Install environment · Plant telephone room

Gigabit over the plant's CAT3 phone wire

Fiber in, Cat6 for everything inside 100 m, and the old phone pairs for everything past it: an AX-24, an EX-24 and a GL-24xT in the plant's telephone room.

1. 1

   An old plant's telephone room

   Every phone in this plant runs back to one room: a painted plywood backboard, a column of 66 blocks and a key telephone system. The station cable is CAT3, pulled decades ago, and it reaches offices well past 100 m from the room.

2. 2

   The 66 block and the CAT3 pair

   Each station cable is punched down on the left of a 66 block, one conductor per row. Bridging clips tie it to the right side, where a jumper runs up to the key system's block. The blue pair is the phone line. CAT3 is rated for 10/100 Ethernet, never for gigabit.

3. 3

   Fiber in: the AX-24

   The upgrade starts with fiber. Single-mode from the plant's MDF lands on an AX-24 at the top of a small 2-post rack, and short 10G LC patch cords feed the two switches below it. A second strand carries on to other buildings.

4. 4

   Cat6 inside 100 m: the EX-24

   Everything within 100 m of the room gets Cat6 from an EX-24: gigabit and PoE++ to a supervisor's desk, a Wi-Fi AP and a camera on the plant floor, each on its own home run on its own J-hooks.

5. 5

   Past 100 m: a GL-24xT for the phone pairs

   For the offices Cat6 cannot reach, a 1U GL-24xT takes the CAT3 phone pairs: 24 ReadyLink RJ45 telephone-pair ports, with a 10G uplink patched from the AX-24. Each port serves one pair, point to point.

6. 6

   Cross-connect: patch panel to the 66 block

   Patch cords run from the GL-24xT to the patch panel. Behind the panel, a pair of jumper wire goes to the station side of the 66 block, where the key-system jumper used to land. The same CAT3 pair now carries ReadyLink. The rows you have not moved stay phone lines.

7. 7

   Past 100 m, where Ethernet stops

   The station cable runs along the plant wall on J-hooks. Gigabit Ethernet stops at 100 m, and needs Cat5e or better to run at all. On one CAT3 pair ReadyLink measured 1390 Mbps at 100 m, and holds gigabit to about 110 m; on two pairs, to about 250 m.

8. 8

   IPC-1T-DECORA: the phone jack, replaced in place

   In the production office, 110 m of cable from the block, the old jack's plate comes off. The station pair lands on the IPC-1T-DECORA's terminal, and its Decora plate goes in the same box. Powered over the pair, it gives the laptop gigabit Ethernet. No new cable, no power supply.

9. 9

   IPC-8T: a whole shop on one pair

   The maintenance shop, 150 m out, where one pair measured 850 Mbps. An IPC-8T on the bench patches into the old jack and gives the shop eight 2.5GbE PoE++ ports: a PC, a printer, a VoIP phone, a camera and a Wi-Fi access point, cabled along a tray on the wall.

10. 10

    IPC-4T: phone, printer and camera

    The shipping office is 200 m out, where one pair measured 700 Mbps. An IPC-4T on the desk takes the pair and feeds a VoIP phone and a dock camera with PoE++, and the label printer, from its 2.5GbE ports.

11. 11

    Managed in ReadyView

    The AX-24, EX-24 and GL-24xT are provisioned and monitored in ReadyView, and the IPC-1T-DECORA, IPC-8T and IPC-4T show up through the GL-24xT. The next office is one more jumper on the block and one more patch cord, whenever the plant is ready.