Copper Cabling

Question 1

The importance of cable

Answer 1

• Fundamental to network communication
  
  • Incredibly important foundation

• Usually only get one good opportunity at building
your cabling infrastructure
• Make it good!

• The vast majority of wireless communication uses
cables
• Unless you’re an amateur radio operator

Question 2

Twisted pair copper cabling

Answer 2

• Balanced pair operation
  
  • Two wires with equal and opposite signals
  • Transmit+, Transmit- / Receive+, Receive-

• The twist keeps a single wire constantly moving away
from the interference
• The opposite signals are compared on the other end

• Pairs in the same cable have different twist rates

Question 3

Unshielded and shielded cable

Answer 3

• UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)
  
  • No additional shielding
  • The most common twisted pair cabling
• STP (Shielded Twisted Pair)
  
  • Additional shielding protects against interference
  • Shield each pair and/or the overall cable
  • Requires the cable to be grounded
• Abbreviations
  
  • U = Unshielded, S = Braided shielding, F = Foil shielding

• (Overall cable) / (individual pairs)TP
• Braided shielding around the entire cable and foil
around the pairs is S/FTP
• Foil around the cable and no shielding around the
pairs is F/UTP

Question 4

Network cabling standards

Answer 4

• Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA)
  • Alliance of trade associations
  • Develops standards for the industry
  • Standards start with RS-# (Recommended Standard) 
     or EIA-#

• Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)
• Standards, market analysis, government affairs, etc.
• ANSI/TIA/EIA-568 - Commercial Building
Telecommunications Cabling Standard

• International ISO/IEC 11801 cabling standards
  
  • Defines classes of networking standards

Question 5

Plenum space

Answer 5

• Building air circulation - Heating and air conditioning system
• Concerns in the case of a fire - Smoke and toxic fumes
• Worst-case planning - Important concerns for any structure

Question 6

Plenum-rated cable

Answer 6

• Traditional cable jacket
  
  • Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

• Fire-rated cable jacket
• Fluorinated ethylene polymer (FEP) or
low-smoke polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

• Plenum-rated cable may not be as flexible
  
  • May not have the same bend radius

Question 7

Coaxial cables

Answer 7

• Two or more forms share a common axis

• RG-6 used in television/digital cable
  
  • And high-speed Internet over cable
• RG-59 used as patch cables
  
  • Not designed for long distances