hertz, and resolutions to 10k. A new Ultra High Speed HDMI Cable is needed to hit 48 Gbps of bandwidth, and this new cable enables ultra-high bandwidth dependent features, such as uncompressed 8k video with high-dynamic range (HDR) capability.... Read more

Information network technology developers continually strive to enhance the throughput and quality of the network data lines, while also reducing the cost-per-bit (CPB) of the networks. One such technology is, Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM). DWDM is a method of creating several virtual fiber optic lines, which effectively multiplies the capacity of the physical fiber optic line. Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) uses optical multiplexing that results in increasing bandwidth over existing fiber optic cabling without needing to add additional cabling. Optical multiplexing involves combining several transmitted and received signals of different wavelengths simultaneously. The term “dense” in DWDM implies that the new method of WDM uses more densely packed frequency channels than previous “coarse” WDM (CWDM) technology.... Read more

For many telecommunications and networking infrastructure, cables are generally chosen for their throughput, frequency, longevity, ruggedness, ease-of-installation, power handling, and for other electrical or mechanical parameters. These are not the only considerations, however, when telecommunications and networking cables are used in medical, food, or other applications where harmful bacteria and other pathogens may take the cables for a ride and dangerously expose patients or otherwise contaminate the surrounding environments and objects. There are strict codes in virtually every country for maintaining a clean environment that is optimally free of bacteria and other dangerous microbes where rigorous testing is used to ensure a high standard of cleanliness.... Read more

A small cell is just a cellular radio access point with lower RF power output, range, footprint, and size than the typical homogenous macrocell. Small cell is also a blanket term for a wide range of cell types that are smaller than traditional macrocells.... Read more

Power over Ethernet (POE) has been a huge boon in factory automation, building automation, security, and a host of new applications made more cost effective by delivering ethernet connectivity as well as power to edge devices. POE (IEEE 802.3af) was first standardized in 2003 and has grown explosively in the past many years. This growth has also come with an evolution to the original standard, and the creation of a few varieties of POE, namely POE, POE+ (IEEE 802.3at-2009), and POE++ (IEEE 802.3bt-2013). These standards have also been reclassified as Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4, to better capture the specifications and capabilities of each type of POE.... Read more