Unshielded twisted pair

An important part of designing and installing an Ethernet is selecting the appropriate Ethernet medium for the problems at hand. There are four major types of media in use today ThickWire, Thin Coax, Unshielded Twisted Pair, and Fiber Optic. Each type has its strong and weak points. Careful selection of the appropriate Ethernet medium can avoid recabling costs as your network grows. 

Unshielded twisted pair cable (UTP) offers many advantages over the ThickWire and Thin Coax media. Because ThickWire and Thin Coax are coaxial cables, they are relatively expensive and require some care during installation. UTP is similar to, if not the same as, the telephone cable that may already be installed and available for network use in your building. 

We usually break twisted-pair cabling into two types unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) and shielded twisted-pair (STP). UTP is simply twisted-pair cabling that is unshielded. STP is the same as UTP except that STP has a braided foil shield around the twisted wires (to decrease electrical interference). 

UTP Acronym for unshielded twisted-pair. A type of unshielded network cable that contains multiple conductors in pairs that are twisted around each other. 

To use the OSI model, a network analyst lists the known protocols for each computing device or network node in the proper layer of its own seven-layer OSI model. The collection of these known protocols in their proper layers in known as the protocol stack of the network node. For example, the physical media employed, such as unshielded twisted pair, coaxial cable, or fiber optic cable, would be entered as a layer 1 protocol, whereas ethemet or token ring network architectures might be entered as a layer 2 protocol. Other examples of possible protocols in respective layers wiU be explored in the remainder of this section. 

The choice of a particular network architecture will have a definite bearing on the choice of network adapter cards and less of an impact on the choice of media or network operating system. For instance, an ethernet network architecture requires ethernet adapter cards. As will soon be seen, it is the adapter card which holds the key, or media access control (MAC) layer protocol, which determines whether a network is ethernet, token ring, fiber distributed data interface (FDDI) or any other network architecture. Ethernet runs over thick or thin coaxial cable, shielded or unshielded twisted pair, fiber or wireless—clearly a wide choice of media options. 

This network in a box is now ready for workstations to be hooked up to it through twisted pair connections to the media interfaces on the network interface cards of the PCs or workstations. Remember that ethernet can run over UTP (unshielded twisted pair), STP, thick and thin coaxial as well as fiber. 

Options Unshielded twisted pair, shielded twisted pair, thin coax, thick coax, fiber. 

Fault tolerant Ethernet network. (A) Fault tolerant Ethernet network, (B) FTE network communication FTE to FTE node commimication four possible commimication paths, (C) FTE network commimication common between 2 Ethernet nodes single possible communication path, (D) FTE network commimication common between FTE Ethernet nodes two possible commimication path. FTE, fault tolerant Ethernet UTP/STP, unshielded twisted pair/sparming tree protocol. 

There has been a drawn-out discussion in the automotive industry about whether to make STP cable or coaxial cable standard. Currently, both shielded and unshielded twisted-pair cables as well as coaxial cables are in use. The latest chipsets, however, show a trend towards normal coaxial cable [2, 3]. 

Eig. 1. Cable designs (a) coaxial cable (b) twisted pair cable can be unshielded, as in regular telephone wiring, or shielded (as shown here) with braiding or... 

A MAU is IBM s name for a token ring hub. A MAU would be manufactured with a fixed number of ports and connections for unshielded or shielded twisted pair. IBM uses special connectors for token ring over shielded twisted pair (STP) connections to a MAU. MAUs offer varying degrees of management capability. 

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