Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumTroubleshooting Physical Cabling and Connectors

A network administrator is troubleshooting an existing Category 6 UTP cabling run between a floor switch and a wall outlet. Although a basic wiremapper confirms full pin-to-pin continuity and proper TIA/EIA 568B wire map alignment, connected devices experience frequent Frame Check Sequence (FCS) errors and link degradation during heavy traffic. Which of the following diagnostic tools should the administrator use to locate the exact position of the physical cable damage along the run?

  1. Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR)Answer
  2. B
    Tone generator and inductive probe
  3. C
    Optical Power Meter (OPM)
  4. D
    Loopback plug

Answer

Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR)
A Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR) transmits electrical pulses along metallic copper conductors and measures signal reflections caused by impedance discontinuities. By measuring the round-trip time of the reflected wave, the TDR accurately calculates the distance to cable kinks, breaks, or severe NEXT/crosstalk points.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the symptoms and current test results.
Basic wiremapping confirms pin continuity, but physical layer frame corruption (FCS errors) indicates physical damage or impedance mismatches along the copper cable run.
Standard continuity testers only verify basic pin-to-pin connections and cannot detect signal degradation or locate internal conductor flaws.
2
Select the appropriate physical diagnostic tool for copper media.
A Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR) is selected because it transmits electrical signals down copper conductors and calculates fault distance based on reflection timing.
TDR technology accurately measures distance to impedance changes, cable kinks, or partial breaks in copper twisted-pair cabling.

Key Concept

Selecting copper cabling diagnostic tools for distance-to-fault analysis
Estimated Time:1m 0s
Rate this question

Topics

Troubleshooting Physical Cabling and Connectors

More questions from this topic