Prepared by:Mohammed Ayesh LAN Cabling Prepared by:Mohammed Ayesh

Contents Cable types Coaxial TP STP UTP fiber Optic Other Media

Types of cables Coaxial Cable: widely used for radio frequency applications not susceptible to the effects of RFI EMI Ethernet originally used coaxial cables longer distances & higher transmission rates 10base2 - 200m (185m), 10 Mbps 10base5 - 500m, 10 Mbps Ethernet/802.3 coax - 50, ARCNET coax 93

Types of cables cont… Coaxial – cont… Advantages: Disadvantages: higher speeds than UTP supports broad band (multi channel) LANs   Disadvantages: easily damaged difficult to work with expensive than UTP for different LANs specific coax types needed

Types of cables cont… Twisted Pair The type depends on: no. of pairs no. of twists per unit length gauge of the wire type of insulation Shielded Twisted Pair (STP): expensive higher data rate easy to work with

Types of cables cont… Un-shielded Twisted Pair (UTP): low cost lower data rate limited length easy installation flexible configuration (when star wired) supports many LANs and voice communication in the same cable type easy fault isolation

Types of cables cont… UTP Categories: category 3 category 4 category 5 Up to 16 Mbps used for 10baseT Ethernet & 4 Mbps Token Ring category 4 Up to 20 Mbps used for 16 Mbps Token Ring category 5 Up to 100 Mbps 100baseT Ethernet

Types of cables cont… Fibre Optics Advantages: Disadvantages: allows electrical isolation between LAN segments difficult to tap very high data rates longer cabling distances Disadvantages: expensive difficult to install easy to damage

Types of cables cont… Fibre Optics cont.. backbone cables typically contain 12 or 24 fibres multi-mode and single mode types diameters: Multimode 62.5 m or 50 m core, 125 m cladding (human hair – 100 m) single mode 8 – 10 m core, 125 m cladding multi mode: signal jitter at far end can occur easy coupling of the light source to the cable

Types of cables cont… bandwidth: connectors: expressed as MHz-km e.g.: 200 MHz-km  200 MHz, 1 km, or 100 MHz, 2 km connectors: ST (straight tip) – for 10 BASE FL SC (subscriber connector) – for 100 BASE FX and 1000 BASE FX MT-RJ – for 1000 BASE FX – more compact Cable splicing and fibre termination should be done by specialized people – requires skilled personnel and proper equipment

Types of cables cont… Other LAN Media Infrared laser beam Microwave modulated infrared signals passed through open space laser beam modulated laser beams passed through open space Microwave high frequency radio waves passed by line of sight transceivers Radio earlier low speeds (9.6 - 230 kbps) - now 2-10 Mbps used for mobile LAN stations when cabling is not possible