JDSU testers perform Ethernet speed certification

Thursday, Oct 29, 2009

Two handheld testers from JDSU, the ValidatorPRO and ValidatorPRO-NT, allow enterprise network installers to certify the speed-handling capability of Ethernet cabling, perform optical power measurements, and verify connectivity of WiFi networks. Both test instruments include an optical power meter, while the ValidatorPRO-NT adds PoE (Power over Ethernet) and wireless 802.11b/g/n PoE test capabilities to ensure the performance of copper, fiber, and wireless LAN installations.

Building on the existing Validator and Validator-NT, the ValidatorPRO models offer faster processing speed, more memory, and increased functionality. The units let you certify the data-carrying capabilities of copper Ethernet network cables at speeds of up to 1 Gbps by testing the noise in the network, detecting faults in the cabling, and ensuring that cables are able to support the speed capabilities of active equipment. In addition, the ValidatorPRO-NT provides active network tests to confirm network connectivity using port discovery, ping, and link-layer discovery protocols.

The ValidatorPRO tests for Gigabit Ethernet capability using BER tests that send data packets down specified cable runs at defined data rates to check for errors at the maximum throughput of the link. It also measures SNR and skew to uncover transmission impairments and performs continuity tests to detect opens, shorts, miswires, split pairs, reversals, and high-resistance faults, while measuring distance to faults and total cable length.

Both the ValidatorPRO and ValidatorPRO-NT come with the recently updated Plan-Um software to create network layouts, document cable test results, show network topology, estimate cable length requirements, and record moves, adds, and changes.

Source: TM World