LAN Cable

LAN Cables are the Ethernet transmission media connecting network devices in the computer network. It’s a good idea that you are familiar with the LAN Cables before you design your networking system. A well-designed Computer Network Cable plan, with the right LAN Cables can be a big component of making a local area network more manageable and available. So, LAN Cables is indeed important in real networks.

High speed LANs are required in order to provide the scalable bandwidth necessary to support current and future network applications and services. Structured cabling provides LAN connectivity at Fast Ethernet (100 Mbps) and potentially higher speeds (Gigabit) using current standards based Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) wiring. Fiber optic cabling allows transmission across LAN backbone connections at Gigabit Ethernet (GE) and future 10GE/100GE speeds.

In order to make a well-designed computer network cabling, the following lists the minimum and the recommended requirements when you deploy LAN cabling for your computer network.

Minimum requirements:

• All the structured cabling must comply to Certified CAT5 (category 5).
• All UTP cable segments (including patch leads, wall and roof cabling) must be less than 100 meters long (total length) and CAT5 compliant.
• Any legacy LAN cabling should be replaced with CAT5e cable.
• Computer LAN Cabling must be documented and patched in a tidy fashion to a secure location. Wall points and patch panels must be labeled.

The recommended computer LAN Cabling requirements are:

• Certified CAT5e (enhanced) structured cabling and/or fiber optic cabling.
• All UTP cable segments (including patch leads, wall and roof cabling) must be less than 100 meters long (total length) and CAT5e compliant.
• All the backbone links that require gigabit and higher speeds should use the Fiber optic cabling. Less expensive multi-mode fiber (MMF) connections are to be used for segments less than 400 meters and single-mode fiber (SMF) for segments up to 2 kilometers long. New fiber optic connectors should be either SC or MT-RJ type interfaces.
• Standard coloring should be used. Cabling should be color coded, adequately labeled and patched to a secure central location. Wall points and patch panels must be labeled.
• An ongoing cable management process should be in place to ensure cabling is correctly patched and is tidy.

The following are Cable types that are typically used in the network.

Coaxial LAN Cables

Coaxial LAN Cables are used for 10Base2 and 10Base5 Ethernet in years past. 10Base5 was referred to as thicknet, and 10Base2 was referred to as thinnet because 10Base5 used thicker coaxial LAN Cables, they are regarded as legacy Computer Network Cable.

Coaxial LAN Cables are which the original Ethernet network technology is based on, it can extend up to 500 meters per segment, very expensive, maximum speed is 10 Mbps. Today coaxial LAN Cables is not popular as Computer Network Cable.

UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and STP (Shielded twisted pair)

There are two types of copper-wire UTP and STP LAN Cables but the most popular is UTP LAN Cables.

The figure shows most of the pertinent details of both types of UTP and STP LAN Cables.

UTP LAN Cables is the most popular for Computer network cable; it contains 4 pairs of color coded plastic insulation. The grade of the cable is identified by the number of Twists per inch, the less attenuation, the less signal interference and the less crosstalk. You can go maximum to 100 meters (approx 300 feet), if you go further than that, you cannot guarantee – there’ll be too much signal strength attenuation. The maximum speed of UTP LAN Cables is 1 gigabit for Category 5e which is identified by the slightly higher number of twists per inch with single nylon jacket insulation. So the grade of the cable is identified by the number of twists per inch.

UTP standard

1. Category 1 LAN Cables, for telephones but not for data.
2. Category 2 LAN Cables, maximum speed is 4 Mbps, originally intended to support Token Ring over UTP.
3. Category 3 LAN Cables, maximum speed is 10 Mbps. It can be used for telephones as well, option for Ethernet in years past.
4. Category 4 LAN Cables, maximum speed is 16 Mbps, for the fast Token Ring.
5. Category 5 LAN Cables, maximum speed is 1Gbps, very popular for Computer network cable.
6. Category 5e LAN Cables, maximum speed is 1Gbps, lower emission, more expensive than Cat5, but better for Gigabit Ethernet.
7. Category 6 LAN Cables, maximum speed is 1Gbps+, intended as a replacement for Cat5e with capabilities to support multigigabit speeds.

Best practice:

Do not upgrade CAT5 cabling unnecessarily to CAT5e. CAT5e is the current cabling standard that defines LAN connectivity at 10/100 Mbps and provides support for future gigabit to the desktop speeds. Both CAT3 and CAT5 have been superseded by CAT5e, and are no longer recognized as current cabling standards. Existing CAT5 will however support 10/100 Mbps data speeds, but not 1000 Mbps services Gigabit over certified UTP is possible by using CAT5e structured cabling.

Certified UTP cabling is best deployed for all horizontal wiring including both data and phone connections. Ensuring a minimum of two connections at the desktop will allow for both data and current voice connections. Termination of the cabling at the Main Distribution Frame (MDF) should allow for segmentation of the voice and data cabling.

UTP identification

You must get used to identifying the Ethernet cabling through its pin assignment properly. Actually there are two different standards:

1. T568-A is for straight through UTP LAN Cables, both ends of RJ-45 connectors are the same.
2. T568-B for cross-over UTP LAN Cables. Take a closer look at the crossover cabling, pin 2 and 6 and pin 1 and 3 are changed place.

Connecting devices

Here is the rule, when interconnecting different devices – use straight through LAN Cables. While if you want to make an interconnecting the same two devices – use crossover cable.

Fiber optic

Fiber optic is the latest transmission media for Ethernet standard used in lan cable. The main different in terms of function, between optical lan cable for Ethernet and electrical cable as follows:

• Longer distance
• Greater monetary cost
• Less magnetic interference, making it more secure
• Can support up to 10Gbps

Optical devices for lan cable can be divided into two types:

• Multimode (MM), using a larger diameter size of optical fiber
• Single-mode (SM), using a very small-diameter optical fiber. This type is more expensive due to a more precision manufacturing process. It allows a much longer distances and data rate than does MM fiber.

Optical connector

To transmit data over a fiber optic lan cable, you need a single strand of fiber for one direction. You need two pairs of strand for both direction – one direction for each. The typical connector for each end of strand cable is shown on the picture below.

Now back to our scenario, how can we connect each building with the LAN Cables based on the LAN Cables knowledge we learn above? Picture below shows the best practice how we can connect the two buildings with the LAN Cables, in this scenario is using UTP Cat 5e for outdoor LAN Cables. By using UTP cross-over LAN Cables, you can connect to the trunk port for each switch. You need to configure this port to be a trunk port to be functional. See network configuration for more detail.

A drop cable – a computer network cable connects each computer with a switch. This should be Cat 5e UTP with each end of the cabling is RJ-45 connector. Min length is 0.6 meter and the maximum is 100 meters.

What is the more popular best practice computer network cable between the computers and the switch? The picture shown below is a simple diagram how you can distribute the LAN Cables between switch to computers.

Wall jack is a connection point, similar to a telephone jack that allows the computer to connect to the UTP LAN Cables network – RJ-45.

Patch cable is UTP cable segments that are used for connecting the network interface card to the wall jack or for connecting other portions of the cable installation

Patch panel – a connection panel that provides multiple ports which in turn connects to other user devices or connectivity hardware such as a switch.

You can apply this best practice to each of HR; Mining and Workshop buildings. To make this LAN Cables distribution easy to maintain in the future in case there of network connection problem, you need to make a numbering system to each of the wall jack that connect to the patch panel. And also make sure you have a register that list the distribution LAN Cables between the patch panel and the wall jack. Attach this register near the patch panel for the future maintenance. Remember that the rats often bite this UTP LAN Cables, so the necessary protection is needed such as putting the computer network cable into the duct.

The other thing to follow is by using coloring scheme:

function	Cable color
Data Cable -Cat 5e	Blue
Cross-over	Red
Phone / Voice	Grey
ISDN BRI WAN	Yellow – White

Check also related articles:

• Computer networking diagram
• Spanning tree protocols – the basic knowledge
• Best wireless routers
• Virtual LAN tutorial
• LAN topologies – the general types

Ki Grinsing