Exploring the Revolution of Single Pair Ethernet: A Conversation with AEM Precision Cable Test

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Also , we're always looking out for corporate sponsors , so if your company values line with educate , encourage and enrich , make sure you reach out to me one of the social media platforms and let's have a discussion . Single Pair Ethernet it's coming . They're doing it now , but it's going to come into its fruition probably in the next 12 to 18 months .

So you need to start learning these things now . What is Single Pair Ethernet ? How do you install Single Pair Ethernet ? How do you test Single Pair Ethernet ? Well , it's a good thing that Chuck knows a couple subject matter experts . Of course , you know that's going to be the folks from AEM . So welcome back to the show , lisa Schwartz and Steve Giles .

How are you guys doing ? Great ?

You know that you have 30 years of experience and well , if they're watching the show , they would have recognized you from an episode a couple of weeks back .

I'm always watching what people are asking about , trying to stay plugged in , because it's from my current day job . It's kind of hard to do that because I'm so hyper focused on what I do during the day that I don't really get a chance to see what technicians are really asking about .

And I've seen a lot of confusion and a lot of questions about single pair Ethernet , right . So I figured you know I know two people who can discuss this , wax poetic about this . So , lisa , what can you tell us ? What is single pair Ethernet and how it might be different from traditional Ethernet ?

You can even run power over Ethernet over it and it's primarily being used right now in automotive applications and in automation and industrial environments is primarily where we're seeing it .

The workflow as far as setting up the tester to run according to the standards , actually performing the test , saving the test , getting printed results there's no difference .

So this is the APHC that you're talking about , chuck , for our normal four pair . This is what we're going to see for single pair ethernet and structured cabling . That's an LC , it is a copper . It's referred to as the LC connector , so that's going to be the one that's predominant when it comes to our structured cabling scenarios in single pair ethernet .

You can see a big difference in the cable diameter here . Both of these are 23 gauge . This is cat 6a here and this one is a single pair 23 gauge . Now there is a distance limitation when you use 23 gauge in single pair . So 23 gauge , you can go 400 meters . That's still four times what we can do on a four pair ethernet .

If you go down to 18 gauge , you can go 1,000 meters on it . Now one differentiator there is on our four-period ethernet we're running minimum of a gig in most applications and some people are running 10 gig on these things . So with single-period ethernet we're going to be boiling that down to 10 meg , 10 meg connection .

So it's different from that standpoint and , as Lisa mentioned , it's because it's low bandwidth . We don't need that high rate of speed . We're offloading things like occupancy sensors and access controls , those kind of things .

And when he said 400 meters , and I know the cameras , like you said , the simple security , not the 4K cameras with pan-tilted , just a basic security camera . 100 meg , Steve , I think right , Is a good bandwidth for a camera kind of like that .

We can get power any from 7.7 to 52 watts on single pair ethernet , depending on the gauge of the wire and the distance that you're running . So there is that power option as well . So if you've got that camera and it needs power because you've got no remote power , you've got a solution . If it's a lower bandwidth camera , there you go .

Well , I don't know if it can qualify , my mind is a great mind , but it's a mind . I'm minded all the time . Steve , mr Testerman , yes , sir , what are some testing equipment or tools that somebody might need if they're looking to get into single pair ethernet testing ?

Here it's just a single pair ethernet test adapter . The benefit of that is now the technician has got , as Lisa mentioned , the same workflow . The test setup is going to be the same . It's just using a different limit . The tester automatically senses it's an SBE and it'll switch to SBE . But other manufacturers may have adapters like that to go with them .

Other manufacturers may have to reinvent the wheel and have a separate piece of test equipment . It's best to consult with your manufacturer of whatever test equipment you're using . The challenge for test equipment manufacturers is the frequency range .

Without getting into the engineering weeds , we're testing at a much higher frequency range for our four pair cable With single pair ethernet . You've got to go down to a lower frequency range . But you also have to change the steps at which you test . You've got to test at more frequent steps every 20 kilohertz at the low frequency range .

Your four pair testers are doing it at every 150 kilohertz . There's many more data points in that test and they're all at a much lower frequency . If the tester can't do that , they're going to have to come up with a separate piece of test equipment .

But I envision that as this technology develops , more and more test equipment manufacturers are going to step forward with a solution . Right now , single pair ethernet is very much on the leading edge .

It's not being installed in all of our smart buildings right now , but as that starts to grow , you're going to start to see more equipment manufacturers offering a test solution .

Let's say it's one that's like like I don't know , five miles that way right from my house , yeah , and they want to buy . And they want to buy a single pair of you can adapt to so they can start testing it . What kind of investment are those adapters ?

But it is a standard test adapter so it's not going to be like buying a whole new piece of equipment , right yeah ?

me . So far , everything you said is something , and I concur with Lisa , anybody can do this . If you can do four pair cable , you can do this .

But yeah , absolutely so . When we look at test results for category rated four pair cabling , people have problems analyzing that , which I don't understand why . Because once you understand the basic principles , it's pretty easy . Don't let your lines go below the red line . Make sure there's a good , clear spot . It's pretty self-evident .

How can we interpret the test results for a single pair ethernet test ?

You've got your tester information up top the limit that you use . All this information is here . You've got your test results and I can kind of zoom in on this a little bit , make it a little easier to see . So we've got our length and prop delay .

So you're looking at , you know your value here , what your limit is , and you've got your pass fail or informational and then your RF parameters same thing . You've got your limits , your margins and then your plots . And obviously you know the red line is our limit line .

So you don't want to see anything below that or above it , depending on how you've got it set up . An SPE test . It's going to look very similar . Let me blow this up to 100% so we can look at it . Same kind of information , but it's less information up here at the top .

We're not testing as many things here when compared with what we've got for our four pair . And the same thing down here . We get into the RF parameters . Fewer RF parameters . We're only doing return loss , insertion loss and if it's unshielded we're going to be doing TCL , eltctl .

If it is a shielded cable it gets even simpler because the TCL and the ELTCTL go away , they're not needed . And again you've got limit lines and you've got your plots and you've got a simple wire map .

You know , in this case you have the one pair and a shield , so it's you've actually gotten less to interpret and with things like that return loss and insertion loss there's , you're pretty much limiting what you have to troubleshoot when it comes to trying to figure out what's going on with that cable , because we're just let me stop this share here so it doesn't

look too goofy so insertion loss and return loss are your big ones there , right ? And of course , length , length . You've got a thousand meters , so you know that's length is length . It's the same as looking at a four pair test , just a different limit , and return loss and insertion loss .

It's going to be the same troubleshooting techniques that we do when we're doing four pair Return loss .

We're looking for a compatibility issue between the connector and the cabling , or poor termination , insertion loss , excessive length , or potentially , maybe the connector and combination of the cable , or possibly something happened to the cable during installation , those kind of things . So it's going to be the same process but there's fewer points where it can fail .

You're not looking at near end crosstalk , you're not looking at ACRF , you're not looking at any of those parameters . So it's fewer parameters for the tech to look at .

of environments . I can easily see why those would be critical things I want to look at . And when you show those pictures it looked even simpler than a category rated cat 5e . It's pretty simple .

But make sure that you do perform a set reference when you and we recommend that when you get any test any new test adapters for your equipment always perform a set reference procedure . That's just good practice .

But for SPE you definitely want to make sure you do that and if you have a cable that's the same cabling that you're using for the testing , it's preferred to use that when you're doing that set reference for the SPE . That way you're kind of dialed in on that cable , if you will .

The other thing is make sure you've got your cable selection in there done properly . Now , as more and more SPE comes out , you're going to see more cables added to our cable library and it's important to choose the correct cable because that MVP , nominal velocity propagation , comes into play again and that's that number that the manufacturer specifies .

It's basically the speed limit of the cable and that is critical to the length measurement being accurate .

At that point , you know , if I tell you to get in your on your motorcycle and ride for one hour and you have to ride at 70 miles an hour , how far do you drive ? And most , most people say , well , 70 miles . That's how easy that calculation is . And you know two of the three things . That's right .

That's why I always try to make sure that I always kind of try to clarify them Right . Is is single pair ethernet cable . Is it even category rated ?

I'm assuming that's going to also affect single pair ethernet too . But what is single pair ethernet might be more susceptible to than a regular category rated cable would be susceptible to .

They're a smaller cable with just a single pair and shielded or unshielded in that jacket , that's likely going to dissipate that heat a little easier . But it's again . It comes back to the bundling . So how much of it are you bundling ? And I don't know of any specifics on , you know , any bundle derating , like we do with four pair .

You know , letting you know that you've got to take this into consideration . But heat always affects resistance and resistance affects how the cable performs . It affects insertion loss . You know resistance is kind of the enemy right . So the more we can keep the resistance down , the better we are and heat will impact that .

So my guess is it's going to be a similar impact . Whether one's going to perform better than the other in a hot environment I don't know .

But if you're powering your low bandwidth devices over a single pair instead of using a four pair , you've got less copper conductors that are generating heat , because you really , even if you're using four pair , you're using at least two pairs for PoE , whereas we're only going to use one pair here .

So you know there may be some advantage on the single pair when it comes to the heat dissipation .

But also another reason we got to be careful about bundle sizes because if you have really big bundles and going through J hooks or going through Lata rack , you know the weight of the bundle can crush those cables on the bottom which will affect those pairs getting closer to each other and interfering with each other .

And you said single-pair anything that's just two conductors . So I guess the impact for like J hooks or Lata rack if I guess well , you still want to try to put the cable in as best you can there's not going to be as much emphasis on the weight deforming the cable jacket , correct ? Yeah ?

Obviously , you only got a single pair , but when we think about it with four-pair cabling , we're always thinking about the four pairs within the cable . And if that cable gets crushed , you're changing the geometry of the pair which can generate more crosstalk from that pair to other pairs Single-pair we're not dealing with that same thing . It's one pair per cable .

Now could you have crosstalk from one single-pair ethernet cable to another ? Yeah , you probably could , but if they're shielded single-pair ethernet cables and they're terminated properly , that just goes out the window .

Now , that being said , if you pile a gazillion single-pair ethernet cables into a cable tray , the ones on the bottom are going to be under stress , and there are other things that happen . The impedance is infected because , as that insulation compresses on the conductors and the shield compresses , you're changing the impedance of the cable .

So you could have other effects . So you're making me think about this on the fly , and I'm thinking there's probably a whole bunch of other installation things that need to be considered when it comes to single-pair ethernet .

There's a couple different kinds of connectors so it'll depend on what kind of connector they're being asked to terminate , what their termination time is on that connection type . You know , gosh , other than that , you know , I think they're probably just going to look at the same things that they always look at .

I mean , I'm struggling to think of anything that's super different or special , and it's not . I mean , they're going to fall right into this . You know just like they're doing the forepair .

I think one of the things that I just want to highlight is we are a little bit ahead of the curve right now with SPE , because you know there's a very small handful of cable manufacturers who have released SPE cable or have it in the works , and one of the big things that's lagging is in devices that can actually connect to single-pair ethernet .

And , steve , I don't know about you , I have not heard myself of any specific switches , cameras of course we modified one but very specific devices that are meant to run over this stuff broadly yet . So I think there's still quite a bit of time for folks to get their heads around the technology before it really starts hitting mainstream .

I've not yet seen anything get written into any job specifications yet . Everything's still , you know your traditional forepair and fiber optic . So I think we're still a little bit of a ways away .

But I think what's great about what you're doing , chuck , is you're bringing the technology to light so people can start taking a look at it , getting educated on it , because one day there's a bid spec that's going to come and it's going to be on there and you want to be ready .

What might be coming down the pike ?

Have you heard of anything beyond those ?

What they're doing is they're using the SPE cabling because there's no devices that they can connect to the endpoints yet and the switches aren't there yet . They're actually using remember we used to use media converters to go from like a 100 base T to a fiber connection .

They're using like a 10 base T to a 10 base T1L , so RJ45 ethernet to single pair ethernet converter and you can put these at each end of the single pair cabling . So you can now install a single pair cabling . For now you put the media converters essentially at each end of the cabling and you can go into whatever switch and device you want to .

The other thing that and I can't remember the manufacturer that has this , but there is a way of utilizing the four pair and running your four single pair ethernets over the four pair and at the far end you actually split them out , kind of like workgroup cabling , if you will , where you're running SPE .

You know , as long as these devices are within , yeah , a certain range of each other , run your SPE cabling from that point . So like a consolidation point or work or a workgroup we used to call them . So that's the kind of things we're starting to see that that people are implementing , until we get all the devices out there that have the cameras .

I was at a show back in May in South Carolina it was the the yeah tech fast . When we were there , chuck , we had what was showing the SPE connectors I had . They were running SPE tests . They had a camera manufacturer there and the guy came over .

He was really excited about looking at this , this connector , because they they wanted to look at doing that with cameras . So it's coming .

You know , however far in the future you say this bit , how far away would you think we are From seeing more equipment , more , more devices come online for single pair ether ? How much of a time frame does the person listen to listen to show ?

How much of a time frame Do they have to learn to become efficient with single pair ethernet before they start seeing a lot of influx on those devices ?

And and again to clarify , it's not gonna take the place of our four pair ethernet . It's , it's right , it's not gonna replace running your desktop applications over a one gig solution . That's not what it's for . It's to free up bandwidth from our main network by offloading these low bandwidth devices .

So it's going to supplement the four pair cabling system , reduce the demand on the regular network , reduce the the amount of four pair cabling that we have to use , which Reduces the raw materials . It all goes into sustainability . We're all aware of that . So there's a lot of benefits we're gonna start to see .

So I'd say you're gonna start to see the , the gear by this time next year and then by by 2025 , you know , early to mid 2025 , we're gonna start to see it . On specifications , yeah , yeah .

That's why I asked you that question , because you obviously get way more interactions than than I do and I kind of jealous that I don't get to go to more events . But you know , hey , it is what is so , at least this one's for you . So we have some time we need to learn .

Is there any good resources out there now that are available to technicians , or or maybe that estimator , to learn more about single pair ethernet ?

I Can't think of any specific edge of educational resources , because a Lot of the stuff's just not out there yet .

Another group by mon is is the smart building group and you know I'll tell you , single pair ethernet's a small little portion of what we're discussing and it's just because there's just not a lot of stuff out there yet .

But I think as we start to see devices start to roll out , we see more cable manufacturers start to come out with the technologies , then we will start to see resources .

There was a SPE session in the last one and there may be one in the one coming up in January as well . So Always look and see what's coming up at the Vixie conferences because you can get good education there . But reach out to us because as things change , you know we'll . We'll probably be doing some more things .

We'll probably have another webinar coming up on SPE . So you know , follow us on LinkedIn , follow us on Facebook . Whatever you know media platform use is , as we get more information about SPE and as we find Sources for education like this , we'll definitely be sharing those on our social media platforms .

The on-demand version of that webinar is on our website , but that webinar was actually also converted into an editorial article for ICT magazine magazine and that article is also available on our website and it's it goes a little bit deep and actually , steve , it talks about you know the step sizes and you know Different things you have to be aware of , and it it

is done from the perspective of both the cable manufacturer and a test equipment manufacturer . So that is coming together to talk about this technology . So that's a great Article .

That way , if somebody wants to go watch it , because I'm gonna go watch , I probably have already watched it , but I've slept since then so I don't remember if I've watched .