Cables & Ethernet Standards through the years Flashcards
UTP unshielded twisted pair cable
are created when pairs of wires are twisted around each other to protect and cancel out interference from each other and outside sources. widely used as analog phone cables and in copper Ethernet cables. UTP cables come in six different standard types as defined by TIA/EIA 568. You can identify the type of cable you have by looking at the writing on the cable itself.
supports up to 10 Mbps (Megabits per second) for up to 100 meters and is commonly used for phone lines today.
Cat3
supports 16 Mbps for up to 100 meters and is not commonly used today.
Cat4
is used in Ethernet LANs containing two twisted pairs allowing for up to 100 Mbps up to 100 meters between the device and the switch, hub, or router.
Cat5
doubles the number of twisted pairs to four for up to 1 Gbps (Gigabits per second) over up to 100 meters.
Cat5e
used in Ethernet LANs and data centers. is made up of four tightly woven twisted pairs (more twists per linear foot) and supports 1 Gbps for up to 100 meters or 10 Gbps for up to 55 meters.
Cat6
supporting the same standards and lengths (with the ability to run 10 Gbps over 100 meters maximum), but using a higher quality cable that is more resistant to interference. This is most commonly used in wired networks today.
Cat6a
A connector that supports two pairs of wires (four total); typically used in telephones.
Rj11
connects to UTP cables
This is an end connector typically used with Ethernet cables and supports four pairs (eight wires).
RJ45
connects to UTP cable
are analog cables made of copper but specifically engineered with a metal shield intended to block signal interference
Coaxial cable
The protection on the cable allows them to be laid next to metal gutters or other objects without receiving interference. Today, the cables are mostly used by cable TV companies to connect their customers to the company’s facilities.
Coaxial cable
use glass or plastic threads within cables to transfer the data using light (lasers or LEDs) as opposed to traditional metal cables using electricity. are useful for high bandwidth needs, meaning they can carry more data at one time.
Fiber cables, or fiber-optic cables
cable transfer data digitally instead of needing to convert data between binary and analog and back using metal cables. Since computer data output is digital, this transfers data in the computer’s natural way. cable allow virtually no interference to corrupt the data and are more reliable.
Fiber cables, or fiber-optic cable
are made up of one single glass or plastic fiber. The benefit of a single fiber cable is the ability to carry higher bandwidth for 50 times the distance of a multimode cable. This requires higher cost electronics to create the light and thus is typically used for longer distances (hundreds or thousands of kilometers) and higher bandwidth applications.
single-mode cables
are wider in diameter due to light modes being sent across the cable. fibers are highly effective over medium distances (500 meters or less at higher speeds) and are generally used within a LAN. They are also less expensive than single-mode fiber due to the potential for use with LEDs and other lower-cost options for creating the light.
multimode cables
This was the most commonly used connector with multimode fiber until the mid-2000s. It was used on campuses, corporate networks, and for military purposes. Today, LC connectors are usually used instead, as they are denser and more convenient at almost the same cost.
ST: straight tip connector
This supports more ports to be used in the same space. This is probably the most common type used in corporate data centers today and is usually used with SFP (small form-factor pluggable) transceivers.
LC: This stands for lucent connector. This is a smaller version of the standard connector (SC).
If a customer is looking for great speed with distances over 100 meters
fiber cables are the right choice.
What type of terrain will the wiring be subject to? Fiber cables are more protected from outdoor weather than traditional copper cables.
used to connect two computing devices of the same type directly to each other. In computers, this is accomplished via their network interface controllers (NIC) or switches
Crossover cables
the transmit connector on one end of the wire is connected to the receive connector on the other. These cables are used much less today, as many standards have the built-in capability to try straight through and then crossover if communication does not take place.
used to connect a device to a wall outlet, for example
Patch cable.
The wall outlet is wired to another patch panel in the networking closet, and that networking panel is wired into a switch. These cables can also be used to wire servers in a rack to the top-of-rack (ToR) switch. Patch cables look similar to crossover and UTP cables.
10BASE-T: 10 Mbps over UTP
802.3i
1990
Added fiber-optic cable options
802.3j
1993
Added 100 Mbps speed, also known as Fast Ethernet
Added auto-negotiation of speed (10 Mbps or 100 Mbps)
802.3u
1995
Full-duplex (bi-directional communication at the same time—a node could both send and receive traffic instead of one or the other, similar to the difference between a phone and a walkie-talkie)
802.3x
1997
1000BASE-X: 1 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3z
1998
1000BASE-T: 1 Gbps over UTP
802.3ab
1999
10GBASE-X: 10 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3ae
2002
Power over Ethernet (PoE), the ability to power a low-power device, 15 watts or less, without plugging it into an electrical outlet, reducing cabling
802.3af
2003
Added support for twinaxial cables, a type of coax with two wires in the cable instead of one; used in short connections (typically just a few meters, such as within a rack) as an inexpensive alternative to fiber-optic cabling
802.3ak
2004
10GBASE-T: 10 Gbps over UTP
802.3an
2006
40 and 100 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3bm
2015
25 Gbps over fiber-optic and twinaxial cables
802.3by
2016
200 Gbps and 400 Gbps over fiber-optic cables
802.3bs
2017
Update to power over Ethernet (PoE) to support up to 100W devices
802.3bt
2018
Provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band
Uses frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) (the signal hops between random frequencies to reach the destination)
Can also use direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) (data is divided into smaller pieces before being sent with a higher bitrate)
802.11
1997
Provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz band
802.11a
1999
Provides 11 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band
Uses only direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS)
802.11b
2000
Used for transmission over short distances
Speeds up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz bands
802.11g
2003
Adds multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) (uses multiple signals on different frequencies to increase the range and bandwidth of wireless networks and forms directed beams toward each client, reducing the interference from other wireless devices nearby)
4–5 times faster than 802.11g
802.11n
2007
Delivers data rates of 433 Mbps per signal or 1.3 Gbps in a three-signal design
802.11ac
2013
The first Wi-Fi specification to operate in frequency bands below 1 GHz (900 MHz)
Nearly twice the range of other Wi-Fi technologies
Can penetrate walls and other barriers better than previous Wi-Fi standards
Much lower bandwidth (< 9 Mbps)
Designed for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and similar use cases with limited bandwidth needs over larger distances
802.11ah
2017
Update to 802.11ac
Rebranded to Wi-Fi 6
Adds support for 6 GHz frequency range
Support for approximately 1–10 Gbps
802.11ax 2019
