Guided/Wired communication media:
Transmission media which are used wire to transfer data and information from source to destination are called guided communication media. Twisted pair cable, Coaxial cable and Fiber optic cable are examples of guided communication media.
Twisted Pair Cable:
The most popular form of communication media is twisted pair; two insulated copper wire insulated in a spiral. It is relatively easy to setup a network using a twisted pair cable. Although it is commonly used medium. A single twisted pair cable is capable of providing a capacity up to 1 GBPS for short distances (typically not more than 100 to 200 meters). It can handle up to 62 KB per second. Twisted pair makes the world‘s public telephone line communication.
Twisted pair cable comes in two verities:
- Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
- Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP).
a.Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable
It consists of one or more twisted pair cables enclosed in a foll warp and woven copper shielding. Caballing is difficult than UTP. It is more expensive than UTP. The data transfer capacity of STP from 16Mbpsto 5000Mbps.
b.Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable
It is most popular twisted pair cable. The quality of UTP may very telephone grade wire to extremely high speed cable. It is commonly used for LA and telephone connection. It is less expensive and easier to work but it does not offer high bandwidth. The data transfer rate in UTP is up to 100MBPS. Twisted pair cables are inexpensive and easy to install and use. However their use is limited because they easily loss the data when distance exceeds beyond 100 meters.
Coaxial Cable:
- It consists of wire surrounded by insulating layer, shielding layer ad outer jacket.
- Quarter inch or more in diameter, therefore less flexible than twisted pair.
- Less susceptible to noise but more expensive than twisted pair.
- Wider bandwidth, more difficult to install, more costly than twisted pair.
- Data transfer rate up to 150 MBPS
- Used extensively in LAN and relatively short distance (10 miles). For longer distance, repeaters may be necessary.
Usage:
Data communication Voice communication Video communication
Types of coaxial cable:
- Thinnet: It is a variant of Ethernet technology uses thin type of coaxial cable. It is also known as 10Base2, i.e 10Mbps baseband connection and 200 meter for data transmission. This cable is popular in linear bus network and can attached 30 nodes on it.
- Thicknet: Thicknet is an Ethernet technology uses thick type of coaxial cable. It is also known as 10Base5, i.e. 10Mbps data transmission, Baseband connection and 500 meter for data transmission. It has an extra protective plastic cover that helps keep moisture away from the conductor. It is popular for cable television transmission.
Fiber Optic Cable:
One or more glass or plastic fibers are woven together to form the core of the cable. This core is surrounded by a glass or plastic layer called the cladding, which in turn is covered with plastic or other material for protection. Light source is used is either laser or LED (Light-Emitting Diodes) whereas detector is a photodiode.
- Low error rate, very high noise immunity to electrical and magnetic noise.
- Reduced size and weight, but easy to break.
- High cost of installation with special equipment and skilled manpower required.
- Very expensive but may be economical for high volume application.
- Broadband width.
- High data rate over 2 Gbps.
Usage: Voice communication, Data communication and Video communication
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