Chapter 5: Installing a Physical Network Flashcards
What three essential things are needed to implement a basic structured cabling network?
A telecommunications room
Horizontal cabling
A work area
What is horizontal cabling?
Network cables that run more or less horizontally from the telecommunications room to the work areas.
What is a run?
A single piece of cable that runs from a work area to a telecommunications room.
What are the two types that UTP cables come in?
Solid core and stranded core.
What are the differences between UTP solid core and UTP stranded core cabling?
Solid core is a better conductor, but is stiff and will break from frequent/rough handling.
Stranded core is not quite as good of a conductor, but is better suited to frequent/substantial handling.
What type of horizontal UTP cabling does the TIA/EIA specify to be used?
Solid core UTP
What Cat ratings use four-pair UTP?
Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6a, Cat 7, and up.
What is the common name for an Intermediate Distribution Frame (IDF) location?
A telecommunications room.
What is an equipment rack and how wide are they?
Equipment racks provide a safe and stable platform for different hardware components. They are all 19 inches wide, but vary in height.
What is an equipment rack unit (U)?
The height measurement for all rack-mounted equipment.
1U = 1.75 in
2U = 3.5 in
4U = 7 in
What is a four-post rack?
A rack that supports all four corners of the server.
What is a server rail rack?
A rack that enables you to slide the server out so you can open it up.
Define: Patch Panel
A box with a row of female ports in the front and permanent connections in the back, to which you connect the horizontal cables.
What is a 110 block?
A special punchdown connector that is commonly used in the back of patch panels. They require the use of a punchdown tool.
What is the official ANSI/TIA naming convention for patch panels?
ANSI/TIA-606-C
What are patch cables used for and what type of UTP cable are they?
Patch cables connect the ports of patch panels to switches and also NICs to wall drops. They are UTP stranded core cabling.
Define: Patch Bay
A dedicated block with A/V (audio/video) connections that runs of coaxial or fiber connect to.
What is the TIA/EIA 568 specification for UTP horizontal cabling length?
90 m, reserving 10 m for patch cables.
What is a demarcation point (demarc)?
The location where connections from the outside world come into a building. It marks the dividing line of responsibility for the functioning of the network.
Where will you find the demarc located?
In the service-related entry point for a network.
What is a Network Interface Unit (NIU)?
The equipment supplied by your ISP that serves as a demarc between your home network and your ISP.
What is a smartjack?
An NIU (Network Interface Unit) that is set up to do remote loopbacks to diagnose faults.
Define: Customer-Premises Equipment (CPE)
A powerful switch or other network box that the network and telephone cables connect to from the NIU (demarc).
This switch usually connects to a vertical cross-connect (main patch panel).
Define: Demarc Extension
Any cabling that runs from the NIU (Network Interface Unit) to the CPE (Costumer-Premises Equipment).
The main patch panel that leads to every telecommunications room in the building is called a ____.
vertical cross-connect
What three important items does the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) room store?
The room that stores the NIU (Network Interface Unit), CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), and vertical cross-connect.
Is a floor plan a key component of organizational documents?
Yes
Define: Cable Drop
The location where the cable comes out of the wall in the work area.
What are the five key issues in determining the location of the telecommunications room?
Distance
Power
Humidity
Cooling
Access
Also consider expandability/scalability
What are the effects of signal degradation?
It slows or stops network communication.
Define: Interference
Any disruption on a medium (wired or wireless) that intentionally or inadvertently prevents valid signals from being read by an intended recipient.
What are challenges with UTP cabling?
- Too long of cable
- Too much noise
- Broken wires
- Wires not connected in the crimp (open)
- A short created by two touching bare wires
- Bent pins on the RJ-45 or in the jack
- Incorrect pinout
- Interference (EMI)
- Split pair
Define: Split Pair
Where the signal from any of the pairs in the same UTP cable interfere with another pair.
What is a wire map test?
Testing to determine that all the wires on both ends of the cable connect to the right spot. It will also pick up shorts, crossed wires, and more.
What tasks does a Time-Domain Reflectometer (TDR) testing tool do?
It checks continuity and wire maps. It also will locate breaks and determine cabling length.
What is Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT)
Where the signal on one pair causes EMI on the other three pairs on the same end of the cable as the end emanating the signal.
What is Far-End Crosstalk (FEXT)?
Where the signal on one pair causes EMI on the other three pairs on opposite end of the cable from the end emanating the signal.
What is attenuation?
The weakening of a signal as it progresses down a piece of wire. As attenuation increases, the signal becomes more susceptible to crosstalk.
What unit is signal loss measured in?
Decibel (dB)
Define: Latency
A delay between the time the sending machine sends a message and the time the receiving machine can start processes those frames.
Define: Jitter
A delay in completing a transmission of all the frames in a message. This becomes a serious problem in real-time voice communication.
What are some fiber challenges?
- Dirty optical cables/dirty connector
- A small connector mismatch
- Dispersion/modal dispersion
- Bend radius limitation
- Light leakage
- Transceiver mismatch
- Wavelength mismatch
- etc.
Define: Light Leakage
Light leakage means that part of the signal goes out of the cable rather than arriving at the end.
What tasks does an optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) tool do?
It determines continuity in fiber-optic cabling and tells you how far down the cable to look for a break.
What does a fusion splicer tool do?
It enables techs to combine two fiber-optic cables without losing quality.
What are the three big issues with fiber-optic cabling?
- Light leakage
- Attenuation
- Dispersion
Define: Dispersion
When a signal spreads out over long distances.
Both attenuation and dispersion are caused when wave signals travel too far without help over fiber-optic media.
What is port aggregation, bonding, or link aggregation?
Using multiple NICs for a single machine which effectively increases the overall bandwidth.
Most switches enable you to use multiple NICs for a single machine.
What does Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) do?
It controls how multiple network devices send and receive data as a single connection.
What is another name for light-emitting diode (LED) status indicators?
Link lights
What are couplers?
Small devices with two female ports that enable you to connect two pieces of cable together to overcome distance limitations.
What do voltage event recorders do?
Plug into your power outlet and track the voltage over time.
Define: Toner
The generic term for two separate devices that are used together: a tone generator and a tone probe.
What is a tone generator?
A device that sends an electrical signal along a wire at a certain frequency.
What is a tone probe?
A device that emits a sound when it is placed near a cable connected to the tone generator.
