Comparison of Foiled and Non-Foiled Twisted-Wire Pairs Characteristics due to Coiling Stresses using the Feature Selective Validation Method

Abstract

This paper presents a technique to evaluate the impact of coiling stresses on foiled and non-foiled twisted pair cables using the Feature Selective Validation Method. The use of twisted pair cables for Internet of Things (IOT) continues to grow due increasing demand for such applications. One of the ways devised by cable designers to minimize electromagnetic interference is the use of foils which comes with additional costs. However, in typical installations, cables could be subjected to repeated coiling and uncoiling stresses which affect performance. There is limited knowledge in literature on the evaluation of the impact of foils on the performance of unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cables when subjected to coiling stresses anticipated during installation, hence the need to conduct this research. In this paper, four UTP cables (foiled and non-foiled) were subjected to three rounds of coiling and uncoiling tests to mimic handling stress expected in typical installations. The Feature Selective Validation (FSV) method was used to assess the impact of the coiling stress test on major performance parameters like return loss, crosstalk and impedance of the four twisted pair cables. The result of the assessment shows that the foiled cables gave the highest resilience to the coiling stress tests in all the pairs for crosstalk, while for return loss and impedance it is in two pairs. The approach presented can be used by cable installers and engineers to undertake an evaluation of cables selected for deployment.