Network Media - Introduction of Network Media

What is Network Media?

Network media is actually a physical environment on which data travels from one device to another device and it is used to connect network devices with each other and with end devices.

There are following types of network media

1. Twisted-Pair Cables
2. Coaxial Cable
3. Fiber-Optic Cables
4. Wireless Media

Twisted-Pair Cables

Twisted-Pair Cables are copper wired cables that are most common cables used in networking.

There are of two types Shielded and Unshielded cables.

Unshielded Twisted-Pair (UTP) cables are cables having four pair of copper wire covered with insulating material. In these cables wire of each pair are twisted with each other. The main advantage of these cables is that they have ability to cancel the interference; the twisted-pair of wire limits the signal degradation form electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI).

There are six categories of UTP cables

Category 1 is used for telephone communication.

Category 2 is capable for transmitting data at the speed up to 4 Mbps

Category 3 is capable for transmitting data at the speed up to 10 Mbps and they are used in 10BASE-T networks

Category 4 is capable for transmitting data at the speed up to 16 Mbps and used in Token Ring networks

Category 5 is capable for transmitting data at the speed up to 100 Mbps

Category 5e is used for networks working on speed of 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)

Category 6 is capable for transmitting data at the speed up to 1000 Mbps and consists of 24 gauge copper wire

Shielded Twisted-Pair (STP) is the combination of techniques shielding and twisting wires and further more they are protect with extra layer of metallic foil on each pair and then all the pairs are also covered in one metallic foil and braid. Due these protections cables protect against the distortion both between the pairs and outside the cable.

Characteristics of these cables

• Speed of both media type is satisfactory for local area distance.
• Both cables are least expensive for data communication over the networks and UTP is less expensive than STP.
• Most of buildings are already wired with UTP due to which many transmission standards are adopted to use it to avoid expensive rewiring with other cable types.

These cables uses RJ-45 Connector on both ends of the cable.

Coaxial Cables

It is a type of cable having single copper wire in the center of shields. It is covered with multi layer shields such as insulation and then grounded shield of braided wire. These shields minimize the electrical and radio frequency interference. In past years these cables are used in LAN networks but now they are obsolete in networks communication. These cables are more expensive than UTP and STP but they carry much more data than UTP and STP.

UTP and STP cables carry data up 100 meters but they can carry data up to 500 meters. After that repeaters are used to regenerate the signals in these cables. They are less expensive than fiber-optic cables. These cables are mostly used in television communication now a day

Fiber-Optic Cables

These cable are consists of glass threads which are made of fiber and used to transmit data in the form of light waves. These cables are used in the backbone of the networks because they can transmit the data to a longer distance than UTP/STP and coaxial cables and have more speed of transmission than older type of cables.

There are two types of fiber-optic cables

Single mode cables allow one wavelength of light to travel through fiber. These types of cables are mostly used for the backbone of networks due to of higher bandwidth and greater distance. Fiber-optic cable uses laser to generate light for transmission and it can transmit data up 60+ KM (37+ Miles)

Multi mode cables allow multiple wavelength lights to travel through fiber. These cables are used for work-group applications, using light emitting diodes (LEDs) to generate light. They can transmit data up 2 KM (1.2 Miles)

Wireless Media

Wireless media is increasingly popular media now days and it works on different type of technologies. Wireless media uses radio frequencies (RFs) to transmit data over the network devices in LAN. In wireless LAN main component is wireless HUB or access point, used to distribute signals over the specific area. To receive the signals of wireless HUB or access point end device should have wireless adapter or wireless network interface card (WNIC).