Networking cables

Coaxial Cables

Coaxial cables consist of a solid copper core surrounded by an insulator mainly made up of poly vinyl chloride (PVC) or Teflon. PVC is a plastic made from the chemical vinyl chloride. It is surrounded by a mesh like ground wires called the braiding or shielding and an outer cover known as a sheath.  

Twisted Pair Cables

A pair of cables twisted around each other forms a twisted pair cable. A number of twisted pair wires are placed inside a protective sheath to form a cable.

A pair of unshielded wires wound around each other is known as UTP. An UTP is a pair of copper wires wound by plastic insulators.

A pair of wires wound around each other and each pair is placed inside a protective foil wrap to protect it from crosstalk. These wires are placed in an outer copper braid to protect it from external interference.

Fiber optic medium

A fiber optic consists of a centre glass core through which signals passes. It is surrounded by a glass cladding. Sometimes the cladding is surrounded by PVC to increase the cable strength and provide support for the cladding is sometimes surrounded by metal fibers to give extra strength to the cable. It is finally surrounded by an outer cover known as sheath.

Types of Ethernet

Ethernet represents the cable (the ether) and the access protocol scheme. Cable is medium through which information is transmitted from one network to another. There are different types of cabling method used for Ethernet.

Length of the cable should be greater than required length as per the design requirement

Test every component after installation

For laying cables across the floor, it is recommended to cover the cable with cable

Lay cable away from sources of electrical interference

10Base-5

10Base-5 (Think coaxial cable) is also referred to as thick net. 10Base5 refers to Specifications of thick coaxial cable carrying Ethernet signals.

10Base-2

Coaxial cable includes one physical channel that carries signal surrounded (after a layer of insulation) by another concentric physical channel, both running along the same axis. 10Base-2 (thin coaxial cable) is also referred to as thin net.

10Base-T

10BASE-T (Unshielded twisted pair) is an implementation of Ethernet which allows stations to be attached via twisted pair cable. In 10Base-T adding and removing a terminal is simple and also cable breaks can be detected easily as it uses star topology.