“Often, more than 100 meters of cabling are required in order to install cables on the roof or outside the house and intermediate junctions such as switch or hub are used. Such work requires additional materials and construction costs.”
Power over ethernet (PoE) cable called “SimpleWide” developed by LS Cable & System is drawing attention from the industry. There have been increased inquiries for the cable recently as the length is now 200 meters that is double the length of today’s PoE cables.
PoE indicates a cable that is able to send data and electricity at the same time. In other hands, it combines “LAN cable” and “electric wire” into single cable.
As transmission protocols were standardized in 2003, it has been more than ten years since the commercialization of PoE cable. However, the longest distance was limited to 100 meters as data transmission technologies were applied at the time when the standardization was taking place.
However, circumstances have changes in the past three to five years. As HVAC system, parking management system, and building automation system (BAS) that were individually operated within a building have been overlapping with networks, there have been more demands for more advanced PoE cables.
LS Cable & System started developing a new PoE according to these demands. After spending about eight months, it was able to develop and manufacture a prototype and conduct evaluations. Signal reduction issue was the biggest impediment to increase transmission distance as signal became weaker when distance became longer.
“Although making copper wire size bigger is the easier way generally, doing so can cause problems to connector connection and reliability.” said Song Joon-ho who is the head of LS Cable & System’s Structured Cabling Sales Team. “By verifying consistency with connector for about two months, we were able to design a cable with optimal and longest length.”
The company’s new PoE cable is not simply just longer than current PoE cables. It is also able to save costs as installation of additional equipment for intermediate junctions is required to connect PoE cables that are 100 meters long.
“Although this may not mean much for normal people, it is significant impact on the construction industry.” said Song. “Our cable is able to reduce construction costs by 50%.”
The company’s new PoE cable provides 1Gb/s of transmission speed and send 30W of electricity and it is suitable to connect IP camera, telephone, CCTV, and IoT (Internet of Things) equipment. Also, because it does not require a separable power cable or outlet, it is useful in areas where it is difficult to install power cable.
LS Cable & System is planning to expand the lineup of its PoE cables due to many requests from its customers.
“Although our recently commercialized PoE cable is for CCTV, there have been many requests for development of PoE cables that can be used in various environments.” said a representative for the company. “As a result, we are planning to develop additional PoE cables that can be used in other environments as well.”
As South Korea’s biggest cable company, it is making efforts to target the digital infrastructure market according to the South Korean Government’s Digital New Deal. As Digital New Deal focuses on utilization of data, the company is planning to develop converging technologies and intelligent products.
It also developed a software recently that manages connection of data and audio network cables and security equipment and it plans to target smart factory, building, government office, bank, and internet data center where large amounts of data are used.
Staff Reporter Yun, Geonil | benyun@etnews.com