The Nortel Contivity VPN Switch 1010/1050/1100 uses a proprietary 10 ft (3.05 m) RS-232 serial console cable to provide out-of-band management access via the front-panel serial port. The cable terminates in an RJ-45 plug at the router end and a 9-position D-sub receptacle with screw locks at the PC end. Nortel specifies that only the cable shipped with the device should be used, owing to EMI shielding requirements. The signal assignments differ from the Cisco rollover convention: the Nortel cable is a purpose-built straight-wired assembly with its own DTE/DCE signal mapping.
9 PIN D-SUB FEMALE to the Computer
RJ45 MALE CONNECTOR to the Nortel Contivity VPN Appliance
| RJ45 | DB9 |
|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 5 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 7 |
| X | 9 |
Or
| DB9 | RJ45 |
|---|---|
| 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 7 |
| 5 | 6 |
| 6 | 2 |
| 7 | 8 |
| 8 | 1 |
| 9 | X |
Signals
RJ-45 connector signals (router end):
- RTS (pin 1) — Request To Send; connects to DB-9 pin 8 (CTS at PC)
- DTR (pin 2) — Data Terminal Ready; connects to DB-9 pin 6 (DSR at PC)
- RxD (pin 3) — Receive Data (router receives); connects to DB-9 pin 3 (TxD at PC)
- NC (pin 4) — Not connected; connects to DB-9 pin 1 (DCD)
- TxD (pin 5) — Transmit Data (router sends); connects to DB-9 pin 2 (RxD at PC)
- GND (pin 6) — Signal Ground; connects to DB-9 pin 5
- DSR (pin 7) — Data Set Ready; connects to DB-9 pin 4 (DTR at PC)
- CTS (pin 8) — Clear To Send; connects to DB-9 pin 7 (RTS at PC)
- X — Ground shield (not a numbered RJ-45 pin); connects to DB-9 pin 9 backshell
Notes
- The “X” row denotes the cable shield/drain wire, not a numbered conductor; it terminates at the DB-9 backshell (pin 9 position) for EMI protection.
- Pin 4 (RJ-45) carries no signal and connects to DB-9 pin 1 (DCD); it is effectively unused.
- This cable is not a rollover (null-modem) cable; it is a straight-wired assembly with cross-mapped signals between DTE and DCE roles.
- The same cable is compatible with the Contivity 1050 and 1100 models.
- Default terminal settings: 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, no flow control.