Mbalenhle Ndaba ICT1532: The Advantages of The Twisted Pair Cable Are

Mbalenhle Ndaba
ICT1532
For any networking to be effective, raw stream of data is to be transported from one device to
other over some medium. Various transmission media can be used for transfer of data. These
transmission media may be of two types –  Guided − In guided media, transmitted data travels
through cabling system that has a fixed path. For example, copper wires, fibre optic wires, etc. 
Unguided − In unguided media, transmitted data travels through free space in form of
electromagnetic signal. For example, radio waves, lasers, etc. Each transmission media has its own
advantages and disadvantages in terms of bandwidth, speed, delay, cost per bit, ease of
installation and maintenance, etc.
Discuss the following most commonly used media in detail and state the advantages and
disadvantages of each:
1. (a) Twisted Pair Cable
a type of cable in which one or more pairs are twisted around each other and clad in
a color-coded, protective insulating plastic sheath or jacket to form a pair. All pairs
are encased in a plastic sheath or jacket. The number of pairs within a cable will vary
depending on the type of twisted pair cable. Twisted pair cables typically use
shielding around pairs of wires. The conductors in twisted pair cables use striped
colors.
The advantages of the twisted pair cable are:
 It is the least expensive medium of transmission for short distances.
 It is relatively easy to implement and terminate.
 It can be used to carry both pf the data analog and digital data.
 I turn are less likely to cause interference themselves.
 It is flexible and lightweight.
The disadvantages of the twisted pair cable are:

 Attenuation is very high.
 It offers poor noise immunity as the result signal distortion is too much more.
 STP called shielded twisted pair cable is more difficult to connect to a terminating
block.
 Being this cable is thin in size, they are likely to break easily.
 Some transmission is limit.
(c) Coaxial cable
a type of copper cable that features a central conducting copper core surrounded by
an insulator and braided or foil shielding. The dialectric insulator separates the
conductor and shield and the entire package is wrapped in an insulating layer called
a sheath or a jacket. It is named a coaxial cable because the conductor and shield
share the same axis, or centre. This arrangement helps prevent electromagnetic
interference from reaching the conductor.
Advantages of a coaxial cable:
 The cost of coaxial cable is less.
 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.
Disadvantages of a coaxial cable are:
 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.
(d)Optical fibre
network cable that contains strands of glass fibres inside an insulated casing.

They are designed for long-distance, high-performance data networking, and
telecommunications. Compared to wired cables, fibre optic cables provide
higher bandwidth and transmit data over longer distances. Fibre optic cables
support much of the world's internet, cable television, and telephone
systems.
Advantages of optical fibre:
 Greater bandwidth & faster speed—Optical fibre cable supports extremely

high bandwidth and speed. The large amount of information that can be
transmitted per unit of optical fibre cable is its most significant advantage.
 Cheap—Long, continuous miles of optical fibre cable can be made cheaper
than equivalent lengths of copper wire. With numerous vendors swarm to
compete for the market share, optical cable price would sure to drop.
 Thinner and light-weighted—Optical fibre is thinner and can be drawn to
smaller diameters than copper wire. They are of smaller size and light weight
than a comparable copper wire cable, offering a better fit for places where
space is a concern.
 Higher carrying capacity—Because optical fibres are much thinner than
copper wires, more fibres can be bundled into a given-diameter cable. This
allows more phone lines to go over the same cable or more channels to come
through the cable into your cable TV box.
 Less signal degradation—The loss of signal in optical fibre is less than that in
copper wire.
Disadvantages of optical fibre:
 Low power—Light emitting sources are limited to low power. Although high
power emitters are available to improve power supply, it would add extra
cost.
 Fragility—Optical fibre is rather fragile and more vulnerable to damage
compared to copper wires. You would better not to twist or bend fibre optic
cables too tightly.
 Distance—The distance between the transmitter and receiver should keep
short or repeaters are needed to boost the signal.
(f) Radio wave
Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the

electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have
frequencies as high as 300 gigahertz to as low as 30 hertz.
Advantages of radio waves:
 An advantage of radio waves is that They can travel long distances carrying
message.
Disadvantages of radio waves
 A disadvantage for radio waves is that it has low frequency so it can't
transmit (send) a lot of data at one time.

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1. (a) Twisted Pair Cable

The disadvantages of the twisted pair cable are:

(c) Coaxial cable

Disadvantages of a coaxial cable are:

network cable that contains strands of glass fibres inside an insulated casing.

 Greater bandwidth & faster speed—Optical fibre cable supports extremely

Disadvantages of optical fibre:

(f) Radio wave

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the

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