Types of Network Cable

Network cable is connected from a network device (such as a computer) to another network device, it is the basic component of the network. In our common LAN, network cable is used with a variety of types. Under normal circumstances,generally a typical local area network is not use a variety of different types of network cable to connect to the network device.In a large network or WAN in order to put together the different types of network connections will use different kinds of network cable.Among the many types of network lines, use which variety network cable according to the network topology, the network architecture standards and transmission speeds to choose.Understand the types and characteristics of the cable, to design and construction of the network for us is very important, Let’s discuss some categories by what kind of cable and their technical characteristics:

 

Lan Cable/Twisted Pair:

Twisted Pair divided shield (Shielded Twisted Pair, called STP) and unshielded (Unshielded Twisted Pair, called UTP).The shield refers to the inside line wrapped with a layer of metal mesh outside,Outside the shield is insulated jacket, the shield can effectively isolate the interference of external electromagnetic signals.

 

UTP is the one of the most frequently lines used in LAN,this cable wrapped eight signal lines inside of the plastic insulation sheath.They are two line intertwined together, total four pairs. Twisted intertwined with each other is to use an electromagnetic field generated by the current role of copper in the adjacent lines offset interference and reduce interference from the outside world. When the factory made the network cable, will remark the categories on the jacket,like cat3, cat5e,cat6,cat7 and so on.

STP is using a metal shield to reduce the external electromagnetic interference (EMI),when the shield is properly grounded, it can change the received electromagnetic interference signal into the current signal, and reverse with the twisted-pair. STP is generally used in susceptible to electromagnetic interference and radio frequency interference environment.

Fiber Optic Cable:

 

Fiber Optic Cable transmit signales in the form of light pulses, so is also based on glass or plexiglass material.It consists of fiber core, cladding and protective sleeve composition. The greatest feature of fiber is conducting optical signal,for it is not subject to outside electromagnetic signals interference, the signal decay rate is very slow, so the signal transmission distance is much farther than lan cable. Fiber optic cable is so popular at network word, but the cost is also expensive, so as usual, used in large lan. But with the fiber cost down, fierb optic cable will be used more and more.

Introduce more about network cable

1) Cat1 Lan/ Network Cable:

 

The highest frequency of this cable is 750 KHZ, used for alarm systerm, or only suit for voice transmission(this kind of standard is mainly used in telephone cable before the eighty’s ). It’s the different from the data transmission.

 

2) Cat2 Lan/ Network Cable

 

The highest frequency of this cable is 1MHZ, used for voice transmission and data transmission( the highest rate is 4 MBPS).

 

3) Cat3 Lan/ Network Cable

 

It’s a specified cable in the standard of ANSI and EIA/TIA568,the highest frequency of this cable is 16MHZ,and the highest transfer rate is 10Mbps（10Mbit/s).It’s used together with RJ connector,but now this cabls is out of market.

 

4) Ca4 Lan/ Network Cable

 

The transmission frequency is 20 MHZ, used for voice transmission and data transmission(the highest rate is16 MBPS ).Mainly used for lan based on 10BASE-T/100BASE-T. The longest net is 100m,in the form of RJ connector, but has not been widely adopted.

 

5) Cat5 Lan/ Network Cable

 

The cable increases the winding density, the jacket is a high quality insulation material. The highest frequency of this cable is 100Mhz, and the highest rate is MBPS. Used for voice transmission and data transmission(the highest transmission rate is 100Mbps). It’s mainly used on 100BASE-T, the net long could be 100m in the form of RJ connector.This is the most commonly used Ethernet cable.Within the twisted-pair cables, different lines with different twist length.Usually, 4 of twisted-pair twisted period within 38.1 mm length, according to counterclockwise twisting, a pair of lines of twisting length within 12.7 mm.

 

6) Cat5e Lan/Network Cable

 

The attenuation and crosstalk of cat5e cable is much less. The performance is greatly improved.Cat5e Lan cable is mainly used for one billion – bit Ethernet (1000 MBPS).

 

7) Cat6 Lan/ Network Cable

 

The transmission frequency is 1MHz～250MHz,when the frequency at 200 MHZ the PS-ACR of cat6 lan cable should be a larger allowance, it provides 2 times in cat5e lan cable.The transmission performance of cat6 is much higher than cat5e.It most suitable the transmission rate is higher than 1 GBPS.The important difference between cat6 and cat5e is:Improved performance in terms of crosstalk and return loss, for a new generation of full duplex high-speed network applications, good return loss performance is very important. Six standard basic link model, cancelled in cabling standard USES the star topology structure, the requirements of the wiring distance is: the permanent link length should not exceed 90 m, channel length should not exceed 100 m.

 

8) Cat6A Lan/ Network Cable

 

Cat6A lan cable is the improved version of cat6 lan cable, is also a kind of shielded twisted-pair cable in ANSI/EIA/TIA – 568 – b. 2 and cat6/E ISO standard. Mainly used in the gigabit network. It’s the same as cat6 the transmission frequency is also 1MHz～250MHz.The maximum transmission speed can reach 1000 Mbps.

 

9) Cat7 Lan/ Network Cable

 

This cable is newest twisted line in ISO 7 class/F standards.It is mainly in order to adapt to a ten billion – bit application and development of Ethernet technology.  It is no longer a kind of shielded twisted-pair cable, it’s an shielded twisted-pair cable, so it can provide comprehensive attenuation of at least 500 MHZ for crosstalk and 600 MHZ bandwidth of the whole, it’s twice times than cat6 lan cable, the transmission rate can be up to 10 GBPS.In cat7 lan cable , each pair of lines have a shielding layer, together with four line as well as a public large shield.

 

10) Cat8 Lan/ Network Cable

 

Now cat7 cable on international definition, but in the United States , Siemon company announced has developed cat8 lan cable. They developed it on 1999, mark for the “Tera”. So the cat8 lan cable also called “tera” “tera “dor” “10Gip” and  “megaline 8”and so on.