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1.3 Cables and Connectors

Dec 03, 20244 min read

1.3 Summarize the types of cables and connectors and explain which is the appropriate type for a solution.

Cable & Connector Types

  • Copper

    • EMI - electromagnetic interference
      • due to the nature of an electrical signal traveling down a metal wire it is vulnerable to EMI
        • very strong source of power
        • very strong radio source
        • anything magnetic
    • STP - shielded twisted pair
      • shielded copper
        • metal braided mesh wrapped around the internal core wire
    • UTP - Unshielded twisted pair
      • less expensive
      • lower transmission capabilities
    • Twisted pair
      • Cat 3
        • Shielded
          • no
        • Max Transmission
          • 10 Mbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 16 MHz
      • Cat 5
        • Shielded
          • no
        • Max Transmission
          • 100 Mbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 100 MHz
      • Cat 5e
        • Shielded
          • no/light shielding
        • Max Transmission
          • 1 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 100 MHz
      • Cat 6
        • Shielded
          • Both options are available
        • Max Transmission
          • 1 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 250 MHz
      • Cat 6a
        • Shielded
          • yes
        • Max Transmission
          • 10 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 500 MHz
      • Cat 7
        • Shielded
          • yes
        • Max Transmission
          • 10 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 600 MHz
      • Cat 7a
        • Shielded
          • yes
        • Max Transmission
          • 10 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 100m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 1000 MHz
      • Cat 8
        • Shielded
          • yes
        • Max Transmission
          • 25 Gbps/40 Gbps
        • Max Distance
          • 30m
        • Max Bandwidth
          • 2000 Mhz
    • Coaxial/RG-6
    • Twinaxial
    • Termination standards

      • TIA/EIA-568A

      • TIA/EIA-568B

  • Fiber

    • Single-mode
    • Multimode

  • Connector types

    • Local connector (LC)

    • straight tip (ST)

    • subscriber connector (SC)

    • mechanical transfer (MT)

    • registered jack (RJ)

      • Angled physical contact (APC)
      • Ultra-physical contact (UPC)

    • RJ11

    • RJ45

    • F-type connector

    • Transceiver/media converters

    • Transceiver type

      • Small form-factor pluggable (SFP)
      • Enhanced form-factor pluggable (SFP+)
      • Quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP)
      • Enhanced quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP+)

  • Cable management

    • Patch panel/patch bay
    • Fiber distribution panel
    • Punchdown blocks
      • 66 block
      • 110 block
      • Krone block
      • Bix block

Ethernet Specifications

  • Ethernet standards
    • Copper
      • 10BASE-T - 10 Megabit, Baseband over twisted pair cable
        • two pairs of wire
        • Cat 3 minimum
        • 100 meter maximum distance
      • 100BASE-TX - 100 Megabit, Baseband over twisted pair cable
        • Fast Ethernet
        • two pair
        • Cat 5 minimum, twisted pair copper wires
        • 100 meter maximum distance
      • 1000BASE-T - Gigabit Ethernet over Cat 5
        • 4 pair balanced twisted pair
        • 125 Mhz
        • Cat 5 is deprecated so we used Cat5e
        • a shift to using all four pair of wires
        • 100 meter maximum distance
      • 10GBASE-T - 10 Gigabit Ethernet over copper
        • 4 pair balanced twisted pair
        • 500Mhz
        • requires minimum Cat 6
          • Unshielded 55 meters
          • shielded 100 meters
        • Cat 6a (augmented)
          • unshielded or shielded 100 meters
      • 40GBASE-T - 40 Gigabit per second Ethernet
        • 4 pair balanced twisted pair
        • Cat 8
        • up to 30 meters

Fiber Optic Specifications

  • Fiber

    • 100BASE-FX - 100 megabit Ethernet over fiber
      • pair of multimode fiber
      • uses the same fiber as FDDI
      • LED components
      • 400 meters (half duplex)
      • 2km (full duplex)
    • 100BASE-SX - 100 megabit Ethernet over fiber
      • a less expensive version of 100BASE-FX
      • LED Optics
      • 300 meters maximum distance
    • 1000BASE-SX - Gigabit Ethernet using short wavelength laser
      • Usually over multimode fiber
      • 220 to 550 meters depending on fiber type
    • 1000BASE-LX - Gigabit Ethernet using long wavelength laser
      • Multimode fiber up to 550 meters
      • single mode fiber up to 5km
    • 10GBASE-SR - 10 Gigabit Ethernet over fiber, short range
      • Multimode fiber
      • 26 to 600 meters depending on fiber specification
    • 10GBASE-LR - 10 Gigabit Ethernet over fiber, long range
      • single mode fiber
      • 10km maximum range

  • WDM - Wavelength Division Multiplexing

    • Bidirectional communication over a single strand of fiber
    • Use different wavelengths for each carrier
      • Different “colours”

  • CWDM - Coarse wavelength division multiplexing

    • 10GBASE-LX4 Used four 3.125 Gbit/sec carriers at four different wavelengths

  • DWDM - Dense wavelength division multiplexing

    • Multiplex multiple OC carriers into a single fiber
    • add 160 signals, increase to 1.6 Tbit/s

  • https://smartoptics.com/knowledgebank-post/cwdm-dwdm-explained/

Links to Videos and Additional reading

Professor Messer 1.2 – Network Topologies and Types

Graph View

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