Going the Distance

For centuries, humans have been obsessed with overcoming existing records. At 26.2 miles (or 42 km), the marathon was once held to be the longest competitive endurance race, but now there are even longer ultramarathon races to run with distances ranging from 50 km to hundreds of kilometers. As a runner, there’s always a longer challenge waiting to test your endurance and performance.

This is true away from the running trail as well. At CommScope, we’re not afraid of new challenges, so we’re taking that spirit to a new technological limit. A few years ago, we launched the Powered Fiber Cable System to provide data and PoE over a hybrid fiber cable up to 3,000 meters. Last year, the Constellation® solution was our latest breakthrough, given its capacity to reach 500 meters to power a zone box with up to 1,000 watts and data on fiber-optic cable. But those weren’t the only races to be run.

Since the SYSTIMAX portfolio was launched in 1985, the cabling infrastructure standardization bodies used it as a blueprint to define the standards that are common knowledge today. One of the those established standards is the 100-meter channel limit, a rule that IT staff all over the world know very well.

This limit is based on the electrical limitations of twisted-pair copper cabling (primarily insertion loss) and it has stood the test of time, even as higher-frequency applications and new cable constructions have entered the market. In that time, network equipment vendors cost-optimized their transceivers based on the 100-meter limit, further entrenching it as the accepted distance boundary.

However, the distance barrier has created a new challenge for network designers. Enterprise networks are expanding faster than the budgets needed to implement and manage them. Network managers must be able to support more network-connected devices and systems—throughout buildings, across campuses and especially at the edge. 

Bandwidth-wise, our customers embraced the GigaSPEED XL®, GigaSPEED XL5™ and of course the respected Cat6A GigaSPEED X10D® solutions.

So, like a runner ready to tackle a new challenge, CommScope is about to introduce a new copper solution that will go farther than ever and shake up existing assumptions about what’s possible. This April, as part of our new and enhanced SYSTIMAX 2.0 portfolio launch, the GigaREACH™ XL solution will take the field and challenge the distance record.

The GigaREACH XL solution supports 100 Mbps Ethernet and 90 W PoE up to 200 meters, 1 Gbps Ethernet and 90W PoE up to 150 meters (50% longer than Cat 6), and 10 Mbps Ethernet and 90 W PoE up to 250 meters—backed by our SYSTIMAX Assurance™ program.

Now, you can easily connect and power devices beyond the once-indominable 100-meter limit with one cable—no additional telecom rooms, PoE extenders or optical equipment needed. Less equipment means fewer points of failure, lower installation costs, less greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), making for a more sustainable installation—and little or no disruption to existing services.

The GigaREACH XL solution supports all kinds of PoE applications and uses the same installation tools and best practices our certified PartnerPRO® community can bring to your deployment.

Want to know more? Visit our SYSTIMAX portfolio page—and see how much farther your network can go.

© 2024 CommScope, LLC.  All rights reserved.  CommScope and the CommScope logo are registered trademarks of CommScope and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.  For additional trademark information see https://www.commscope.com/trademarks.  All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.