WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF NETWORK CABLE?

 

Networking cables

Description

Description

Networking cables are networking hardware used to connect one network device to other network devices or to connect two or more computers to share printers, scanners etc. Different types of network cables, such as coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, and twisted pair cables, are used depending on the network's physical layer, topology, and size. The devices can be separated by a few meters (e.g. via Ethernet) or nearly unlimited distances (e.g. via the interconnections of the Internet).

Types of Networking Cables

Twisted pair

• twisted pair cabling is a form of wiring in which pairs of wires (the forward and return conductors of a single circuit) are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from other wire pairs and from external sources. This type of cable is used for home and corporate Ethernet networks. Twisted pair cabling is used in short patch cables and in the longer runs in structured cabling. 
• An Ethernet crossover cable is a type of twisted pair Ethernet cable used to connect computing devices together directly that would normally be connected via a network switch, Ethernet hub or router, such as directly connecting two personal computers via their network adapters. Most current Ethernet devices support Auto MID-X, so it doesn't matter whether you use crossover or straight cables.

A twisted pair cable with shielding

Fiber Optics 

• An optical fiber cable consists of a center glass core surrounded by several layers of protective material. Optical fiber deployment is more expensive than copper but offers higher bandwidth and can cover longer distances. There are two major types of optical fiber cables: shorter-range multi-mode fiber and long-range single-mode fiber. 
  
• This cable consists of core, cladding, buffer, and jacket. The core is made from the thin strands of glass or plastic that can carry data over the long distance. The core is wrapped in the cladding; the cladding is wrapped in the buffer, and the buffer is wrapped in the jacket.  

Multi-mode fiber cables with LC (top) and ST (bottom) optical fiber connectors, both with protective caps in place.

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  An optical fiber cable is completely immune to EMI and RFI. This cable can transmit data over a long distance at the highest speed. It can transmit data up to 40km at the speed of 100gbps.
• This cable uses light to send data. It reflects light from one end point to another. Based on how beams of light are transmitted at a given time, there are two types of fiber cable: SMF and MMF.
• Single-mode optical fiber (SMF) is an optical fiber designed to carry only a single modeof light - the transverse mode. 
• Multi-mode optical fiber is a type of optical fiber mostly used for communication over short distances, such as within a building or on a campus. Multi-mode links can be used for data rates up to 100 Gbit/s.

Coaxial Cables

• Coaxial Cable form a transmission line and confine the electromagnetic wave inside the cable between the center conductor and the shield. The transmission of energy in the line occurs totally through the dielectric inside the cable between the conductors. Coaxial lines can therefore be bent and twisted (subject to limits) without negative effects, and they can be strapped to conductive supports without inducing unwanted currents in them. 
• Early Ethernet, 10BASE5 and 10BASE2,, used baseband signaling over coaxial cables. In the 20th century the L-carrier system used coaxial cable for long-distance calling. 
• Coaxial cables are commonly used for television and other broadband signals. Although in most homes coaxial cables have been installed for transmission of TV signals, new technologies (such as the ITU-T G. hn standard) open the possibility of using home coaxial cable for high-speed home networking applications (Ethernet Over Coax).

A coaxial cable has a central conductor surrounded by a sheath of conductor with insulation in between.