The use of Ideal's LANTEK10GBKIT 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) networks in LAN and data storage environments brings a whole new challenge to network designers and cabling installers.

The Ideal LANTEK-10GB-KIT consists of two dual-port AXT adapters and twelve specialized AXT terminators. With the LANTEK-10GBKIT and a simple software update, any LANTEK 6A or 7G LAN Cable Certifier can be upgraded to offer standards compliant alien crosstalk testing.

Alien Crosstalk (AXT) is a side effect of transmitting ever-increasing frequencies over twisted pair cabling that needs to be tested in addition to traditional certification to ensure that inter-cable crosstalk does not hamper 10GbE data transmission.

The Ideal LANTEK 10 Gigabit Alien Crosstalk kit works by performing a series of tests on a bundle of cabling l inks that measure the coupling of high frequency energy from several links to a common link within the bundle. The common link in this series of measurements is referred to as the victim or disturbed link because it is the one that is being influenced by the surrounding links. The links that surround the victim link are called the disturbers.

When performing alien crosstalk field-testing with the Ideal LANTEK-10GB KIT on a cabling plant the general method involves what is called the 6-around-1 (6A1) test. This describes the situation where a single victim link is tested with at least 6 disturber links. The typical diameter of a Category 6 or 6A cable creates a natural bundle where six links will form uniformly around the center cable.

Performing a 100% alien crosstalk test in a cabling plant is impractical and virtually impossible in large cabling plants. Using the 6-around-1 method, the formula to determine the number of tests that would need to be run for 100% coverage is (n2+n)/2 where n is the number of links in the installation. For example, in an installation with 100 links, a total of 5,050 tests would need to be run to test every possible combination. In a 500-link installation the total number of tests climbs to 125,250 tests when testing every possible combination. Therefore the ISO/IEC 61935-1 standard provides guidelines for sample testing.