3. Installation
RuggedCom® RuggedBackbone™
26
RX1510 Installation Guide Rev 104
Cabling Category
1000Base-
TX Compliant
Required Action
< 5
No
New wiring infrastructure required.
5
Yes
Verify TIA/EIA-568-A compliance.
5e
Yes
No action required. New installations should be designed with Category 5e or higher.
6
Yes
No action required.
> 6
Yes
Connector and wiring standards to be determined.
Table 3.4. Cabling Categories and 1000Base-TX Compliance
Follow these recommendations for copper data cabling in high electrical noise environments:
• Data cable lengths should be as short as possible, ideally limited to 10' (3m) in length. Copper
data cables should not be used for inter-building communications.
• Power and data cables should not be run in parallel for long distances, and should be installed
in separate conduits. Power and data cables should intersect at 90° angles when necessary
to reduce inductive coupling.
• Optionally, shielded/screened cabling can be used. The cable shield should be grounded at one
single point to avoid the generation of ground loops.
3.7.3. Transient Suppression
All copper Ethernet ports on RuggedCom products include transient suppression circuitry to
protect against damage from electrical transients and to ensure conformance to IEC 61850-3
and IEEE 1613 Class 1. This means that during a transient electrical event, it is possible for
communications errors or interruptions to occur, but recovery is automatic.
RuggedCom does not recommend the use of copper cabling of any length for critical,
real-time, substation automation applications.
RuggedCom also recommends against the use of copper Ethernet connections to interface to
devices in the field across distances which could produce high levels of ground potential rise (that
is, greater than 2500V), during line-to-ground fault conditions.
