Cables

The environment determines whether cable should be shielded or unshielded.

Shielding is the sheath surrounding and protecting the cable wires from electromagnetic leakage and interference. Sources of this electromagnetic activity (EMI)—commonly referred to as noise—include elevator motors, fluorescent lights, generators, air conditioners, and photocopiers. To protect data in areas with high EMI, choose a shielded cable.

Foil is the most basic cable shield, but a copper-braid shield provides more protection. Shielding also protects cables from rodent damage. Use a foil-shielded cable in busy office or retail environments. For industrial environments, you might want to choose a copper-braid shield.

For quiet office environments, choose unshielded cable.

Depending on the environment and how the electrical signal is sent over the cable, coax can be used for three types of transmissions.

Baseband transmissions use the entire communication channel capacity to transmit a single data signal. Many LANs employ Thin coax for baseband signaling.

Broadband transmissions use different frequencies to carry several analog signals simultaneously. Each signal can for be a different type of information—data, voice, even video. Broadband transmissions over coax employ either one or two cables. With single-cable coax wiring, frequencies are split into individual channels for each station; some channels are allocated for bidirectional communication. Dual-cable coax wiring uses one cable for sending and one cable for receiving data, each with multiple channels. Broadband transmissions are ideal for long distances. Thick coax is often used for broadband transmissions.

Unlike broadband transmissions, carrierband transmissions can only use one information channel. Carrierband is best suited for the horizontal subsystems (subnetworks) in industrial settings. Many LANs use Thin coax for carrierband signaling.