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Creating smooth irregularity
Nature may abhor a vacuum, but data cables don’t like parallelism or regularity which cause interference (crosstalk), and at high frequencies: return loss peaks. Twisting always helps, but this LAN data cable modulates the combined twist (cable lay or pitch) of all four copper pairs to further avoid regularity and improve performance.
High-frequency solution
Originally data cables operated at 10 Megabits, but now 10 Gigabits is the norm: 1,000 faster and at higher frequencies! Troublesome return loss peaks could be avoided by using shorter and more tightly twisted lays which would significantly slow production with our existing machinery, or require new investment. This invention achieves the same goal with variable longer lays.
Long sinusoidal waves
First we looked at our traditional cables (LANmark-7A) and traced return loss peaks to the way the pairs are twisted together. One way to achieve variation was via cabling lay “randomization”; however, this is difficult to do mechanically since you have to constantly vary machine rpms. The simpler, safer and faster alternative was to create a long-period sinusoid wave in the cable during twisting operations. There is a gradual variation in the twist, but this is only perceivable over a 25-meter length.
LANmark advance
With computer conferencing, high-definition graphics, video-on-demand, and interactive gaming growing exponentially, high-performance data cables are an increasing part of our business. By reducing crosstalk and return load peaks in LANmark-7A (1000-1500 MHz) cable we have a better product for final users which allows us to serve our customers' increasing demand without new investments. Although this is a high-end cable, the same solution could also be used for lower frequency long-distance data cables.
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