Leveraging Existing TERA® Links for Single-Pair Ethernet

By Brian Baum

  Filed under: Intelligent Buildings
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TERA Links Header

TERA Links Header

In a previous blog, we covered how Siemon’s fully-shielded TERA cabling system with its cable sharing capabilities, noise immunity and transmission headroom is ready to support single-pair Ethernet (SPE) deployments for low-speed building control, industrial and other network connections, with guaranteed support of IEEE 802.3cg 10BASE-T1L up to 400 meters.

But did you know that existing 4-pair TERA permanent links can also be easily retrofitted to create 375-meter SPE-ready links? Yup, that’s right. If you already have existing 90-meter 4-pair TERA links, you can add additional connectors, as well as extend your existing infrastructure another 310 meters (285 meters of solid cable and 25 meters of 26 AWG stranded single-pair cordage) to support SPE devices.

Let’s take a closer look at how to do that.

An Easy Extension

To accomplish this, one or more TERA EOs and/or SCP outlets can be added after the existing EO or SCP outlet, up to 285 meters away. From the final EO, use single-pair TERA patch cords to connect up to four SPE devices. Device connections can be achieved using cords fitted with 1-pair TERA plugs on one-end and traditional screw terminal interface connections or single-pair pluggable equipment connections on the other. Just make sure your patch cords at both ends don’t exceed 25 meters, for a total channel length of 400 meters.

The following example depicts a retrofit for an access control network with SPE keypad, exit button, wall reader and electronic door strike. This would be an ideal scenario for a facility that was precabled with 90-meter 4-pair TERA permanent links (either to an EO or SCP outlet) when the network was installed but now needs to extend TERA SPE cabling to support low-speed access control devices out in a warehouse.

Infrastructure Diagram

If your existing TERA links terminate to TERA SCP outlets in a zone enclosure, and you prefer the zone cabling benefits of simplified labelling and administration and shorter, easy-to-manage links, you can even deploy a second zone enclosure housing SCP outlets. From the TERA SCP outlets in the second zone enclosure, you can then deploy single-pair TERA cords to devices or extend 4-pair category 7A/class FA cable to a TERA EO, as long as the total permanent link does not exceed 375 meters and the channel doesn’t exceed 400 meters.

A Common IoT/IIoT Platform

As outlined in Siemon’s latest Tech Brief on TERA SPE deployments, TERA also supports Day 1 SPE infrastructure consisting of 375-meter permanent links from the patch panel in the TR to EOs or SCP outlets in a zone enclosure.

And don’t forget that TERA also supports 2- and 4-pair 90-meter links to support 10/100/1000 Mb/s and 10 Gb/s Ethernet applications, which is ideal for Wi-Fi 6/6E technology in IT environments and shows significant potential for IIoT devices in OT environments. In fact, a recent report from Guidehouse Insights entitled Wi-Fi 6 and the IIoT forecasts that industrial Wi-Fi 6 infrastructure will grow from $1.7 billion in 2021 to $6.9 billion in 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of 16.8%.

In short, innovative TERA components deliver a standards-based common networking platform with non-proprietary category-style cabling for all 1-, 2- and 4-pair IoT and IIoT devices in the enterprise space.

Access Siemon’s latest Tech Brief and learn more about supporting retrofit, future-proof and new SPE installations with TERA.

Video Demonstration:
Supporting Single-Pair Ethernet over 400 m of Category-Style Four-Pair Copper Cabling

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