Standard Media Types

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Standard Media Types Standard Connector Types

• COMP 316

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Physical Media

• Plenum vs. non-plenum cables
• Plenum space between floors
• Difference how each is constructed and where
  you can use it.
• NFPA (National Fire Protection Association)
  demands that cables run within the plenum have
  been tested and guaranteed as safe. They must be
  fire retardant and create little or no smoke and
  poisonous gas when burned.

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Coaxial cable specifications
RG rating Popular name Ethernet implementation Type of cable
RG-58 U N/A None Solid copper
RG-58 A/U Thinnet 10Base2 Stranded copper
RG-8 Thicknet 10Base5 Solid copper
RG-59 Cable television
Low cost, short distance N/A Solid copper
RG-6 Cable television, cable modems
RG-62 ARCnet (obsolete) N/A Solid/stranded
Radio Grade
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Coaxial cable connectors
BNC female
BNC male
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Twisted-Pair Cable
Category Description
Category 2 Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires), handles up to 4Mbps, frequency limitation of 10MHz
Category 3 Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires) , three twists per foot, can handle transmission up to 16MHz, 10Mbps Ethernet
Category 4 Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires), rated for 20MHz, also obsolete
Category 5 Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires), rated for 100MHz
Category 5e Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires), rated for 100MHz, capable of handling the disturbance on each pair thats caused by transmitting on all four pairs at the same time.
Category 6 Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires), rated for 250MHz, became a standard back in June 2002, connect floors together
Category 6a Has a reduced maximum length when used for 10GBaseT (100 meters), rated for 500MHz
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UTP cable connectors
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Fiber-Optic cable

• Fiber optic cables are composed of individual
  fibers (wires).

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Fiber-optic connectors
SC connector
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Media converters
There may be instances where you need to convert
from one media type to another.
Single-mode fiber to Ethernet
Single-mode to multimode fiber
Coaxial/Ethernet converter
Coaxial to fiber converter
Broadband over Power Line (BPL)
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Cable Properties

• Transmission speeds
• Distance
• Duplex
• Noise Immunity (Security, EMI)
• Frequency