Week 05

Network Media

Greg Tomsho, Guide to Networking Essentials, 8th Edition. © 2020 Cengage. All
Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publi
Acknowledgement

PowerPoint presentations for this course use slides and

diagrams drawn from the online resources of:

Cengage Learning Resources (2019)

Tomsho, G (2019), Guide to Networking Essentials (8th
edn.), Cengage Learning
Objectives

Define the primary cables used in wired

networking
Describe the characteristics of the major types of
fiber-optic media
Explain the technologies used for wireless
networking
Wired Networking

Wired networking uses tangible physical media

called cables
Two broad categories of cables: copper wire and
fiber optic
The main differences between the two types:
• Composition of signals (electricity or light)
• Speed at which signals can be sent
• Distance the signals can effectively travel
Criteria for Choosing Network Media

Bandwidth Rating – number of bits per second that can

be transmitted across a medium
• A factor determining bandwidth is how bit signals are
represented on the medium (called encoding)
• When possible, choose a cabling category that’s compatible
with the standard you want to implement now, but will support
growth and faster speeds
Maximum Segment Length – maximum length of cable
between two network devices (called cable segment)
• Any intermediate passive devices, such as wall jacks, are part
of the total segment length
• Each cable type can transport data only so far before its
signals begin to weaken beyond what can be read by a
receiving device (called attenuation)
Criteria for Choosing Network Media

Interference and Eavesdropping Susceptibility

• Interference to electrical signals on copper media comes in
the form of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio
frequency interference (RFI)
• Motors, transformers, fluorescent lights and other sources of
intense electrical activity can emit both EMI and RFI.
• RFI can also affect wireless networks if the frequencies are in
the same range
• Crosstalk - interference one wire generates on another wire
when both wires are in a bundle
• Copper wire is susceptible to electronic eavesdropping
• Fiber-optic media carries light signals and is not susceptible
to interference or eavesdropping
 Criteria for Choosing Network Media

Cable Grade
• Building and fire codes include specific cabling requirements
• Cables ran between a false ceiling and the true ceiling
(plenum) must be plenum-rated
• UTP Cabling is marked as communication cable riser (CMR)
or communication cable
plenum (CMP)
• CMR can only be used for
building risers or in cable trays
• CMP is suitable for use in
plenum spaces

Image source: https://www.systoncable.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Riser-Plenum-

Space.jpg
Criteria for Choosing Network Media

Connection Hardware

• Every type of cable has connectors that influence the

kind of hardware the cable can connect to

• You must make sure the media you select can be

supported by the network device
Other Media Considerations

Ease of installation – factors to consider:

• Media’s minimum bend radius, which limits the angle at which a
cable can be bent to run around corners
• Cost and time needed to terminate the medium
• Physical environment – types of walls and ceilings, EMI or RFI
Testability – A network that “works” might be crippled by
excessive errors
• It is important to certify whether the cable meets requirements for
its category
Total cost – includes cabling, connectors, termination panels,
wall jacks, termination tools, testing equipment and time
Coaxial Cable

- Often called “coax” for short

- Once was the predominant form of network cabling
- Inexpensive and easy to install
- Started to phase out in the early 1990’s
- Still used primarily in connecting a cable modem to

the wall outlet your cable TV/Internet provider installs

Twisted-Pair Cable

Comes in two types: unshielded and shielded

Consists of one or more pairs of insulated strands
of copper wires twisted around one another and
housed in an outer jacket
Twists are necessary to improve resistance to
crosstalk from wires and EMI from outside sources
• The more twists per unit length, the better resistance to
EMI and crosstalk
• More expensive Twisted Pair cable is twisted more than
the less expensive ones and provides a better pathway
for higher bandwidth networks
Twisted-Pair Cable
Unshielded Twisted-Pair Cable

Most networks use Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP)

Consists of four pairs of insulated wires
Rated according to categories devised by the
Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and
Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and American National
Standards Institutes (ANSI)
Categories 1 – 6a are accepted in US
Two additional categories aren’t yet TIA/EIA standards
and might never be in US
 Europe has accepted Category 7 and 7a, which
specify that each wire pair is shielded
 Unshielded Twisted-Pair Cable

Characteristic Value

Maximum cable length 100 m (328 ft)

Bandwidth Up to 1000 Mbps

Bend radius Minimum four times the cable diameter or 1 inch

Installation and maintenance Easy to install, no need to reroute; the most flexible

Cost Least expensive of all cabling options

Connector type RJ-45 plug, RJ-45 jack, and patch panels

Security Moderately susceptible to eavesdropping

Signaling rates 100 MHz for Cat 5e; 250 MHz for Cat 6

Interference rating Susceptible to EMI and crosstalk

Categories 5e and 6 UTP Cabling Characteristics

• These categories are the most popular types of UTP cabling in
today’s networks
Shielded Twisted-Pair Cable

Includes shielding to reduce crosstalk and

interference
• Has a wire braid inside the sheath material or a foil
wrap
• Best to use in electrically noisy environments or very
high-bandwidth applications
Twisted-Pair Cable Plant Components

RJ-45 Connectors – STP and UTP uses registered

jack 45 (RJ-45)
• Most commonly used in patch cables, which are used
to connect computers to hubs, switches, and RJ-45 wall
jacks
Twisted-Pair Cable Plant Components

Patch cable – short cable for connecting a computer to an

RJ-45 wall jack or connecting a patch-panel port to a switch
or hub
• Can be made with inexpensive tools, two RJ-45 plugs and a
length of TP cable
Twisted-Pair Cable Plant Components

Patch Panels – used to terminate long runs of

cable from where the computers are to the wiring
closet (where the switches and hubs are)

Distribution racks – hold network equipment

such as routers and switches, plus patch panels
and rack-mounted servers
• Also called 19” racks because the upright rails are 19”
apart
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant

Structured cabling specifies how cabling should

be organized, regardless of the media type or
network architecture
Large networks typically use most or all of these:
• Work area
• Horizontal wiring
• Telecommunication closets
• Equipment rooms
• Backbone or vertical wiring
• Entrance facilities
Structured Cabling: Managing and
Installing a UTP Cable Plant

Work Area – where workstations and other user

devices are located
• Faceplates and wall jacks are installed in the work area
• Patch cable connect computers and printers to wall jacks
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant
Horizontal wiring – runs from the work area’s wall jack to
the telecommunication closet
• Wiring from the wall jack to the patch panel should be no
longer than 90 meters (plus 10 meters for patch cables)
Telecommunications Closet
• TC provides connectivity to computer equipment in the
nearby work area
• Typical equipment includes patch panels to terminate
horizontal wiring runs, hubs and switches
• A TC that houses the cabling and devices for work area
computers is referred to as an intermediate distribution
frame (IDF)
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant

Equipment Room – houses servers, routers,

switches, and other major network equipment and
serves as a connection point for backbone cabling
• An equipment room that’s the connection point between
IDFs is called a main distribution frame (MDF)
• An MDF can be the main cross-connect for the entire
network or it might serve as the connecting point for
backbone cabling between buildings
• Each building often has its own MDF
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant

Backbone Cabling –
interconnects IDFs and
MDFs
• Runs between floors or
wings of a building and
between buildings
• Frequently fiber-optic
cable but can also be
UTP if the distance
between TCs is less
than 90 meters
Structured Cabling: Managing and Installing a
UTP Cable Plant

Entrance Facility – the location of the cabling and

equipment that connects a corporate network to a
third-party telecommunications provider
• Can also serve as an equipment room and the main
cross-connect for all backbone cabling
• Where a connection to a WAN is made
• Demarcation point: point where corporate LAN
equipment ends and a third-party provider’s equipment
and cabling begins
 Medium Dependent Interface

Network devices that connect by using RJ-45 plugs over twisted-

pair cabling are classified as medium dependent interface
(MDI) devices or MDI crossed (MDI-X) devices
MDI devices transmit on pins 1 & 2 and receive on pins 3 & 6
• PC NICs and routers are examples
MDI-X devices receive on pins 1 & 2 and transmit on pins 3 & 6
• Hubs and switches are examples
When two switches (or any other like devices) need to be
connected, you use a crossover cable so that transmit and
receive wires get crossed.
Why Two Transmit and Two Receive
Wires?

One wire pair is used for transmit (labeled

transmit+/transmit-) and one pair for receive (labeled
receive+/receive-)
The plus and minus symbols indicate that the wires carry a
positive and negative signal
• This differential signal mitigates the effect of crosstalk
and noise on the cable
Fiber-Optic Cable

Bits are transmitted as pulses of light instead of

electricity
Immune to electrical interference
Highly secure – electronic eavesdropping is
eliminated
Composition
• A slender cylinder of glass fiber called the core is
surrounded by a concentric layer of glass called the
cladding
• Fiber is then jacketed in a thin transparent plastic
material called the buffer
Fiber-Optic Cable
Fiber-Optic Cable

Each fiber-optic strand carries data in only one

direction
• Network connections consist of two or more strands
Fiber-optic cable used as backbone cabling often
comes in bundles of 12 or more fiber strands
• Even only using 2 in the backbone, running more is a
good idea so that you are ready for any future expansion
Some testing has shown that glass fibers can carry
several terabits (1000 gigabits) per second
• Fiber-optic cable may one day replace copper for all
types of network connections
 Fiber-Optic Cable characteristics

Characteristic Value

Maximum cable length 2 km (6562 ft) to 100 km (62.14 miles)

Bandwidth 10, 40, and 100 Gbps and higher

Bend radius 30 degrees per foot

Installation and maintenance Difficult to install and reroute; sensitive to strain and bending

Cost Most expensive of all cabling options

Connector type Several types (see bulleted list in the next section)

Security Not susceptible to eavesdropping

Interference rating None; least susceptible of all cable types

Fiber-Optic Installation

Somewhat more difficult and time consuming than

copper media installation
• However, advances in connector technology is closing
the gap
Connectors and test equipment required for
termination are still more expensive than copper
There are many methods for terminating fiber-optic
cables because of the many connectors and cable
types available
• Installation details are beyond the scope of this book
Fiber-Optic Cable Types

Single-mode fiber (SMF)

• Includes a single, small-diameter fiber at the core (8
microns)
• Generally, works with laser-based emitters
• Spans the longest distances
• Used in higher-bandwidth applications
Multimode fiber (MMF)
• Larger diameter fiber at the core (50 and 62.5 microns)
• Costs less than SMF
• Works with lower-power light emitting diodes (LEDs)
• Spans shorter distances
Wireless Networking

Demand has increased considerably

• Many home users have turned to wireless networks
Wireless networks are often used with wired
networks to interconnect geographically
dispersed LANs or groups of mobile users with
wired servers and resources on a wired LAN
(sometimes referred to as “hybrid networks”).
Even in small networks with workstations
connecting to a wireless AP or router, the AP or
router usually connects to the Internet via a wired
connection to a cable modem.
Wireless Benefits

Creates temporary connections to wired networks.

Establishes backup or contingency connectivity for existing
wired networks.
Extends a network’s span beyond the reach of wire-based or
fiber-optic cabling, especially in older buildings where
rewiring might be too expensive.
Allows businesses to provide customers with wireless
networking easily, offering a service that gets customers in
and keeps them there.
Enables users to roam around a corporate or college
campus with their machines.
Wireless Benefits
802.11 Wi-Fi

The 802.11 wireless networking standard is also

referred to as Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi).
In most towns you can usually find a public Wi-Fi
network, called a hotspot.
802.11 is essentially an extension to Ethernet
• Using airwaves instead of cabling as the medium
Wi-Fi Modes of Operation

Wi-Fi can operate in one of two modes

• Infrastructure — use central access point (AP)
• Ad hoc — no central device; data travels from device to
device like a bus
• Sometimes called “peer-to-peer mode”

Most of this chapter’s discussion of Wi-Fi focuses

on infrastructure mode
Wi-Fi Channels and Frequencies

Wi-Fi operate at one of two radio frequencies:

2.4GHz and 5.0 GHz
• Although this frequency is not fixed
2.4 GHz is actually 2.412 thru 2.484 divided into 14
channels spaced 5 MHz apart
• Work like a TV channel – you must tune to the correct
channel to connect
• Needs 25 MHz to operate spanning 5 channels
• Choose channels five apart from other known APs
5.0 GHz is actually 4.915 thru 5.825 GHz divided
into 42 channels of 10, 20, or 40 MHz each
Wi-Fi Channels and Frequencies
Wi-Fi Antennas

Antenna on a Wi-Fi device is both transmitter and

receiver
• Characteristics and placement determine how well a
device transmits or receives Wi-Fi signals
Usually categorized by their radiation pattern:
• Omnidirectional antennas – signals radiate out from the
antenna with equal strength in all directions
• Unidirectional antenna – signals are focused in a single
direction
• Ideal for placement at one end of long, narrow spaces
Wi-Fi Access Methods and Operation

•Wi-Fi Access Method

– Sending station can’t hear if another station begins
transmitting so they cannot use the CSMA/CD access
method that Ethernet uses
– Wi-Fi devices use carrier sense multiple access with
collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
– Uses request-to-send/clear-to-send (RTS/CTS) packets
and acknowledgements
– With this extra “chatter” actual throughput is essentially
cut in half
Wi-Fi Standards
Summary

Wired networking media comes in two primary

categories: copper and fiber-optic
Twisted pair cabling comes in shielded or
unshielded varieties
Twisted pair cabling components consist of
connectors, patch cable, jacks, patch panels and
distribution racks
A structured cabling plant consists of work areas,
horizontal wiring, telecommunications closets,
equipment rooms, backbone cabling, and entrance
facilities
Summary

Fiber-optic uses pulses of light to represent bits and is

immune to EMI, RFI and electronic eavesdropping
Wireless networks can be subdivided into LANs,
extended LANs, and mobile computing
Components of a wireless LAN are a NIC, an antenna,
and a transceiver or an Access Point
Technologies used to transmit and receive data
including infrared, laser, narrowband radio and
spread-spectrum radio
Networks combining fiber-optic, UTP, and wireless
have become the norm