Optical Fiber

A Fiber Optic cable is a light pipe that is used to carry a light beam from one place to another. Optical fiber consists of thin strands of glass-like material. The light sources used are either light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or Laser diodes (LDs). The Fiber Optic Cable consists of three pieces-

1. Core - The glass or plastic through which the light travels.
2. Cladding - Cover of the core that reflects light back to the core.
3. Coating - It protects the fiber cable from a hostile environment.

Types of Optical Fiber Cable

There are two types of Optical Fiber Cable.

1. Single-node: It supports a segment length of up to 2 km and bandwidth of up to 100 Mbps.
2. Multi-node: It supports a segment length of up to 100 km and bandwidth of up to 2 Gbps.

Advantages of Optical Fiber

1. It is immune to electrical and magnetic Interface.
2. It is guaranteed secure transmission and has a very high transmission capacity.
3. It can be used for broadband.

Disadvantages of Optical Fiber

1. It is difficult to install and maintain since they are quite fragile.
2. It is most expensive in all the cables.
3. Connecting two fiber cable together is a difficult process.

Coaxial Cable

Coaxial cable is the most commonly used transmission media for LANs.  It consists of solid wire cores surrounded by one or more foil or wire shields, each separated by some kind of plastic insulator. The inner core carries the signal and the shield provides the ground. It has high electrical properties and is suitable for high-speed communication it is widely used for television signals and also in building security systems.

Coaxial Cable

Types of Coaxial Cable

1. Thicknet
2. Thinnet

Thicknet

Its cable segment can be up to 500 meters.

Thinnet

This is thinner than Thicknet. Its cable segment can be up to 185 meters.

Advantages of Coaxial Cable

1. Data transmission characteristics are better than twisted pair cable.

1.  It can be used for broadband communication.

2.  It can be used for a shared cable network.

3.  It offers a high bandwidth of up to 400 Mbps.

Disadvantages of Coaxial Cable

1. It is expensive compared to twisted pair cables.

2.  It is not compatible with twisted pair cable.

Twisted pair cable is one of the most common forms of wiring in networks, Especially in LANs and it consists of two insulated wires arranged in a regular spiral pattern (Double helix). It is generally used for telephone communications in offices and also in modern Ethernet networks. For telephonic communication a Voice Grade Medium (VGM) cable is used but for LAN applications a higher quality cable known as Data Grade Medium (DGM) is used.

Types of Twisted Pair Cable

There are two types of twisted pair cable:

1. Shielded Twisted pair cable (STP)
2. Unshielded Twisted pair cable (UTP)

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) Cable

Advantages of Twisted Pair Cable

1. It is simple.
2. It is physically flexible.
3. It is easy to install and maintain.
4. It can be easily Connected and has a low weight.
5. It is very inexpensive.

Disadvantages of Twisted Pair Cable

1. It can be easily pick up noise signals.
2. Being thin in size, it is likely to break easily.
3. It is unsuitable for broadband applications.