Cat 5 for PoE / VoIP

[brian.kennedy]

We've inherited a bunch of sites that all have cat 5 for their infrastructure cabling.  Many of these are looking to install VoIP platforms.  While I know cat 5 is capable of both PoE and VoIP, what issues are there with that.  For one, I'm thinking that heat generated by PoE devices in tight bundles could be an issue.  Also, interference/cross talk seems like it may be an issue with large bundles of cat5 cabling.

lastly, and I feel this is a bigger issue,  many of these sites have the cabling terminating in 110 block wall fields in the IDFs.. from there, there is often a (unshielded/sheathed) cross connect going to a patch panel, or directly from the wall field to a patch cable into the switch.  It seems like there's a large potential for data/power loss there as well.

Has anyone gotten PoE/VoIP to work using data going into 110 blocks?

Trying to make a business case to get rid of the 110 blocks, and ultimately cat5.

Thanks

[TexasBrandon]

Cat5 can definitely run PoE with no issues.  I ran Cat5 in the army for years with PoE in bundles with no issues.  When you talk about bundles, how much are we talking about?  Is this Cat 5 STP or UTP?  Also, Cat5 or Cat5e?  Really, upgrading to Cat 6 wouldn't help much other than the obvious rubber core seperating the pairs.   Are there already EMI issues?  As far 110 blocks, I will leave someone else to have some input there.

[brian.kennedy]

UTP vs STP.. good question - I think it's UTP, but I'll have to find that out.  It's 5, not 5e.  As for bundles, I'm talking infrastructure cabling, so there could be 300+ running in cable trays back. I don't think there are current EMI issues, but not sure yet.  There's a lot of other issues (mis-configurations, fiber problems, you name it) as well..

[brian.kennedy]

Yeah, I guess it's not sheilded.  And when they do their cross-connects, looks like they're using a twisted pair that doesn't have the wire jacket.

[paolo bevilacqua]

I think your case will be a little difficult to make, because cat 5 is perfectly fine for VoIP, PoE and gigabit (that you have not mentioned), within the know spefications.

No matter thight bundles, MDF, unshielded cross conncts, etc. it will just work fine.

[s_mcnally]

I have a couple locations where we have phones that terminate through cat 5 on 110 and 66 blocks.  Works just fine, no quality complaints from users. 

[brian.kennedy]

Digital/analog or IP though?

>>I have a couple locations where we have phones that terminate through cat 5 on 110 and 66 blocks.  Works just fine, no quality complaints from users.

[s_mcnally]

IP phones.  I only have a few where we didn't have enough data jacks so we ran it through our existing voice jacks (terminated on 110/66 blocks) which are either cat5 or cat5e depending on the office.  We have two locations that I know are only cat5 and have a couple phones running over them.  Also just to confirm I just setup a functional 7975 with PoE that runs over cat5e off of a 110 block, I am far away from the cat5 sites.