Hi Mark.
We feel that the investment in the cable plant, which has a much longer life
expectancy than the APs, is worthy of proper termination and labeling.
Drexel is currently on its 4th replacement cycle of APs and based on changing
equipment sizes and antenna characteristics we have had to adjust AP locations
many times. In some replacement cycles we have replaced our short length patch
cords between AP and jack, sometimes due to the bends forced on the cables by
the RJ location on the APs or other wear and tear.
We did have internal discussion as you are having now before we expanded
density in our dorms. Even in cases where we pull a cable out of an existing
wire stations and move it up to ceiling height (as we have done frequently in
our dorms) we still terminate the cable in a jack.
The other important factor for us was maintaining a demarcation point to
separate CPE from the wire plant. Particularly when working with other
department's contractors.This will likely be increasingly important as the
the Internet of Things used by University Facilities continues to expand.
In the case of access points where the network organization is responsible for
both the access point and the cable plant, the staff responsible for access
point life cycle replacement (in-house without contracted labor) and break-fix
are different from the cable installers. So even in our own organization we
like the demarc segmentation.
Even as TIA supports RJ plug terminated cables -- personally I'm still
concerned about the quality of work that happens when field terminating an RJ
plug. In new building construction, installer cable test results will not
necessarily demonstrate that the installer managed to obtain proper strain
relief in the RJ plug crimp.And the thought of having to do a quality job
replacing an RJ plug, standing on a ladder in an occupied office or dorm room
seems very daunting in comparison to repairing or re-terminating a punch down
connection.
Matt
Matthew Nocifore, Executive Director
Network Infrastructure Telecommunications, CTI
Information Resources Technology
Drexel University
E: m...@drexel.edux-msg://98/matthew.nocif...@drexel.edu T: 215-895-2828
On May 14, 2015 (Thu), at 1:05 PM, Mark H. Wehrle wrote:
Good afternoon all,
We are faced with some challenges in upgrading our access points in our
residence halls this summer. Our existing installation has access points wall
mounted and we terminate Cat5E cable on a Cat5E type biscuit jack on the wall
near where the access point is mounted. From there we place a short cable from
the jack to the access point. In current state, this makes for easier
troubleshooting to decipher cable versus AP problems, however it's understood
that there could be other problems associated with multiple termination points
etc. In our current project, we are looking install access points with internal
antennas and we are looking to move these to ceiling mounts in most/all of
these rooms where we can. We made this choice because we've found that some
students will vary the positions of antennas, which have impacted RF coverage
and we have added more access points in some areas to compensate (we cannot
easily get into student rooms to inspect access points).
The question I was asked before we move these jacks is whether we should save
costs and time by just making a field termination of the Cat5E cable with an
RJ45 connector crimped right on the cable then plug this cable directly into
the access point and avoid the biscuit jack and short station cable. I'm
wondering if anyone is doing this, was doing this and stopped, plans to do this
etc? Does this present any problems like bad mechanical connection problems etc?
Thanks for your feedback.
--Mark Wehrle Phone: (215) 898-9664
Technical Director, ISC Network Telecom Operations Fax: (215) 898-9348
University of Pennsylvania
3401 Walnut Suite 221a
Email:weh...@isc.upenn.edumailto:weh...@isc.upenn.edu
Phila. PA 19104-6228
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