The question that buyers often ask: why doesn't a structured cabling solution give the touted performance despite the use of standard-compliant cables?

This brings up the issue of component-level compliance into play, as against the hitherto focus on channel-level compliance.

Network managers are also keen to evaluate and compare value-adds offered by various vendors. They are increasingly waking up to the benefits of intelligent features of the cabling systems.

The higher-frequency cables have made component-level compliance to standards very important.

As one goes up from Cat 5e to Cat 6 and so on, component-level compliance as per the ratified standard becomes a crucial factor. The testing process of a Cat 6 solution is more rigid than that of Cat 5e. The technology used in Cat 6 is different than that in Cat 5e. In Cat 6, all the four pairs are used as against Cat 5e where mostly two pairs are used to achieve 100 Mbps. In Cat 6, one has to measure losses in all the four pairs with power sum effects.

Also, as one moves from Cat 5e to Cat 6 and higher, the installations become more difficult and stringent. New parameters make field testing more complex such as equal-level far-end crosstalk (ELFEXT), powersum equal-level far-end crosstalk, and alien crosstalk. For these, we need highly skilled installers and field testing equipments that have Level 4 specification on all components and give accurate results as proposed by ISO/IEC to test Class F links.

Component-level compliance really enables interoperability among vendors. With Cat 6, this is very much required, as several vendors launched solutions initially that could not be interchanged with other vendors products. Fortunately, Cat A6 is only an addendum to the current Cat 6 specification, and designs at the component level should already be interchangeable. That being said, sellers of full end-to-end solutions will be focusing on global infrastructure solutions and talking about full systems with components in full compliance.

One must note here that component-level compliance will not necessarily lead to channel compliance. Hence, equal emphasis has to be given to both component and channel compliances with standards. As the rated frequency increases from Cat 5e through Cat 6 to Cat A6, the emphasis on all parameters, including component/channel compliance increases.