Wires & Cables

CommScope ahead of the pack<!--top7-->

CommScope’s Systimax imVision, the next-generation intelligent infrastructure solution

CommScope, the global market and technology leader in advanced network infrastructure solutions, expects to see 10 to 15 per cent growth in its business in the Gulf region year on year, a senior official tells this magazine.

Ciaran Forde, the company’s vice president, enterprise, Middle East and Africa (MEA), also said the biggest markets in the MEA are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt but that the Gulf had proved to be a “fantastic” market with appreciation for high-tech solutions that is still very solid despite the influx of inferior products.

CommScope offers a full range of structured cabling solutions for enterprise networks, data centres and oil and gas. These cover optical fibre, copper twisted pair and coax and control cables.

Forde said the company’s best-selling solution is GigaSPEED X10D which is a Category 6a system to support applications up to 10 Gbits while the best-selling optical cable is LazrSPEED 550, a special OM4 multimode cable that can support 10 Gbits. CommScope’s solutions for the MEA market are manufactured in Europe and the US but a cable assembly operation exists in Saudi Arabia.

Forde: the Gulf has high appreciation for
high-tech solutions

“CommScope with its Systimax brand has been established in the region since the mid-1990s and enjoys market leader position, so supply is continuous,” said Forde. He named some notable projects that had CommScope involvement and these were Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall, Cleveland Clinic, Zayed University (all in the UAE), Muscat Airport and Central Bank of Oman (both in Oman), Doha Airport in Qatar and Princess Noura University in Saudi Arabia.

Discussing the latest buzz, Forde commented there has been much misinformation in the market about the future of cabling for 40G systems (next-generation Ethernet). “Unfortunately some customers were led to believe Category 7a was the way forward. Both the USA TIA standards body and the Global ISO standards body have stated that a new standard called Category 8 is required. This now gives clarity to clients.” He added that CommScope recently issued a press release showing a proof of concept for a Category 8 solution.

“There are many exciting conversations taking place around the office here in Dubai at CommScope since our recent press release announcing the successful demonstration of next-generation Category 8 cabling at the International Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 NGBASE-T study group meeting in Phoenix, Arizona (US),” Forde said.

“All components for this demonstration were developed by CommScope engineering staff and are compliant with the draft ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1 specifications. To recognise advances in technology and harmonise with TIA, ISO/IEC/JTC1/SC25/WG3 also adapted the names Category 8.1 and 8.2 for components used to build Class I and Class II channels in support of 40G applications.

“One important thing to note is why the feasibility of using twisted-pair-copper cabling (with RJ-45 connectors) to support 40 Gb/s is so critical to the overall market. The RJ-45 connector is with no doubt one of the most common connector types used in data networks. As the market continues to grow from 1 Gb/s to 10 Gb/s, the backward compatibility of this technology will continue to be of extreme importance as work continues towards 40 Gb/s. This will allow data centre operators to evolve their networks based on changing requirements and do so with the least amount of disruption and cost to their networks.

“Additionally, twisted-pair-copper cabling has proven to be an extremely cost-effective solution and designers, installers, and customers have a lot of experience and confidence in copper-based networks. While the eventual deployment of 40G-based copper solutions is still a few years out, this technology will allow organisations to think about how they are deploying copper-based solutions today with an eye to the future. Doing so correctly will help ensure infrastructure costs are well managed from both a product and support standpoint.”