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LESSON 15
AN OVERVIEW OF WIRING AND CONNECTORS STANDARD
Introduction
Communications wiring standards are defined by a number of
national and international agencies, including the Electrical
Industries Association (EIA), the Telecommunications
Industry Association (TIA), the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the National Electrical
Manufacturers Association (NEMA). These committees
recognize and develop definitions for multiple electrical and
communications definitions, i.e., how things operate, how
devices will inter-connect, how signals will be formatted, and
how manufacturers can design and construct equipment so as
to ensure compatibility within the marketplace.
Objectives
On completion of the Lesson, students should be able to:
Understand the Communications wiring standards.
Understand the Standard Connectors used in networking.
National Wiring Standards
The process of setting national and international standards is
time-consuming as it involves a committee and meeting
structure, often on an international basis, and may take several
years to get draft standards distributed for comment. Such a
draft standard is voted on by the members of the various
organizations and, upon concurrence, testing and announce-
ment follows before an end-user may be assured that their
equipment or wiring standards will be in conformance with a
national or international standard. In the United States, the final
standard is issued and maintained by the American National
Standards Institute (ANSI).
Large manufacturers within the communications industry, such
as IBM or DEC, often create a de facto standard by virtue of
their dominance of a particular field. For example, IBMs
dominance of the early years of token-ring development
paralleled the introduction of the IBM wiring standard and its
reliance upon shielded twisted pair for data communications.
Standard Connectors
Connector is a part of a cable that plugs into a port or interface
to connect one device to another. Most connectors are either
male (containing one or more exposed pins) or female (contain-
ing holes in which the male connector can be inserted).
BNC Connector
Short for British Naval Connector or Bayonet Nut Connector or
Bayonet Neill Concelman, it is a type of connector used with
coaxial cables such as the RG-58 A/ U cable used with the
10Base-2 Ethernet system. The basic BNC connector is a male
type mounted at each end of a cable. This connector has a center
pin connected to the center cable conductor and a metal tube
connected to the outer cable shield. A rotating ring outside the
tube locks the cable to any female connector.
BNC T-connectors (used with the 10Base-2 system) are female
devices for connecting two cables to a network interface card
(NIC). A BNC barrel connector allows connecting two cables
together.
BNC connectors can also be used to connect some monitors,
which increases the accuracy of the signals sent from the video
adapter.
10Base-2
One of several adaptations of the Ethernet (IEEE 802.3)
standard for Local Area Networks (LANs). The 10Base-2
standard (also called Thinnet) uses 50-ohm coaxial cable (RG-58
A/ U) with maximum lengths of 185 meters. This cable is
thinner and more flexible than that used for the 10Base-5
standard. The RG-58 A/ U cable is both less expensive and
easier to place.
Cables in the 10Base-2 system connect with BNC connectors.
The Network Interface Card (NIC) in a computer requires a T-
connector where you can attach two cables to adjacent
computers. Any unused connection must have a 50 ohm
terminator.
The 10Base-2 system operates at 10 Mbps and uses baseband
transmission methods.
DIN Connector
DIN is an acronym for Deutsche Industrinorm, the standards -
setting organization for Germany. A DIN connector is a
connector that conforms to one of the many standards defined
by DIN. DIN connectors are used widely in personal comput-
ers. For example, the keyboard connector for PCs is a DIN
connector.
DIN 41612 connectors are used widely to connect network
equipment, such as routers and switches.
RJ-45 Connectors
Short for Registered Jack-45, an eight-wire connector used
commonly to connect computers onto a local-area networks
(LAN), especially Ethernets. RJ-45 connectors look similar to
the ubiquitous RJ-11 connectors used for connecting telephone
equipment, but they are somewhat wider.
RJ-45 pins are numbered as shown on this male RJ-45
connector.
Cable
A flexible metal or glass wire or group of wires. All cables used
in electronics are insulated with a material such as plastic or
rubber.
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Once you have the network cards installed and interfaced in your
computer, you need a way to connect them to each other.
The network media used can be:
Wire (Bounded) or
Wireless (Unbounded).
Bounded Media
Wires or network cables are referred to as bounded media
because the signal travels through a physical media shielded on
the outside (bounded)by some material.Bounded media are
great for LANs because they offer good speed, good security
and low cost.
Examples of bounded media CO-AXIAL,TWISTED PAIR &
OPTICAL FIBER.
Twisted Pair Cable
Twisted Pair Cable The most common form of cable today, it is
used to connect telephone subscribers to exchanges (switching
centres) and wire buildings. Two insulated wires are twisted
around each other, and combined with others into a cable.
Twisted pair is starting to be a favourite choice for interconnect-
ing PCs on a Local Area Network (LAN). In general, each
twisted pair supports a single voice channel.
Twisted pair used in Local Area Networks has several ratings.
Category 3 has a speed rating of 10 million bits per second (the
speed of ethernet), whereas category 5 has a speed rating of 100
million bits per second. CIT is cabled using Category 5 UTP
cable. UTP (Unshielded twisted pair) is cable which has no
ground shield. Cables are often provided with a ground shield
which helps to reduce signal interference from external sources,
thus making the signal travelling down the cable less prone to
alteration. Twisted pair cable is provided in two forms, UTP
and STP. The diagram below shows UTP Category 5 cable.
Unshielded twisted pair cable is the predominant cable used
today. Two conductors are coated with a plastic sheath then
twisted around each other. These pairs are then twisted around
other pairs to make a multi-pair cable. The twisting of the wires
around each other helps to reduce unwanted signals being
induced into the wires.
It is used for telephone wiring inside buildings, as telephone
cables which link customer houses and buildings to telephone
switching exchanges, and for implementing local area networks.
UTP has the advantages of
A high installed base
Cheap to install
Easy to terminate
Its disadvantages are
Very noisy
Limited in distance
Suffers from interference
The diagram below shows category 3 STP.
Coaxial Cable
Till recently, extensively used to support toll traffic and long
distance links. Today, it is being replaced by micro-wave, satellite
or fibre optic links. Coaxial cable is a two wire conductor with a
larger bandwidth than twisted pair cable. It is used in television,
radio, and ethernet based LANS. Each coaxial cable supports
about 60 speech channels.
When using in Local Area Networks to interconnect computers,
its most popular form is RG-58AU cable, commonly called thin
ethernet. The coax cable connects to each PC using a special T
connector, and up to a maximum of 30 connections can be
made in tandem, from PC to PC. Thin ethernet is cheap to
install and is rated at 10 million bits per second. Each end of
the cable is terminated using a 50ohm terminator. Failure to
terminate each end of the cable, or a break in the cable, causes
the network to fail.
Coaxial cable is used extensively in networking and data
communications. A centre conductor is separated from an outer
conductor by an insulator medium. The cable cannot be crushed
or bent sharply, as this damages the insulation between the
conductors and thus alters the electrical characteristics of the
cable.
It is used for local area networking, linking PCs together. The
networking protocol commonly used with coaxial cable is
ETHERNET, which describes how data is formatted and
transmitted along a shared cable system.
Coaxial cable has the advantages of
Cheap to install
Conforms to standards
Widely used
Its disadvantages are,
Limited in distance
Limited in number of connections
Terminations and connectors must be done properly
Fibre Optic Cable
This is cable made from fine strands of silicon (glass), coated
with a plastic sheath. The signals are converted to light pulses
before being sent. Each fibre optic strand can support thou-
sands of speech channels and multiple TV channels
simultaneously. It is used mainly for long haul links and
intercontinental links.
A strand of silicon glass fibre (thinner than a human hair), is
coated with a refractive surface. When light (provided by a laser)
is show into the strand, it travels along the fibre strand (the
refractive layer prevents it from escaping). It is used for long
haul telecommunications links, high speed data communica-
tions links for computers, and information services to homes
(eg, PAY TV).
Fibre optic cable has the advantages of
High capacity
Immune to interference
Can go long distances
Its disadvantages are,
Costly
Difficult to join
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Ribbon cables
A flat, thin cable containing many parallel wires. Because of their
shape, ribbon cables are ideal for situations where space needs
to be conserved. Theyre used, for example, within a computer
chassis to connect disk drives to the disk drive controllers.
UNBOUNDED OR WIRELESS MEDIA
This does not use any physical connectors between the two
communicating devices. Usually the transmission is sent
through the atmosphere, but sometimes it can be just across a
room. Wireless media is used when a physical obstruction or
distance blocks the use of normal cable media.
The three main types of Wireless Media are radio wave,
microwave and infrared.
Microwave
Microwave is a radio system, which uses very high frequencies to
send and receive data. Because of the high frequencies involved,
stations are located about 30 kilometers apart and in line of
sight (visible to each other).
Microwave systems have sufficient bandwidth capacity to
support a large number of voice channels and one or two TV
channels.
Microwave systems have the advantage of
Medium capacity
Medium cost
Can go long distances
Its disadvantages are,
Noise interference
Geographical problems due to line of sight requirements
Becoming outdated
Installing Cable - Some Guidelines
When running cable, it is best to follow a few simple rules:
Always use more cable than you need. Leave plenty of slack.
Test every part of a network as you install it. Even if it is
brand new, it may have problems that will be difficult to
isolate later.
Stay at least 3 feet away from fluorescent light boxes and
other sources of electrical interference.
If it is necessary to run cable across the floor, cover the cable
with cable protectors.
Label both ends of each cable.
Use cable ties (not tape) to keep cables in the same location
together.
Seven Levels/Grades Media
Since Winter of 1990, electrical manufacturing associations have
redefined existing wiring product lines and introduced new
cables according to a generally agreed-upon set of levels or
grades of media. For the purposes of this paper, these levels
are defined as follows:
Category 1POTS (plain old telephone service) and Low-Speed
Data (up to 9600 bits per second)
Category 2 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Data
(up to 4 megabits per second)
Category 3 Data Grade Media for Local Area Networks (up to
16 megabits per second)
Category 4 Extended Distance Local Area Networks (up to 20
megabits per second)
Category 5 Data Grade Media (up to 100 megabits per second)
Category 6 Coaxial Cable (up to 100 megabits per second)
Category 7 Fiber (in excess of 100 megabits per second)
It may be helpful to understand that Category 3 is the appropri-
ate definition for the recent 10BaseT (Ethernet over unshielded
twisted pair) standard, while Category 5 is the targeted range for
the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) over copper
standard, or CDDI (Copper Distributed Data Interface) now
under development.
It is noted that, as a result of the adoption of national wiring
standards, major manufacturers and distributors of wiring
projects (e.g. Anixter, Belden, etc.) have developed marketing
efforts for their products which define wiring performance
Levels or similar indexes. Much of these Levels parallel
work by the EIA/ TIA defined as Category, but in fact project
standards which do not yet exist. This results in considerable
confusion as to what is actually a standard and which materials
are conforming. A vendor product specification is only relevant
if a standard has been specifically adopted and published by the
EIA/ TIA committee process.
Shielded versus Unshielded
(THE debate)
Throughout this document are references to shielded versus
unshielded twisted pair cables. By way of background, shielded
cable was developed to provide protection for data signals from
electrical interference generated by power cables, fluorescent
lighting, and other data signals. At an earlier point in commu-
nications wiring history, it was a basic requirement for
maintaining data speeds as low as 9600 bits per second. Driven
by the enormous existing base of unshielded telephone cables
present in buildings, manufacturers developed devices to
balance or re-balance the signal characteristics over twisted pair
cabling. In time, techniques and standards defining the size,
purity, and twists in twisted pair cabling were developed to take
advantage of both existing unshielded cables, and the relatively
lower costs of placing new unshielded cabling versus new
shielded or coax cable.
The large-scale introduction of network hardware and software
produced intelligent hubs that provided sophisticated pre-
balancing and re-balancing, and restoration of signals carried
over unshielded twisted pair cables. As a result, national
standards now define a ten megabits per second standard for
Ethernet over unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and a new 16
megabits per second standard for token-ring over UTP. As
indicated above, discussions are underway on signal processing
required to carry the 100 megabits per second speeds of Fiber
Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) over copper cables (CDDI).
Industry leaders speaking about future wiring talk about a
combination of unshielded twisted pairs and fiber strands.
Because of the developments in signal
processing, the market for UTP products, and the projected
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decrease in the cost of fiber optic cable, many manufacturers and
industry leaders believe that shielded twisted pair will become
unnecessary. The factors that make an impact on an
organizations decision to use UTP or shielded twisted pairs
(STP) lie in the marketplace, as vendors will weigh the higher
cost of advanced signal processing required for faster speeds
over UTP versus the costs of placing shielded twisted pair cable
and fiber.
Summary
There have been three distinct stages in the integration of voice
and data wiring at UCSB. The first stage of wiring was distinctly
telephone wiring, with the telephone companies providing,
maintaining, and enforcing standards in phone wiring. The
telephone companies did provide limited data services over
their cable, but did so only as an adaptation of their voice
wiring standard. In the early development of data terminal
attachments, computer shops ran their own cables (coaxial,
shielded, and unshielded), according to their own system
requirements.
During the first campus wiring stage, Communications Services
pulled a package of separate data, voice, and video cables to
work stations in all new and re-modeled campus areas. These
cables did terminate in a common wall plate, but followed
individual distribution routes within terminal facilities. Existing
cable packages placed in the years 1982-1987 will not meet the
specification for local area network wiring defined in the
10BaseT standard.
The second stage of joint wiring was partially developed by
pirating of telephone cables by and for data users when it was
available. Upon de-regulation of telephone services, increased
usage of telephone cabling for data took place. Under a
common utility, Communications Services, most ASCII, and
later System Network Attachment (SNA) attachments, took
place over telephone cables, often sharing larger cables with
telephone services.
Early telephone multiple pair cables (campus pre-1975) were not
twisted pair cables and may, as a result, be unsatisfactory for data
transmission as part of a local area network. Multiple pair
telephone cables placed after 1987 and prior to 1989 should be
tested for use in a 10BaseT local area network according to the
EIA/ TIA-568 specification
The third stage of voice-data wiring integration occurred on this
campus with the adoption of the IBM Type 2 single sheath
cable standard by Communications Services in late 1985. The
IBM-Type 2 standard specifically defines shielded and
unshielded wire within a single sheath for data and voice wiring.
Composite cables containing both fiber and multiple twisted
pair could result in an economically viable single cable
technology carrying all communications.
In the period following the adoption of the initial Campus
Wiring Standard, two patterns of voice-data wiring integration
have occurred specifically in the riser cabling:
The first occurred in new buildings where multiple Category
5, twenty-five pair cables were placed as risers with Category 5
terminations to be used by both voice and data applications.
While technically this shared resource worked as intended,
the competition for riser pairs was very strong, and the
required labeling and dressing of jumpers to form a reliable
system was un-sustainable. Several building were augmented
with additional riser cables and in others, departments placed
additional cables frequently multiple, individual Category 5
sheaths resulting in inefficient use of riser duct capacity.
The second pattern emerged as a response to the first
pattern. Separate Category 5 cables for data and Category 3
cables for voice were placed into bothrenovated and new
buildings. Sufficient pairs were thus provided to alleviate or
eliminate the competition for spares and to divide the
labeling and documentation responsibilities into two groups
of users.
The second pattern now reflects the campus standards practice.
Both Category 3 and Category 5 cables are placed in the risers.
Review Questions
Q Explain Standard Connectors used for LANs?
Q What are the different types of media used in networking?
Q What are the wiring standards followed in day today life?