Lesson 5 Network Cabling
Copper Cables
- Coaxial cables
Reduced EMI (electromagnetic Interference) - occurs when radio waves are picked up by or radiated by a cable carrying another signal, resulting in a degradation of that signal
Impedance - a circuit's opposition to current flow (measured in Ohms), which can have resistive, capacitive, and/or inductive components
RG-59 - typically used to carry video over short distances (R=75 Ohms)
RG-6 - often used by cable companies to connect homes into the cable company's network (R = 75 Ohms)
RG-58 - typically used to carry data on 10BASE2 Ethernet networks (R=50 Ohms)
- Twisted Pair Cable
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
Cat 3 | Used in older Ethernet 10BASE-T networks, where the maximum data rate was 10 Mbps |
Cat 5 | Commonly used in Ethernet 100BASE-TX networks, which carries data at max rate of 100 Mbps, and typically uses 24-gauge wire (the lower the gauge the thicker the wire) |
Cat 5e | Updated version of Cat 5, used for 1000BASE-T networks, and offers reduced crosstalk as compared to Cat5 |
Cat 6 | Often used for 1000BASE-T networks, and commonly uses 22-gauge or 23-gauge wire |
Cat 6a | Has tighter twists than Cat6, allowing it to carry twice as many frequencies as Cat6, and cat be used in 10GBASE-T networks |
Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
Fiber Cables
- Immune from EMI
- Laser
- LED
- Single-Mode Fiber
core
cladding
dopants - impurities put into the glass used by fiber optic cables in order to change the refractive index of the glass
only allows one path of light to go through
- Multimode Fiber
index of core and cladding allows for bouncing back and forth of lights
Multimode Delay Distortion - a condition where binary bits (represented by light) arrive out of order at the far end of a fiber optic cable, due to the different paths (i.e. modes of propagation) taken by the light representing those binary bits
Copper Connectors
- F-Connector - a coaxial cable connector often used for cable TV and cable modem connections
- BNC (Bayonet Neill-Concelman) - a coaxial cable connector which was often used for data connections - 10BASE2
- DB-9 - a 9-pin connector commonly used for asynchronous serial communications (e.g. connect to an external modem)
- RJ-45 - an eight-pin connector commonly found on Ethernet cables (e.g. Cat 4 or Cat 6 cables)
- RJ-11 - a 6-pin connector (which normally only uses 2 or 4 pins) commonly used with analog telephones.
Fiber Connectors
- ST connector (Straight Tip) - bayonet connector, this connector is commonly used with multimode fiber (MMF) cables
- LC connector (Lucent Connector) - connects by being pushed into the terminating device and disconnects by pressing the tab on top of the connector and pulling out of the terminating device
- SC (Subscriber Connector) - connects by being pushed into the terminating device and disconnects by pulling out of the terminating device
- MTRJ (Media Termination Recommended Jack) - contains two fiber strands (i.e. transmit and receive strands) in a single connector and connects/disconnects by pushing i/pulling out
Wiring Pinouts
- EIA/TIA 568 Standard - a set of standards describing how wiring should be done in office buildings
PIN | T568A | T568B |
1 | White/Green | White/Orange |
2 | Green | Orange |
3 | White/Orange | White/Green |
4 | Blue | Blue |
5 | White/Blue | White/Blue |
6 | Orange | Green |
7 | White/Brown | White/Brown |
8 | Brown | Brown |