APPLICATION NOTE
Ensuring Shielding Integrity to Ground in a
Leviton Shielded Twisted Pair Installation
by Dan Underbrink, RCDD, Principal Applications Engineer, Leviton Network Solutions
TR
TBB
(telecommunications TEBC
bonding backbone)
(telecommunications equipment
bonding conductor)
SBB
(secondary bonding bussbar)
The following recommendations are best practices for
ensuring shield integrity to ground for any Leviton shielded
installation. The points below highlight grounding and
bonding elements within a single telecommunications
room. The ANSI/TIA-607-C standard outlines additional
elements required for a larger Telecommunications
Grounding System.
1. Install the Telecommunications Grounding System
per TIA-607-C.
• Use a Secondary Bonding Bussbar (SBB), formerly
known as a Telecommunications Grounding
Bussbar or TGB, within the Telecommunications
Room/Horizontal Cross-connect (TR/HC)
• The SBB should be bonded to the
Primary Bonding Bussbar (PBB), formerly
Telecommunications Main Grounding Bussbar
or TMGB). This bonding element is called the
Telecommunications Bonding Backbone (TBB).
• Connections of SBB to the PBB should be made
with an appropriate-size, UL listed, two-hole
crimp style lug and appropriate gauge cable.
• The PBB should be bonded via Telecommunications
Bonding Conductor (TBC) to Structural
Steel/Building Ground. If a bond to structural
steel cannot be obtained, use the electrical
system ground point.
• Use recommendations from the TIA-607-C
standard for proper conductor gauge for all
of the above TBB and TBC connections.
Leviton Network Solutions 2222 - 222nd St. SE Bothell, WA 98021 Tech Support: 800.824.3005 +1.425.486.2222 Fax: 1.425.485.9170 www.leviton.com
© 2017 Leviton Manufacturing, Inc All rights reserved. Subject to change without notice.
2. Run a Telecommunications Equipment Bonding
Conductor (TEBC) for each row of racks or cabinets
from the SBB.
• This is typically a #6 AWG bare or green-insulated
stranded copper wire.
• If insulated, the insulation must be appropriate
for the space through which the TEBC runs
(e.g., use plenum CMP insulation if running
through a plenum space).
• Connections of TEBC to the SBB should be made
with an appropriate-size, UL listed, two-hole crimp
style lug.
3. Ensure a specific equipment grounding element
for each rack or cabinet.
• Equipment connections to each rack or cabinet
from the TEBC may use any one of the following
three methods:
• A Horizontal Rack Bonding Bussbar (Horizontal
RBB) mounted to the rack or cabinet vertical
equipment mounting rails.
• A Vertical Rack Bonding Bussbar (Vertical RBB)
mounted to and running the full height of the
rack or cabinet.
• A #6 AWG Rack Bonding Conductor (RBC)
running full height of the rack or cabinet
• For each of the three rack/cabinet options above,
connections are made to the TEBC via irreversible
compression-type connections.
• The rack or cabinet itself is independently
bonded to the TEBC via irreversible compression-
type connection. This ensures the structural
metal of the rack or cabinet is bonded to the
Telecommunications Grounding System in case
that metal should become inadvertently energized.
• Note: the grounding/bonding parts mentioned
above are not provided by Leviton. Each of the
elements above should be installed and tested
per manufacturer recommendations to ensure
a low-impedance path to ground.
APPLICATION NOTE
4. Install Leviton shielded permanent link (work area
jack to patch panel) or channel (includes patch
cords at both ends) per the Leviton Shielded
Connector Instruction Sheet.
• A Leviton shielded patch panel must be used.
Various standard and high-density options are
available, as well as flat and angled shielded options.
• All patch cords used must be shielded patch cords.
• Leviton Shielded Patch Panels are engineered to
provide a low impedance path from the shielded
connector bodies (i.e. shielded jacks) to the
Patch Panel sheet metal.
• A grounding stud is provided on the
standard-density shielded patch panels.
• For high-density shielded patch panels,
the ground stud is accomplished via installation
of a long rack-mount screw provided with the
panel. Follow specific instructions that are
included with these panels to ensure that
adequate grounding is accomplished as part
of panel installation.
• If the permanent link or channel architecture
includes a consolidation point (CP):
• Shield continuity must be maintained across
the CP interconnect.
• Leviton recommends a shielded patch panel in
the CP for interconnect purposes. Standards do
not allow cross-connects in a CP.
• Grounding for this architecture is still performed
at the TR shielded patch panel (i.e. no shield
grounding performed at/within the CP).
• Horizontal cable section A will be a shielded
cable running from the TR shielded patch
panel to the rear of jack in the CP shielded
patch panel.
• Horizontal cable section B will be a shielded
plug-to-jack cable assembly running from the
front of the CP panel (shielded plug end into CP
shielded jack in the patch panel and shielded
jack end into workstation outlet).
• Alternately, horizontal cable section B may be
a plug-to-open cable assembly (shielded plug
end into CP shielded jack in the patch panel and
open end cut to length and field terminated to
a shielded jack for the workstation outlet).
• Shielded plug-to-jack or plug-to-open cable
assemblies are make-to-order products
available from Leviton.
Leviton Network Solutions 2222 - 222nd St. SE Bothell, WA 98021 Tech Support: 800.824.3005 +1.425.486.2222 Fax: 1.425.485.9170 www.leviton.com
© 2017 Leviton Manufacturing, Inc All rights reserved. Subject to change without notice.
5. The field tester should be set for the appropriate
category rating for the wiring system (i.e. Cat 5e,
Cat 6, or Cat 6A) and for FTP cable type.
• Field tester shield continuity testing should
be enabled.
• All permanent links or channels should be
characterized with the field tester, including
shield integrity test. Repairs of any problem
links should be undertaken and completed.
6. Finally, an individual equipment Unit Bonding
Conductor (UBC) should be installed from each
shielded patch panel to whatever element was
provided for rack or cabinet bonding (i.e. Horizontal
RBB, Vertical RBB, or RBC). This ensures bond
integrity of the shielded links or Channels to the
Telecommunications Grounding System.
• If RBC was chosen as the rack or cabinet
bonding element, UBC connections to the RBC
are accomplished via irreversible compression
type connector.
• UBC connections to RBBs should be made with
UL listed two-hole lugs.
• Best practice would be for each shielded patch
panel UBC to be a #6 AWG wire (NEC and TIA-607-C
require a minimum #12 AWG for the UBC).
• The thought behind the #6 AWG UBC as best
practice is that this element is bonding the
shields of all links or channels in the shielded
patch panel (i.e. 24 or 48 Links or Channels).
• If most or all of these shields were to become
inadvertently energized, one would want a
UBC of sufficient size to reliably shunt this
undesirable energy to ground.
In summary:
• Install and verify the Telecommunications Grounding
System (TBC, PBB, TBB, SBB, TEBC, and RBB or RBC)
Per ANSI/TIA-607-C.
• Install and verify all Leviton shielded permanent
links or channels.
• Install individual #6 AWG equipment Unit Bonding
Conductors (UBC) between each shielded patch
panel and the rack or cabinet bonding element.
• Shielded permanent links or channels are bonded to
the Telecommunications Grounding System at one
point (the shielded patch panel). No grounding is
done at the work area connector (which is typically
a jack in a wallplate).
Learn more about Leviton shielded solutions at
Leviton.com/Copper.
H17 6911