Hand-held tester and method for local area network cabling

• US 7,479,776 B2
• Filed: 01/24/2005
• Issued: 01/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ideal Industries Networks Limited (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Ideal Industries Incorporated
• Inventors: Renken, Gerald W., Pivonka, Edward, Davis, Keith H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gutierrez; Diego
• Assistant Examiner(s): He; Amy
• Application Number:
  US11/042,003
• Publication Number:
  US 20050174949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,457 Days
• Field of Search: 324/66, 324/539, 324/601, 324/543
• US Class Current: 324/66
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/462 Testing group delay or phase shift, e.g. timing jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 3/466 Testing attenuation in combination with at least one of group delay and phase shift
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/26 using dedicated tools for LAN [Local Area Network] management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements

Abstract

A LAN tester has display and remote units each having a connector jack attached to an adapter board for connection to the plug of a patch cord. Both the display and remote units have circuits which are capable of measuring the phase between a drive signal voltage and the corresponding coupled or reflected signal due to the drive signal. Scattering parameters for the mated connector pairs and the patch cord itself are measured during a field calibration. A computer in one or both of the tester units stores the measured scattering parameters and uses the scattering parameters to move the reference plane to any desired location along the patch cord. Channel link or permanent link tests can be conducted using the same equipment.

Claims

1. In a LAN cabling testing system of the type having a display unit and a remote unit and first and second patch cords, the patch cords each terminating at first and second plugs, and the display and remote units each having a jack for receiving a patch cord plug, a plug and jack when connected comprising a mated connector pair, the display and remote units each having means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other unit through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested, an improved method of testing LAN cabling comprising the steps of:

a) calibrating the patch cords and mated connector pairs, calibration including the step of measuring the scattering parameters of the mated connector pairs and the patch cords;

b) connecting the first patch cord to the display unit and one end of the link to be tested, and connecting the second patch cord to the remote unit and to the other end of the link to be tested;

c) measuring the total link;

d) using the scattering parameters of the mated connector pairs to move the reference planes at the display unit and remote unit to the necessary locations for performing channel link testing and storing or displaying the channel link results; and

e) using the scattering parameters of the mated connector pairs and the patch cords to move the reference planes at the display unit and remote unit to the necessary locations for performing permanent link testing and storing or displaying the permanent link results.

2. In a LAN cabling testing system of the type having a display unit and a remote unit and first and second patch cords, the patch cords each having cordage terminating at first and second plugs, and the display and remote units each having a jack for receiving a patch cord plug, a plug and jack when connected comprising a mated connector pair, the display and remote units each having means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other unit through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested, an improved method of testing LAN cabling comprising the steps of:

a) measuring the characteristics of the patch cords and mated connector pairs;

b) connecting the first patch cord to the display unit and one end of the link to be tested, and connecting the second patch cord to the remote unit and to the other end of the link to be tested;

c) measuring the characteristics of the total link;

d) calculating channel link measurements by de-embedding from the total link measurements the characteristics of the mated connector pairs; and

e) calculating permanent link measurements by de-embedding from the channel link calculation the characteristics of the patch cord cordage.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of storing the channel link calculation.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of storing the permanent link calculation.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of comparing the channel link calculation with a selected industry standard and displaying a pass or fail indication based on said comparison.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising the step of comparing the permanent link calculation with a selected industry standard and displaying a pass or fail indication based on said comparison.

7. A LAN cabling testing system, comprising:

first and second patch cords each including cordage and terminating at first and second plugs;

a hand-held display unit and a hand-held remote unit, each one of said units including means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other of said units through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested;

the hand-held display unit including a jack for receiving a plug of one of the patch cords, said jack and plug defining a first mated connector pair;

the hand-held remote unit including a jack for receiving a plug of the other of the patch cords, said jack and plug defining a second mated connector pair;

phase measuring means for measuring phase in one of the display or remote units; and

wherein one of the display unit and remote unit further comprises electronic storage means for storing the characteristics of the mated connector pairs, and calculating means programmed to de-embed the connector pairs characteristics from a total link measurement to calculate the channel link measurements.

8. The LAN tester of claim 7 wherein the electronic storage means further stores the characteristics of the cordage of the patch cords and the calculating means is programmed to de-embed the cordage characteristics from the calculated channel link measurement to calculate the permanent link measurements.

9. A LAN cabling testing system, comprising:

first and second patch cords each terminating at first and second plugs;

a hand-held display unit and a hand-held remote unit, each one of said units including means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other of said units through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested;

the hand-held display unit including a jack for receiving a plug of one of the patch cords, said jack and plug defining a first mated connector pair;

the hand-held remote unit including a jack for receiving a plug of the other of the patch cords, said jack and plug defining a second mated connector pair;

phase measuring means for measuring phase in one of the display or remote units; and

wherein one of the display unit and remote unit further comprises electronic storage means for storing the two-port performance representation of the patch cords and the mated connector pairs, and calculating means programmed to use the stored two-port performance representation to move the phase reference planes to the necessary locations for performing channel link or permanent link testing.

10. In a LAN cabling testing system of the type having a display unit and a remote unit and first and second patch cords, the patch cords each terminating at first and second plugs, and the display and remote units each having a jack for receiving a patch cord plug, a plug and jack when connected comprising a mated connector pair, the display and remote units each having means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other unit through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested, an improved method of testing LAN cabling comprising the steps of:

a) calibrating the patch cords and mated connector pairs, calibration including the step of measuring the two-port performance representation of the mated connector pairs and the patch cords;

b) connecting the first patch cord to the display unit and one end of the link to be tested, and connecting the second patch cord to the remote unit and to the other end of the link to be tested and shooting the link to be tested; and

c) using the two-port performance representation of the mated connector pairs and the patch cords to move the reference planes at the display unit and remote unit to the necessary locations for performing channel link or permanent link testing.

11. A LAN cabling testing system, comprising first and second patch cords each terminating at first and second plugs, a hand-held display unit and a hand-held remote unit each including a channel link adapter card having a jack suitable for receiving a plug of a patch cord, each one of said units including means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other of said units through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested, at least one of the display unit and remote unit including phase measuring means for measuring phase in one of the display or remote units, said one of the display or remote units further comprising an electronic storage means for storing a two-port performance representation of the patch cords and mated plug and jack pairs, and calculating means programmed to use the stored two-port performance representation to move the phase reference planes along the patch cords such that channel link and permanent link tests can be made using the channel link adapter card.

12. In a LAN cabling testing system of the type having a display unit and a remote unit and first and second patch cords, the patch cords each terminating at first and second plugs, and the display and remote units each having a jack for receiving a patch cord plug, a plug and jack when connected comprising a mated connector pair, the display and remote units each having means for sending and receiving a wave form of selected frequency to and from the other unit through said patch cords and a LAN link to be tested, an improved method of testing LAN cabling comprising the steps of:

a) calibrating the patch cords and mated connector pairs, calibration including the step of measuring the two-port performance representation of the mated connector pairs and the patch cords;

b) connecting the first patch cord to the display unit and one end of the link to be tested, and connecting the second patch cord to the remote unit and to the other end of the link to be tested;

c) measuring the two-port performance representation for the total link; and

d) de-embedding the two-port performance representations of the mated connector pairs from the total link measurement to calculate the channel link characteristics.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising the step of de-embedding the two-port performance representations of the patch cords from the channel link characteristics to calculate the permanent link characteristics.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the steps of measuring the two-port performance representations are further characterized by using two-port circuit parameters selected from the group of [S], [ABCD], [Z], [Y], and [H]-matrix network parameters.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the steps of measuring the two-port performance representations are further characterized by using two-port circuit parameters selected from the group of [S], [ABCD], [Z], [Y], and [H]-matrix network parameters.