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This Month:

Career Professionals vs Mediocre or Outright Incompetence

 

The ancient Greek society over 25 centuries ago followed strict specifications and applied qualitative control in the materials that they used in building their society. The Japanese after World War II implemented quality assurance programs.

Today western nations generally pursue quality based production versus typical low cost and less quality based products from the Far East, notably China. This certainly provides purchasing choices in our society.

In this discussion we are narrowing the focus to networking technology, wired or wireless. These networks on any given day may have hundreds or even thousands of users accessing them for voice, data or video transmissions. Throughout the history of telephone companies they engineered, constructed and maintained high quality for reliability. This included significant training on employees. One could imagine that in today’s networks with vast amounts of information flowing that the quality of networks is even more critically important.

Yet, AIR802 in hundreds of conversations daily with customers is shocked by the lack of knowledge, education, or outright concern for quality often out of sheer ignorance. This certainly is cause for concern about our society. In a 2016 report, “Best Countries for Education” by US News and World Report, Germany was ranked first, with Canada in second place and the United Kingdom in third place. The United States came in as fourth place.

Daily we see customers whom have purchased cheap low cost coaxial connectors only to discover numerous issues. Or those who purchased low cost antenna cables from a non-brand quality manufacturer, which are almost always poor quality cable and low cost Chinese connectors. The common comment “it works” certainly shows the level of ignorance. When asked if they tested it or had a test report from the manufacturer and the answer is always no, but that they had signal.

Or how about those that purchased the $0.90 Ethernet Cat5e or Cat6 patch cords versus the $3.50 patch cord and made the comment “it works”. Incredibly they don’t realize the critical importance of the UL safety mark (or lack thereof) or “ETL Verified” or other 3^rd party performance guarantee. Worse they don’t understand what is happening to the data transmission throughput in the networks where these products are utilized.

We will discuss each of the types of examples in more detail in future articles and outline the issues behind each. The old adage that “you get what you pay for” certainly holds true, especially in networking.

There are certainly many professionals that understand the critical nature of quality in building and maintaining networks. However all too often there is a serious lack of knowledge leading to poor choices. AIR802, as a quality based manufacturer, will do our part in trying to provide education material. However it will take a shift in attitudes at a larger scale to get folks to spend the time and money to learn the needed fundamentals.

Click Here to read Part 2 of “Quality in our Society”

Five Quick Tips About Power over Ethernet (PoE)

As with as type of job, having the correct type of equipment is crucial. That is no different when working with Power over Ethernet devices. Understanding the equipment is the first step in making the correct equipment decision for whatever the job may be. Here are five quick informational tips for working with Power over Ethernet devices:

1. Refer to the datasheet of the device being powered. It should specify the type of PoE.

A. if it simply states, PoE, then it is likely passive voltage, i.e., the voltage does not require any “communication” between the power source and the device being powered

 B. if it states 802.3af, then be sure to use an 802.3af compliant power source

C. if it states 802.3at, the device requires higher levels of power and you will need an 802at compliant power source

2.    Passive PoE is used on 10/100 Mbps interfaces. It will not be used with Gigabit interfaces. It will use the two unused pairs in a four pair Ethernet cable.

3.    If using a device with passive PoE, consider the voltage requirement. If it is a camera that came with a 5vdc power supply, then distance will be an issue. The voltage drop over a 20 feet cable with  24awg size wire can result in 4.5 vdc available at the camera causing it to be inoperable. For this check out the AIR802 model PSA612V which is a power supply with four selectable voltages (6, 7.5, 9 and 12vdc) to compensate for the loss. If the power supply that came with your equipment is higher voltage, for example 24 vdc or 48vdc then voltage drop will become much less of an issue.

4.  Ethernet switches are almost all IEEE 802.3af or 803.at and thus will not power a passive or non-standard device.

5.   IEEE 802.3af/at devices operate at 48vdc+. Passive PoE devices generally can be anywhere from 5 to 48 vdc.

 

For more info on POE solutions and to browse our full line of top quality POE products visit our website – air802.com

Michael Bryant, Co-Founder of AIR802 Corporation, was invited to and participated in a meeting with senior Administration officials at the White House to discuss international trade policy. This was a unique opportunity that few individuals ever get to experience; giving Michael a chance to expand upon his extensive knowledge of international trade policies affecting small and medium sized U.S. businesses such as AIR802. It was also an opportunity to share his input with senior officials on the new trade partnership: the Trans- Pacific Partnership.

AIR802 strongly supports the new Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement among 12 Pacific Rim countries. It is a forward looking agreement which for the first time an international trade agreement has specific support for small and medium size companies for exporting their products, which are Made-in-USA. One often hears political commentary that trade agreements have caused manufacturing jobs to shift overseas. The reality is that this will happen with or without a trade agreement. Thus, the real point of trade agreements is glossed over; even without trade agreements foreign companies can import almost anything into the USA at very low tariff rates.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies exporting into these same countries has been difficult due to high import tariffs. With the TPP now removing the tariffs from these trading partners we can compete fairly; which will generate more international sales and thus job growth here in the USA. Buyers worldwide perceive U.S. made goods as quality and desire them. As China is not a member of the TPP the agreement provides a strong partnership that counters China’s growing influence worldwide. Thus, the TPP is an important strategic agreement from both a political and economic perspective. It will greatly benefit small and medium sized American companies, such as AIR802, that are in the business of exporting their products internationally.

Originally Wi-Fi, under the 802.11b and 802.11g standards utilized the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band in addition to cordless phones and other devices. As Wi-Fi proliferated, the 2400 to 2485 MHz band became highly congested and provided insufficient bandwidth in the 20 MHz channels. Utilization of the 5.25 GHz to 5.8 GHZ unlicensed spectrum originally commonly used by the 802.11a Wi-Fi standard has become commonly used in more recent years under the newer 802.11n and 802.11ac standards.

In 2014, the FCC, which had previously restricted the 5.15 to 5.25 GHz to indoors opened up this spectrum to outdoor use also. Wi-Fi, especially with the 5.1 to 5.8 GHz band has become the transmission on-ramp of Internet access, security camera networks and more.

Unlicensed spectrum implies that nobody pays to use it. Thus it is an enabler of new technologies, applications and product inventions. Cellular carriers utilize licensed spectrum, purchased by them for their use only. In fact, in a February, 2015 FCC auction the cellular industry bought approximately $45 billion in frequency spectrum. Increased demand and usage of cellular networks has the interest of many in the industry.
In 2015, Qualcomm and others began pushing LTE unlicensed, or LTE-U. A battle between the supporting and non-supporting entities ensued. Google, cable TV companies and others argued against LTE-U for the potential interference with Wi-Fi. Qualcomm and its supporters argued that technology could mitigate any concern.

The FCC began studying the issue and in January 29, 2016 granted Qualcomm a small scale trial at two Verizon Wireless locations.

Ratcheting up technology, Qualcomm announced just last month a new modem that supports the technology, Licensed Assisted Access (LAA). This technology will allow carriers with as little as 20 MHz of licensed spectrum to offer Gigabit Class LTE through the unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. Even more recently, Ericsson, the manufacturer of equipment at Verizon and T-Mobile is offering Gigabit LTE, requiring 60 MHz of licensed and unlicensed spectrum.

These developments are an issue of concern to anyone deploying or utilizing networks over the 5 GHz band. Whether you consider this encroachment public theft of the 5 GHz band or are agreeable to sharing with carriers it is something to be aware of and follow as developments unfold.

For most electronics purchasers, corporate or retail, the “UL-Listed” mark is the last word in safety assurance. And why wouldn’t it be? For as long as anyone can remember, UL’s familiar logo provides peace of mind when buying anything from a toaster oven to the highest-tech computer and networking components. And that’s where Air802 excels. We know that not all network cables – ethernet, USB, coaxial, and others – are created equal, and we also know that our cables are unmatched in safety and quality. There’s no reason not to take our word for it – but our UL listing erases all doubt.

In fact, our cables meet such high standards that we’ve put them up to an even more exacting and extensive quality certification test: the ETL listing. Over the course of a year and a half, our equipment was subject to stringent examination to ensure that it met the most elite electrical performance standards. We weren’t surprised, but we were certainly proud, to join the select list of ETL-certified cabling companies. With all the considerations to take into account when wiring a new network – and there are many – our dual UL and ETL listings let you know that the safety and quality of our cables is not something you’ll have to worry about. Questions? Visit our full site!