DISADVANTAGES

* and they are more prone to electronic noise and interference than other forms of
cable.* For this reason, they should be kept out of the wave range of electric
motors and fluorescent lighting. *As well, the distance between the signal boosts
is shorter with UTP cable than for coaxial and fiber-optic cables* making it less
able to carry the signal for long-distance networking.

Shielded Twisted Pair

A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that
allows the higher transmission rate.

STP ADVANTAGES
Shielding reduces chance of crosstalk and provide protection from interference.
It offers better electrical characteristics than unshielded cables.
It can be easily terminated with modular connector.

STP DISADVANTAGES
Shielding increases overall diameter and weight of the cable. Hence it is more
difficult to install compare to UTP cables. The larger thickness make them unfit
for narrow cable ducts.
➨It has higher cost per foot of wire.
➨Shield of STP cables must be grounded properly otherwise it acts like an antenna
and picks up unwanted signals.
➨There is no improvement in segment length despite its thick and heavier
construction.

Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire is
usually a coaxial cable.
The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each
other.
It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the outer
conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up of non-conductive
cover that separates the inner conductor from the outer conductor.
The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).

Coaxial cable is of two types:

Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal

at high speed.
Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple
signals simultaneously.
Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

The data can be transmitted at high speed.

It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:

It is more expensive as compared to twisted pair cable.

If any fault occurs in the cable causes the failure in the entire network.
➨The outer conductor in coaxial cable is used to improve attenuation and shield
effectiveness. This can be further enhanced with the use of second foil or braid
known as jacket (C2 as designated in the figure-1). The jacket is used as
protective cover from the environment and makes overall coaxial cable as flame
retardant.
➨It is less susceptible to noise or interference (EMI or RFI) compare to twisted
pair cable.
➨It supports high bandwidth signal transmission compare to twisted pair.
➨It is easy to wire and easy to expand due to flexibility.
➨It allows high transfer rates with coaxial cable having better shielding
materials.

DISADVANTAGE OF COAXIAL CABLE

➨It is bulky.
➨It is expensive to install for longer distances due to its thickness and
stiffness.
➨As single cable is used for signal transmission across the entire network, in case
of failure in one cable the entire network will be down.
➨The security is a great concern as it is easy to tap the coaxial cable by breaking
it and inserting T-joint (of BNC type) in between.
➨It must be grounded to prevent interference.

Types Of Guided media:

Twisted pair:
Twisted pair is a physical media made up of a pair of cables twisted with each
other. A twisted pair cable is cheap as compared to other transmission media.
Installation of the twisted pair cable is easy, and it is a lightweight cable. The
frequency range for twisted pair cable is from 0 to 3.5KHz.

A twisted pair consists of two insulated copper wires arranged in a regular spiral
pattern.

The degree of reduction in noise interference is determined by the number of turns

per foot. Increasing the number of turns per foot decreases noise interference.

Transmission media
Types of Twisted pair:

Transmission media
Unshielded Twisted Pair:
An unshielded twisted pair is widely used in telecommunication. Following are the
categories of the unshielded twisted pair cable:

Category 1: Category 1 is used for telephone lines that have low-speed data.
Category 2: It can support upto 4Mbps.
Category 3: It can support upto 16Mbps.
Category 4: It can support upto 20Mbps. Therefore, it can be used for long-distance
communication.
Category 5: It can support upto 200Mbps.
Advantages Of Unshielded Twisted Pair:
It is cheap.
Installation of the unshielded twisted pair is easy.
It can be used for high-speed LAN.
Disadvantage:

This cable can only be used for shorter distances because of attenuation.
Shielded Twisted Pair
A shielded twisted pair is a cable that contains the mesh surrounding the wire that
allows the higher transmission rate.

Characteristics Of Shielded Twisted Pair:

The cost of the shielded twisted pair cable is not very high and not very low.
An installation of STP is easy.
It has higher capacity as compared to unshielded twisted pair cable.
It has a higher attenuation.
It is shielded that provides the higher data transmission rate.
Disadvantages

It is more expensive as compared to UTP and coaxial cable.

It has a higher attenuation rate.
Coaxial Cable
Coaxial cable is very commonly used transmission media, for example, TV wire is
usually a coaxial cable.
The name of the cable is coaxial as it contains two conductors parallel to each
other.
It has a higher frequency as compared to Twisted pair cable.
The inner conductor of the coaxial cable is made up of copper, and the outer
conductor is made up of copper mesh. The middle core is made up of non-conductive
cover that separates the inner conductor from the outer conductor.
The middle core is responsible for the data transferring whereas the copper mesh
prevents from the EMI(Electromagnetic interference).
Transmission media
Coaxial cable is of two types:

Baseband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting a single signal

at high speed.
Broadband transmission: It is defined as the process of transmitting multiple
signals simultaneously.
Advantages Of Coaxial cable:

The data can be transmitted at high speed.

It has better shielding as compared to twisted pair cable.
It provides higher bandwidth.
Disadvantages Of Coaxial cable:
➨It is bulky.
➨It is expensive to install for longer distances due to its thickness and
stiffness.
➨As single cable is used for signal transmission across the entire network, in case
of failure in one cable the entire network will be down.
➨The security is a great concern as it is easy to tap the coaxial cable by breaking
it and inserting T-joint (of BNC type) in between.
➨It must be grounded to prevent interference.

Fibre Optic
Fibre optic cable is a cable that uses electrical signals for communication.
Fibre optic is a cable that holds the optical fibres coated in plastic that are
used to send the data by pulses of light.
The plastic coating protects the optical fibres from heat, cold, electromagnetic
interference from other types of wiring.
Fibre optics provide faster data transmission than copper wires.

Basic elements of Fibre optic cable:

Core: The optical fibre consists of a narrow strand of glass or plastic known as a
core. A core is a light transmission area of the fibre. The more the area of the
core, the more light will be transmitted into the fibre.
Cladding: The concentric layer of glass is known as cladding. The main
functionality of the cladding is to provide the lower refractive index at the core
interface as to cause the reflection within the core so that the light waves are
transmitted through the fibre.
Jacket: The protective coating consisting of plastic is known as a jacket. The main
purpose of a jacket is to preserve the fibre strength, absorb shock and extra fibre
protection.

Following are the advantages of fibre optic cable over copper:

Greater Bandwidth: The fibre optic cable provides more bandwidth as compared
copper. Therefore, the fibre optic carries more data as compared to copper cable.
Faster speed: Fibre optic cable carries the data in the form of light. This allows
the fibre optic cable to carry the signals at a higher speed.
Longer distances: The fibre optic cable carries the data at a longer distance as
compared to copper cable.
Better reliability: The fibre optic cable is more reliable than the copper cable as
it is immune to any temperature changes while it can cause obstruct in the
connectivity of copper cable.
Thinner and Sturdier: Fibre optic cable is thinner and lighter in weight so it can
withstand more pull pressure than copper cable.

DISADVANATGES
Disadvantages of Fiber Optic Transmission
Though fiber optic transmission brings lots of convenience, its disadvantages also
cannot be ignored.

Fragility: usually optical fiber cables are made of glass, which lends to they are
more fragile than electrical wires. In addition, glass can be affected by various
chemicals including hydrogen gas (a problem in underwater cables), making them need
more cares when deployed under ground.
Difficult to Install: it’s not easy to splice fiber optic cable. And if you bend
them too much, they will break. And fiber cable is highly susceptible to becoming
cut or damaged during installation or construction activities. All these make it
difficult to install.
Attenuation & Dispersion: as transmission distance getting longer, light will be
attenuated and dispersed, which requires extra optical components like EDFA to be
added.
Cost Is Higher Than Copper Cable: despite the fact that fiber optic installation
costs are dropping by as much as 60% a year, installing fiber optic cabling is
still relatively higher than copper cables. Because copper cable installation does
not need extra care like fiber cables. However, optical fiber is still moving into
the local loop, and through technologies such as FTTx (fiber to the home, premises,
etc.) and PONs (passive optical networks), enabling subscriber and end user
broadband access.

Twisted pair comes in two varieties: unshielded and shielded.

Unshielded
twisted pair (UTP) is ordinary telephone wire. Office buildings, by universal
practice, are prewired with excess unshielded twisted pair, more than is needed for
simple telephone support. This is the least expensive of all the transmission media
commonly used for local area networks and is easy to work with and easy to install.