• Coaxial Cable
• Twisted-pair
o UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair
o STP - Shielded Twisted Pair
• Fiber-optic
Coaxial Cable
• Consists of a solid or stranded copper core surrounded by insulation, a braided shield and an insulating jacket.
Coaxial Cable Types
RG-8 and RG-11 Thicknet (50 ohms)
RG-58 Family
RG-58 /U Solid copper (50 ohms)
RG-58 A/U Thinnet, Stranded copper (50 ohms)
RG-58 C/U Thinnet, Military grade (50 ohms)
RG-59 Broadband/Cable TV (75 ohm) video cable
RG-62 A/U ARCnet cable (93 ohm)
RG-62 A/U is the standard ARCnet cable, but ARCnet can use fiber optic or twisted pair.
Twisted-Pair Cable
• Consists of two insulated copper wires twisted around each other.
• Twisting cancels out electrical noise from adjacent pairs (crosstalk) and external sources.
• Uses RJ-45 telephone-type connectors (larger than telephone and consists of eight wires vs. Telephone's 4 wires).
• Generally inexpensive.
• Easy to install.
Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
• Maximum cable length is 100 meters or 328 feet (10BaseT).
• Types:
1. Cat 1 Voice grade telephone cable.
2. Cat 2 Data grade up to 4 Mbps, four twisted pairs.
Category 3 and above is needed for Ethernet networks. Cat 3, 4, and 5 use RJ-45 connectors
3. Cat 3 Data grade up to 10 Mbps, four pairs w/3 twists/ft.
4. Cat 4 Data grade up to 16 Mbps, four twisted pairs.
5. Cat 5 Data grade up to 100 Mbps, four twisted pairs.
