Cables and its Types

Emirates Office Systems and Supplies

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 Introduction

This presentation discusses 3 types of Cables:

 Coaxial Cables

 Twister Pair Cables

 Fiber Optic Cables

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 COAXIAL CABLE
Consists Of Five Parts:

 A center conductor

 Insulation covering the center conductor, called a

"dielectric“

 A braided shield surrounding the dielectric

 An optional foil shield

 An outer jacket

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Cross Section View

Figure 2.1

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Coaxial Cable with Foil Shield

Figure 2.2

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 Coaxial Cable Connectors

1. RCA Connector

 The same basic connector is still in

wide use today in home theater cables

 Easy to connect and disconnect

 Each signal is sent on a different cable

 Yellow – Video
White – Audio Right
Red – Audio Left

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 Coaxial Cable Connectors

1. BNC Connector

 The BNC (Bayonet Neill-
Concelman) connector is a very
common type of RF connector used for
terminating coaxial cable

 BNC connector has two bumps on the

female side that slide into corresponding
grooves on the male side

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 Coaxial Cable Connectors

1. F-pin Connector

 The F-pin connector is probably the

most recognized of the coaxial
connectors

 Used with televisions and VCRs for

decades

 Easiest to attach to a coax cable as it

does not require any soldering

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 Cable Types

1. RG 58

 Core diameter: 0.9mm

 Impedance: 75 Ω

 Largely used in the commercial

security camera industry

 Cable can also be found attached

to testing equipment and 2-
way radio systems. 

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 Cable Types

2. RG 59

 Core diameter: 0.81mm

 Impedance: 50 Ω

 Once the standard for cable

TV, RG59 cables are still found
packaged with VCRs and TV’s

 RG6 coaxial cable is becoming

much more popular, making
RG59 no longer the industry
standard. 10
 Cable Types

3. RG 6

 Core diameter: 1.0mm

 Impedance: 75 Ω

 RG6 cable is differentiated from

RG59 cable by having a
thicker copper center
conductor

 Used in professional video

applications, carrying either
baseband analog video
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signals or serial digital
 Advantages Of Coaxial Cable

 Signals entering the cable can cause unwanted noise making it useless.

 A continuous current flow, even if small, along the imperfect shield of a

coaxial cable can cause visible or audible interference.

 More expensive than twisted pairs and is not supported for some network
standards.

 Bulky and also has high attenuation so would have the need to implement
repeaters

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 Disadvantages Of Coaxial Cable

 Signals entering the cable can cause unwanted noise and picture ghosting.
Excessive noise can overwhelm the signal, making it useless.

 A continuous current flow, even if small, along the imperfect shield of a

coaxial cable can cause visible or audible interference.

 More expensive than twisted pairs and is not supported for some network
standards.

 It’s also very bulky and also has high attenuation so would have the need to
implement repeaters

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 TWISTED PAIR CABLE
•  Twisted pair cable consists of a
pair of insulated wires twisted
together.
• It is a cable type used in
telecommunication for very long
time.
• Cable twisting helps to reduce
noise pickup from outside sources
and crosstalk on multi-pair cables.
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Individual color coded cables of UTP
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 Classification of TP

Twisted Pair cables are classified into 2 main

types:
1. Unshielded Twisted Pair
2. Shielded Twisted pair
Twisted Pairs are used to carry data speeds from
10 Mbps to 100 Mbps, but speed can be
decreased by number of error characteristics

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Twisted Pair View

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Unshielded Twisted Pair
UTP are used for voice and low speed
data communication since a long
time.
• Unshielded Twisted Pair cables were
first used in telephone systems by
Alexander Graham Bell in 1881.
• Today, most of the millions of
kilometres of twisted pairs in the
world are outdoor landlines.
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 UTP

• UTP cables are found in many Ethernet

networks and telephone systems. For indoor
telephone applications, UTP is often grouped
into sets of 25 pairs according to a standard
25-pair color code.

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UTP – General Overview
• Typical UTP cable has four pairs of wires in each
cable. Not all four pairs are used in actual
applications.

• For most LANs, only two pairs are used, one in

each direction to allow full duplex, simultaneous
bidirectional communications.

• Due to the limitation on bandwidth and emission of

radiation that could potentially affect other electronic
devices, the higher speed networks are migrating
toward using all four pairs.

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 UTP

• The cable has four pairs of wires inside the jacket.

• Each pair is twisted with a different number of twists per inch to help
eliminate interference from adjacent pairs and other electrical
devices.

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 Classification of UTP

• The tighter the twisting of the UTP, the higher the

supported transmission rate and the greater the cost
per foot.

• The EIA/TIA (Electronic Industry

Association/Telecommunication Industry Association)
has established standards of UTP and rated six
categories of wire (additional categories are
emerging).

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 Categories of UTP
Category Speed Use

1 1 Mbps Voice Only (Telephone Wire)

Local talk & Telephone

2 4 Mbps
(Rarely used)

3 16 Mbps 10BaseT Ethernet

4 20 Mbps Token Ring (Rarely used)

100 Mbps (2 pair) 100BaseT Ethernet

5
1000 Mbps (4 pair) Gigabit Ethernet

5e 1,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet

6 10,000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet

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• Category 1
There are no performance criteria for this cable. Functional it is
equivalent to UL level 1. The cable usage is for basic
communications and power-limited circuits.
• Category 2
Usage up to 2 MHz, not EIA/TIA specified for data use. Functional
equivalent to UL level 2 or IBM Type 3. The usage is voice and low-
speed data.
• Category 3
Usage up to 16 MHz, EIA/TIA 568 Commercial Building
Telecommunications Wiring Standard for Horizontal UTP Cable
(TSB PN-2841) for both UTP and STP. Functional equivalent to UL
level 3. Usage e.g. 4 Mbps Tokenring 10 Mbps ethernet.
1.25"-2.50"/twist
4.8"-9.6"/foot
• Category 4
Usage up to 20 MHz, EIA/TIA 568 TSB PN-2841 for both UTP and
STP. Functional equivalent to UL level 4. Usage e.g. 16 Mbps
Tokenring 10 Mbps ethernet.
0.60"-1.00"/twist ..12"-20"/foot 24
 Widely Used Categories of Cables

• The three most popular and widely used cables are

Cat 5, Cat 5e, and Cat 6.
• It is important to pick the right category cable for the
project that you are doing.

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 Cat 5

Cat 5
• Category 5 cable can be used to carry Ethernet traffic of up to 100Mbit/s
and ATM of up to 155Mbit/s.
• The standard cable of an Ethernet 100Base-TX is Cat 5. Cat 5 is a twisted
pair cable created for high signal integrity.
• Some are unshielded while others are shielded.
Applications of Cat 5
• Cat 5 is used in structured cabling for computer networks, token ring,
basic voice services, and ATM.
• The Category 5 cable has four twisted pairs in a single cable jacket.
• Cat 5 generally has three twists per inch of each individual twisted pair of
24 gauge wires inside of the cable.

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 Cat 5e

• Category 5e is an upgraded version of the Cat 5 standard and is capable of

carrying data up to 1000Mbit/s.
• Cat 5e is the standard cable for use in Ethernet 1000Base-T.
• Cat 5e is able to carry data longer distances than Cat 5. Cat 5e can be used
confidently for 350 meters. Cat 5e has better performance measures.
• Stranded is much more flexible and is used for military applications.
• Cat 5e is terminated in two different schemes, but there is no difference in
the scheme used.

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 Cat 6

• Cat 6 is similar to Cat 5e but is designed with even stricter standards.

• Cat 6 is backward compatible with Cat 5/Cat 5e.
• Cat 6 has a standard performance of 250 MHz and works with both
1000BASE-T and 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX
• It also works with 10GBASE-T standard, but there are limits if Cat 6
unshielded cable is used.
• Like earlier Cat 5e/ Cat 5, Cat 6 contains four twisted copper wire pairs.
The cable is made usually with 22 to 24 AWG gauge wire.
• The cable is made usually with 22 to 24 AWG gauge wire. Cat 6, when
used in a patch cable function, is often terminated with a RJ-45
connection.

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 UTP Uses
• UTP cabling, because of its 100-year history of use by telephone systems,
both indoors and out, is also the most common cable used in computer
networking. It is a variant of twisted pair cabling.
• UTP cables are often called Ethernet cables after Ethernet, the most
common data networking standard that utilizes UTP cables, although not
the most reliable.
• UTP is the most common type of media used for communications systems
and in structured cabling systems.
• UTP cable is used extensively due to its flexibility.
• UTP can be used for voice, low-speed data, high-speed data, audio and
paging systems, and building automation and control systems.
• UTP cable can be used in both the horizontal and backbone cabling
subsystems.
• For horizontal cables, the number of pairs recommended by industry
standards is a four-pair cable
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 Shielded Twisted Pair:
• Although UTP cable is the least expensive cable, it may be susceptible to radio
and electrical frequency interference.
• If you must place cable in environments with lots of potential interference, or if
you must place cable in extremely sensitive environments that may be
susceptible to the electrical current in the UTP, shielded twisted pair may be
the solution.
• Shielded cables can also help to extend the maximum distance of the cables.
• Twisted pair cables are often shielded in attempt to prevent electromagnetic
interference.
• Because the shielding is made of metal, it may also serve as a ground.
• However, usually a shielded or a screened twisted pair cable has a special
grounding wire added called a drain wire. This shielding can be applied to
individual pairs, or to the collection of pairs. When shielding is applied to the
collection of pairs, this is referred to as screening.
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 STP

• STP cabling includes metal shielding over each individual pair of copper
wires.
• This type of shielding protects cable from external EMI (electromagnetic
interferences). e.g. the 150 ohm shielded twisted pair cables defined by
the IBM Cabling System specifications and used with token ring networks.

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 Screened Shielded Twisted Pair

• ScSTP cabling, also known as Screened Fully shielded Twisted

Pair (ScFTP) is both individually shielded (like STP cabling) and
also has an outer metal shielding covering the entire group of
shielded copper pairs (like ScUTP). This type of cabling offers
the best protection from interference from external sources.

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 Parameters that Effect
Performance of TP
The different kinds of error characteristics are:
1. Attenuation
2. Near-End Cross Talk
3. Return Loss
4. Attenuation to Cross Talk Ratio
5. Impedance
6. Propagation Delay
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 FIBER OPTICS
• Cable consisting of one or more optical fibers.

• An optical fiber is made up of the core, cladding and the

buffer coating.

• Fiber elements are coated with plastic layers for

protection.

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Cross Sectional View

1. Core: 8 µm diameter

2. Cladding: 125 µm dia.
3. Buffer: 250 µm dia.
4. Jacket: 400 µm dia.

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 Characteristics

 Fibre optical cables are widely used in communication over long distances.

 The fibre is immune to electromagnetic interference resulting in very low

loss.

 There is no crosstalk.

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Total Internal Reflection
• The fibre optic works on the principle of Total Internal
Reflection.

• The light ray is guided along the cable without escaping.

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Refraction through Fiber

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 Types Of Fibers

• Single Mode Fiber

• Multimode Fiber

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 Single Mode Fiber

• Small core of diameter 8-10 um.

• Can be used over a range of 2 Km.

• Used for telecommunication in wide area networking.

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Fiber Coating

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Multi Mode Fiber
• Much larger core than single mode.

• Core diameter of 62.5 to 125 um.

• Allows hundreds of ray to pass simultaneously.

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Multi Mode Characteristics

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 Manufacturing
• Glass Optical Fibres are made of mainly silica and have a refractive index of 1.5.

• Some other materials like flourozirconate and flouroaluminate are also used.

• Plastic Optical Fibres have a refractive index of 0.5.

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Silica & Phosphate
Structure

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Splicing
• Optical Fibres may be joined together by the process of
splicing.

• Fusion Splicing is done using a specialised equipment called

spilicing machine.

• It is done when two fibres are to be joined together.

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Splicing Machine

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References
1. physics.princeton.edu
2. www.lanshack.com
3. www.doityourself.com
4. www.books.googles.com
5. www.whatis.techtarget.com
6. www.merriam-webster.com
7. www.engineeringtoolbox.com

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