George FavourTypes of Network Cable
There are basically three types of network cable used in LAN’s today;
- Twisted pair cable,
- Coaxial cable,
- Fiber Optic cable.
Twisted pair cable is the least expensive medium because of its widespread and used by telephone companies. It is capable of handling data transfers at rates of up to 100 megabits.
TWISTED PAIR CABLE:
Twisted Pair Cable can be either unshielded twisted pain (UTP) or shielded. It may be used with voice and data. The shield on the cable helps to prevent signal interference to and from outside signals.
COAXIAL CABLE:
Coaxial cables provide a large band width (BW) of up to 400 MHz and the capability to support high data transfer rates. It is designed to minimize errors during data transfer. There are two main types of coaxial cable used in LANs which are baseband and broadband.
BASEBAND is a method of transmission where the cable carries a single data signal at a time, without modulation. While transmitting, the signal occupies the entire bandwidth of the cable and is transmitted directly in its original form rather than being modulated to a different frequency.
BROADBAND is a method of transmission that allows multiple channels or signals to be transmitted simultaneously over a single cable. This is achieved using Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM). During transmission, each channel is assigned a specific frequency range within the overall bandwidth of the cable.
OPTICAL FIBRE CABLES:
They are made of plastic or glass and can serve as a very high performance transmission medium. This type of cable transmits data using light pulses rather than electrical signals. During transmission, the electric signals are converted into light pulses by a modulator transmitted through the fiber optic cable by a light source detected and converted back into electrical diodes. The cable is of very small size: hair – like fiber optic stand is 125 microns of outer diameter. LAN usually adopts graded index “multi-mode” fiber optical cable. Optical fiber cable is the best available communication media because of it’s
- excellent electrical noise immunity,
- difficult to trap,
- light weight,
- small in size and
- less prone to vandalization.
George Favour
