How to select a network cable?

types and uses of network cables

Network cable is our life in the LAN, WAN, the essential media, in the life of our common network cable mainly: twisted-pair, coaxial cable, optical fiber of these three kinds. The twisted pair is the most common in our life, and is also the main object of this article. Twisted pair is a data transmission line composed of many pairs of wires, which is characterized by its low price, so it is widely used. With the popularization of optical fiber, more and more fiber products into the family, there are broadband service providers began to support fiber-optic households, which requires users have fiber-optic cat in the home to connect the Internet.

Twisted-pair wires are divided into unshielded twisted pair (UTP) and shielded twisted pair (STP) two main categories: STP is surrounded by a layer of metal materials to reduce radiation, prevent the interception of information, while having a higher rate of data transmission, but because of the higher cost resulting in higher prices, and installation is also more complex. UTP is no metal shielding material, only a layer of insulating rubber package, the price is relatively cheap a lot, but also can make their own, the advantages are no shielding housings, light weight, easy to bend, good flame-retardant effect. In addition to the electromagnetic radiation severity, high transmission quality requirements such as the use of STP in the wiring, in general, we are using UTP.

UTP Twisted pair is also graded, the existing UTP can be divided into three categories, four categories, five categories and super five categories, six categories, seven of these kinds. Among them: Three kinds of UTP (hereinafter referred to as "CAT") to adapt to the requirements of the transmission medium Ethernet, the early network is an important transmission medium, that is, telephone cable; CAT4 due to the introduction of the standard than three types of late, and the transmission performance and CAT3 compared with the number is not increased, so generally less use; CAT5 has become the preferred medium for Fast Ethernet (100Mbps) because of its low price and high quality, and is the most widely used in the present. The CAT5e is in Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps); CAT6, CAT7 network cable has a higher transmission bandwidth, will gradually replace the CAT5E network cable.