Types of LAN Cable - Computer Networking Cables

Cable Media

Cable media conduct either electricity or light. The common cable types are: Twisted pair cable, Coaxial cable and Fiber optic cable.

Twisted Pair TP Cable

Twisting the copper wires reduces crosstalk and signal emissions. Two insulated copper wires are twisted at constant intervals across the length to form a twisted pair. A single TP cable has multiple twisted pairs housed inside a common jacket. There are two types of TP:

• Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
• Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

Unshielded Twisted Pair TP Cable

The UTP cable has a set of twisted pairs with a simple plastic encasement. It is cheaper and easy to install. But it does not support very high-speed (100 Mbps) and has high attenuation. It is easily affected by EMI. There are five standard.

Shielded Twisted Pair TP Cable

STP cable is an insulated cable with the pairs of wires wrapped in a foil or mesh shielding. It is more immune to EMI than UTP cable and supports higher speed. But it is costlier than UTP cable.

Coaxial cable

Coaxial cable has two conductors with one inside the other. The inner conductor is either a solid copper wire or stands of copper. !t is covered by an insulating plastic foam. The foam is sur­rounded by the outer conductor which is usually either a wire mesh tube or conductive foil wrap. !t acts as an EMI shield. An insulating sheath of PVC or Teflon covers the entire cable. The coaxial cable supports very high speeds and highly immune to EMI. But it is expensive.

Coaxial Cable Types:

Fiber Optic Cable

Fiber optic cable transmits light pulses over a glass or plastic conductor. It consists of a glass or plastic core which carries light pulses. It is surrounded by layers of reflective glass called clad­ding. A plastic spacer layer covers the cladding. It is in turn surrounded by a protective layer of fibers. The entire cable is protected by a tough outer sheath. The center core provides the light path or waveguide and the glass cladding is designed to refract light back into the core.

Fiber optic cable is lightweight than UTP and STP cables. It gives extremely low attenuation rates and supports upto 2 Gbps data rates. It is immune to EMI. But it is costly and complex to manufacture and install.

RJ-45 Lan Cable

Rj-45 Cables used for Peer to Peer and server based systems, digital values sections differ from other cables. Flow media sectors were established by the fast and secure transactions. Complete sections were distributed by the Switch and Hubs.