Networking Simplified - Part 03

This is the third edition to my Networking Simplified series. I will go
over some more terms that many people are hazy in the area of or just
flat out confused or oblivious to the meaning.

There are several categories of twisted pair cabling systems, you may know
them as the "cat" line.

CAT 1 - Maximum Speed = Less than 1 Mbps (mega bit per second.) It is
usually used for doorbell wiring and not generally used for networking.

CAT 2 - Maximum Speed = around 4 Mbps. It is used generally in token ring
networks. Ill go over token ring later on.

CAT 3 - Maximum Speed = 16 Mbps. This is what you would use for your phone
line.

CAT 4 - Maximum Speed = 20 Mbps. Used occasionally in token ring networks,
but basically obsolete as CAT-5 and CAT-6 developed.

CAT 5 - Maximum Speed = 100 Mbps, or 1000 Mbps if 4 pair. Used for your
network in general. Can support gigabit ethernet and is what the end
networker would be acclaimed to use.

CAT 6 - Maximum Speed = 200-250 MHz (Mega Hertz) - Used normally by
dedicated or widely distributed networks. Super fast speed for broadband
applications.


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Token Ring Networks.

Token ring is a way of setting up your network. (basically) Almost always
used for local area networks, the computers are connected in sort of a
ring, the token is used to heed data "bumping into" each other so that the
computers can send messages at the very same time.

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Topology.

This is the term you are going to hear describing the "Layout" of
networks. All it means is that its the description of where your stuff
lies in layout. There is physical topology, and logical topology.

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Bus Topology.

Generally not used as its slower and doesn't pass data along as
efficiently.

Star Topology.

More efficient for a LAN than most types

The nodes or workstations are aligned in somewhat of a star with a central
server in which all the other nodes connect to. The connections can be
wireless or wired of course.


This concludes my third part of the series of Networking Simplified. I
don't want want you all taking in too much at once! Just come back for my
4th for more descriptions of networking terms, I will go over more
advanced topology in my next.

I was told CAT 6 is not an official catagory... But rather CAT 5e (enhanced)..

but now indeed it seems to be there.. http://www.gocsc.com/cat6/

Erok,

First of all, keep those parts 4 and 5 .... comin'.
Maybe it's also worth mentioning the following abbreviations of twisted pair cables :
UTP - Unshielded Twisted Pair
STP - Shielded Twisted pair
Also most CAT cables use the pairs 1-2 and 3-6. These pairs need to be cross-connected
to have obiously a cross cable.

Lookin' forward to the next parts,

Greetz,

IEEE802.3 Ethernet Cabling Limitations

originating in the 60's in university of hawaii, further developed by Xerox in the 70's and standardised by the IEEE in the late 80's to work within the scope of the OSI models physical layer 1 specifications.

10Base5, Thick coax medium, runs up to 10Mbps and can run for 500 meters.

10Base-T, Cat5 UTP runs at 10Mbps also but runs for only 100m.

10Base-FL, multimode optical fiber runs at 10Mbps but has a maximum run of 2000m.

100Base-TX, Cat5 UTP is the 100Mbps version and similarly can be run for only 100m.

100Base-Fx, Multimode Optical fiber runs at 1000Mbps and runs up to 2000m.

1000Base-T, Cat5 UTP has a max bandwidth of 1000Mbps but can only run for 100m.

http://www.industry.net/tia and http://www.eia.org


Further Topology

Mesh - connects every node to every other node, normally with coax, back in the day.

Bus - all nodes share the same medium, or wire, traditionally coax

Ring - nodes are connected to two neighbours, with one way point to point connections. Fibre Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) and IBM's Token Ring (IEEE802.5) are examples of logical ring-type networks.

Star and Extended Star - a central server or more commonly a hub has nodes physically spaning out from it. logically it can operate as a bus or ring.

Hybrid - ...networks use more than one typology, naturally.

Why is CAT6 described as MHz as opposed to Mbps? I had thought that CAT5 is generally capped at 100Mbps and CAT6 allows for Gigabit ethernet connections.