5.3 Network Cable Types

Question 1

Unshielded Twisted Pair

Answer 1

• Copper conductor
• 100m (328 ft)
• Media type that uses copper conductors arranged in pairs that are twisted to reduce interference. Typically, cables are 4-pair or 2-pair.

Question 2

UTP cable

Answer 2

• Insulated jacket
• Wires twisted together
• four pairs of conductors

Question 3

Shieled Twisted Pair

Answer 3

• Copper conductor
• Each pair has foil shielding
  -Copper twisted-pair cabling with screening and shielding elements for individual wire pairs and/or the whole cable to reduce interference.

Question 4

Copper Cabling Connectors

Answer 4

• Registered jack
• RJ-45
• RJ-11

Question 5

Foiled Unshielded Twisted Pair (F/UTP)

Answer 5

cable has a single foil shield that surrounds all wires in the cable. This type of cable may also be called screened twisted pair (ScTP) or sometimes just foiled twisted pair (FTP). This type of cable provides decent protection against electromagnetic

Question 6

Shielded Foiled Twisted Pair (S/FTP)

Answer 6

cabling has a braided outer screen and foil-shielded pairs. This type of cable provides the best protection against EMI and crosstalk but is expensive and less flexible. There are also variants with a foil outer shield (F/FTP).

Question 7

Unshielded with Foiled Twisted Pair (U/FTP)

Answer 7

cable has no outer shield, but each pair of wires has a foil shield around them. This provides good protection against EMI and crosstalk.

Question 8

Copper Cabling Installation Tools

Answer 8

• Cable/wire stripper
• Snips/cutter
• Punchdown tool
• Crimper

Question 9

Cable/wire snippers

Answer 9

Tool for stripping cable jacket or wire insulation.
Used to trim back outer jacket

Question 10

Punchdown Tool

Answer 10

-Tool used to terminate twisted-pair copper cable to an insulation displacement connector block.
- Connect individual wires to an IDC
or keystone jackh

Question 11

Snip/cutter

Answer 11

Used to trim wire and cable to
correct length

Question 12

Crimper

Answer 12

Attach RJ-11 or RJ-45 plug
Tool to join a Registered Jack (RJ) form factor connector to the ends of twisted-pair patch cable.

Question 13

Cable tester

Answer 13

• LED indicator testing the connection of individual pairs of wires
• Two-part tool used to test successful termination of copper cable by attaching to each end of a cable and energizing each wire conductor in turn with an LED to indicate an end-to-end connection.

Question 14

Toner probe

Answer 14

• Used to trace and locate cables in a network closet or cable bundles
• Two-part tool used to identify one cable within a bundle by applying an audible signal. Also called fox and hound.

Question 15

Loopback plug

Answer 15

• Used to test transmit and receive wire pathways
• Tool used to verify the integrity of a network interface port by checking that it can receive a signal generated by itself.
• You can make a basic loopback plug from a 6” cable stub where the wires connect pin 1 to pin 3 and pin 2 to pin 6.

Question 16

Passive

Answer 16

• Monitors traffic without interruption of dataflow by creating a copy of
  the data
• is a box with ports for incoming and outgoing network cabling and an inductor or optical splitter that physically copies the signal from the cabling to a monitor port. No logic decisions are made, so the monitor port receives every frame regardless if it is corrupt or malformed or not and the copying is unaffected by load.

Question 17

Network tap

Answer 17

• A hardware device inserted into a cable run to copy frames for analysis.
• A network tap is used to intercept the signals passing over a cable and send them to a packet or protocol analyzer.

Question 18

TAP standfor

Answer 18

test access point

Question 19

Active

Answer 19

• Monitors traffic directly and then regenerates the traffic signal to
  continue it along its pathway to its destination
• is a powered device that performs signal regeneration, which may be necessary in some circumstances. Gigabit signaling over copper wire is too complex for a passive tap to monitor, and some types of fiber links may be adversely affected by optical splitting. Because it performs an active function, the TAP becomes a point of failure for the links during power loss.

Question 20

Copper Cabling Installation Considerations

Answer 20

• Plenum rated
• Direct burial

Question 21

Plenum

Answer 21

Cable for use in building voids designed to be fire-resistant and to produce a minimal amount of smoke if burned.

Question 22

Plenum space

Answer 22

A plenum space is a void in a building designed to carry heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.

Question 23

Outside plant (OSP)

Answer 23

is cable run on the external walls of a building or between two buildings.

Question 24

Aerial cable

Answer 24

is typically strung between two poles or anchors. The ultraviolet (UV) rays in sunlight plus exposure to more extreme and changing temperatures and damp conditions will degrade regular PVC.

Question 25

Conduit

Answer 25

can provide more protection for buried cable runs. Such cable can still be exposed to extreme temperatures and damp conditions, however, so regular PVC cable should not be used.

Question 26

Direct burial cable

Answer 26

- A type of outside plant (OSP) installation where cable is laid directly into the ground with no protective conduit. - is laid and then covered in earth or cement/concrete.

Question 27

Optical Cabling

Answer 27

- Higher bandwidth - longer distance signaling - single-mode vs. multimode fiber

Question 28

fiber optic cable

Answer 28

- Network cable type that uses light signals as the basis for data transmission. Infrared light pulses are transmitted down the glass core of the fiber. The cladding that surrounds this core reflects light back to ensure transmission efficiency. Two main categories of fiber are available; multi-mode, which uses cheaper, shorter wavelength LEDs or VCSEL diodes, or single-mode, which uses more expensive, longer wavelength laser diodes. At the receiving end of the cable, light-sensitive diodes re-convert the light pulse into an electrical signal. Fiber optic cable is immune to eavesdropping and EMI, has low attenuation, supports rates of 10 Gb/s+, and is light and compact. - contained in a protective jacket and terminated by a connector.

Question 29

Single-mode fiber (SMF)

Answer 29

- Fiber optic cable type that uses laser diodes and narrow core construction to support high bandwidths over distances of more than five kilometers.

Question 30

Multimode fiber (MMF)

Answer 30

- has a larger core (62.5 or 50 microns) and is designed to carry a shorter wavelength infrared light (850 nm or 1,300 nm). MMF uses less expensive and less coherent LEDs or vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and consequently is less expensive to deploy than SMF. However, MMF does not support such high signaling speeds or long distances as single-mode and so is more suitable for LANs than WANs.

Question 31

Straight-tip connector (ST)

Answer 31

- Bayonet-style twist-and-lock connector for fiber optic cabling. - is a bayonet-style connector that uses a push-and-twist locking mechanism; it is used mostly on older multi-mode networks.

Question 32

Subscriber connector (SC)

Answer 32

- Push/pull connector used with fiber optic cabling. - has a push/pull design that allows for simpler insertion and removal than fiber channel (FC) connector. There are simplex and duplex versions, though the duplex version is just two connectors clipped together. It can be used for single- or multi-mode.

Question 33

Lucent connector (LC)

Answer 33

- Small form factor push-pull fiber optic connector; available in simplex and duplex versions. - is a small form factor connector with a tabbed push/pull design. LC is similar to SC, but the smaller size allows for higher port density. This connector is also sometimes referred to as little-connector or local-connector.

Question 34

Optical Cabling Connectors

Answer 34

- ST -SC - LC

Question 35

Coaxial Cabling

Answer 35

- Radio Grade (RG) - Connector - f-type