ClearCube C/Port & MVX - Manual (Page 16)

6 • ClearCube C/Port Overview
Cable Requirements
The ClearCube chassis uses standard network cables with RJ45 connectors to connect to
C/Ports and to an Ethernet network. These can be CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, or CAT6e cables.
C/Ports require straight-through cables with all four twisted pairs available. See Table 1 on
page 2 for a maximum distance chart for these cables for C/Ports. Network connections follow
standard Ethernet guidelines. In practice, identical copper media can be used for C/Ports and
for network connections, although ClearCube recommends using different cable colors for
C/Port and network connections to simplify installation and maintenance. Throughout this
guide, “C/Port cable” and “network cable” refer interchangeably to copper-media cable such
as CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, or CAT6e.
Note: Obtaining the maximum cable distance requires the use of cables with a delay skew
specification of < 25 nS / 100m. CAT6e cables generally meet this requirement, but a
majority of CAT6 cables do not.
Each fully loaded chassis requires eight C/Port cables with RJ-45 connectors for connections
to C/Ports at the desktop and eight network cables for blade connections to the Ethernet
network hub or switch. Additionally, short color-coded C/Port cables (Green for Chassis
Management & Control, Red for Sparing, and Yellow for Admin Port) are provided to
configure and daisy-chain your chassis.
Note: The C/Port cable connections use all four-wire pairs for the connection from the PC
blade to the C/Port. If your installation currently splits out wire pairs for multiple uses,
you must ensure that all four twisted pairs are available for each blade to C/Port
connection.
Figure 4 on this page provides schematics of the cabling required to connect your chassis to
user ports and your Ethernet network.
Figure 4. C/Port Architecture Cabling Diagram
Homerun
C/Port Cables
Chassis
Data Center User Desktops
with C/Ports
Ethernet
Cables
Network
Switch
Admin C/Port
and Terminal