atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services T1's, CSU's and DSU's 2 T-1's

I just stumbled across this thread and it looks like I finally found someone who knows what they're doing. I'm in a similar situation:

I'm bringing in 10 (eventually) point-to-point T1 circuits along with a PRI. The demarc is a couple floors down, so my idea was to use traditional cat5e patch panels at either end and use two 25-pair runs, one for tx and one rx. I'm coming from the data side with no real telephony experience. Is this the right idea?

You can use this approach, but I'd run multiple CAT5e four pair cables and split the tx/rx between them. Eleven circuits, even only half of them running under the same cable sheath might be setting you up for a lifetime of NTF's. To keep it clean, you could probably get away with individual cable runs without splitting the circuits up as long as the run isn't too far.

I'd also advise against using standard patch panels in favor of using the proper RJ48X jacks so that maintenance operations will keep the circuit looped.

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, if we were talking about 4 T1's, I could use two CAT5e cables, with the 4 TX pairs on one, and the 4 RX pairs on the other? That would be useful since I have plenty of CAT5e to spare.

Is the DSX patch panel mentioned earlier the RJ48X type you're referring to?

Thanks again!

We always run 2 shielded (Cat 3) cables - one for xmits and one for receives and have never had any problems.

Cat 5 ought to work fine though, if you don't have shielded cable. But, as Ed said, keep the xmits and receives separate.
Sam

JKB:

Yes, you should be fine with that approach, and yes, a DSX patch panel will be be perfect.