Learning Unit IV

LAN Cabling Infrastructure Design

 ● Network Cables:
○ Used to connect one network
device to another, or connect
two or more end devices to
sharing devices.
● There are various types of cables
Cables and Connectors used with LANs depending on
network topology, protocol and
size.
○ Coaxial cables.
○ Twisted Pair cables.
○ Fiber optic cables.
 ● Coaxial cables
○ Has a single copper copper
conductor at its centre that is
surrounded by insulator.
○ The insulator is surrounded by
metal shield, that is
Types of Cables and surrounded by external jacket
Connectors as insulator.
○ It has a maximum of 10 Mbps
○ It is affected by external
electromagnetic Interference.
Types of Cables and
Connectors ● BNC are connectors used for Coaxial cables.
 ● Twisted Pair Cable
○ Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)
■ Has extra shielding material for
preventing electromagnetic
interference.
■ Expensive due to extra shielding
material.
Types of Cables and ■ Supports higher transmission
Connectors rates over long distances.
■ Was used in IBM token rings
networks.
■ No longer used due to its
expensiveness.
 ● Twisted Pair Cable
○ Unshielded Twisted Pair Cable
(UTP)
○ Have four pair of twisted pair wires
covered by insulating jacket.
○ Have three popular categories
■ Cat 3:
Types of Cables and ● Used for networks.
● Had data maximum 10 Mbps
Connectors data rate.
● It is absolute in today’s
networking.
■ Cat 5:
● Standard for industrial use
● Carry up to 1 Gbps
● Can be used for both network
and telephone networks
 ● Twisted Pair Cable
○ Cat 6:
■ Better standards than cat 5.
■ Transport data at longer distance
without being affected by
attenuation as compared to Cat 5.
● Standard connectors for UTP cables are:
Types of Cables and ○ RJ 45:- Used for terminating network
Connectors cables
○ RJ 11: Used to terminate telephone
networks.
 ● Electrical Scissors
○ For cutting cable and outside
jacket.

Useful Tools for

Networking
● Crimping tool
○ For crimping connector into a
cable.
○ For cutting wires into equal
size before fitting into RJ45
 ● Crimping tool

Useful Tools for

● Punch down Cable
Networking ○ Used to punch down cable to RJ45
female connector.
 ● Cable tester
○ For testing if a cable was properly
terminated.

Useful Tools for

Networking
 ● In networking, some devices
needs physical cabling with
increasing demand for higher
performance and flexibility.
○ To achieve this reliable,
scalable and manageable
Structured Cabling cabling infrastructure is
crucial.
● Design Cable runs and
Connections
○ To facilitate identifying cables
○ Troubleshooting
○ Planning for future changes.
 ● Establish a Main Distribution
Area (MDA), Horizontal
Distribution Area (HDAs)
○ For better access and cable
management.
○ HDA will be used to distribute cables
to Equipment Distribution Area
Structured Cabling (EDAs).
● Establish a Naming Scheme:
○ For consistent, and fast tracing the
cable run and network
troubleshooting.
 ● Patch Cables:
○ Used to connect end devices
to patch panel ports and to
connect ports between two
local patch panels.

Structured Cabling
● Patch Panels:
○ Allows easy management of
patch cables and link the
cabling distribution areas.
 Ethernet Networks

● Most popular Physical layer LAN

technology in use today.
● It defines:
○ Number of Conductors required for
connection.
○ The expected performance threshold.
Ethernet Network ○ Framework for data transmission.
● Can transmit data at rate up to 10
Mbps.
● Is most popular because of its good
balance of speed, cost and easy of
installation.
○ Its widely accepted in the market place and
used as ideal networking technology for
most computer users today.
 Ethernet Networks

● IEEE developed Ethernet standard

known as IEEE 802.3.

Fast Ethernet
● Fast Ethernet Standard (IEEE 802.3u) has
been established for Ethernet networks
Ethernet Network that need higher transmission speeds.
○ It raised the Ethernet speed limit from
10 Mbps to 100 Mbps.
○ Provides faster throughput for video,
multimedia, graphics, Internet surfing
and stronger error detecting and
correction.
 Three types of Fast Ethernet

● 100BASE-TX: For use with level 5

UTP cable.
● 100BASE-FX: For use with Fiber
Optic cable.
Types of Fast Ethernet
● 100BASE-T4: Utilizes an extra two
Networks
wires for use with level 3 UTP
cable.
○ 100BASE-TX has become the
most popular due to its close
compatibility with the base 10
BASE-T Ethernet Standard.
 ● Was developed to meet the need for
faster communication networks with
applications such as multimedia and
voice over IP (VoIP).
○ Also known as
Gigabit-Ethernet-Over-Copper,
or 1000Base-T.
Gigabit Ethernet ○ Defined in IEEE 802.3 standard
and is currently used as an
enterprise backbone.
○ Fast Ethernet can feed into
Gigabit Ethernet backbone to
interconnect high performance
switches, routers and servers.
 ● It is the fastest and most recent of
the Ethernet standards.
● IEEE 802.3ae defines a version of
Ethernet with a nominal rate of
10Gbps.
○ This makes it 10 times faster
10 Gigabit Ethernet than Gigabit Ethernet.
○ 10 Gigabit Ethernet is based
entirely on the use of the
optical fiber connections.
 ● Ethernet ports can be configured
some parameters such as speed
and duplex.
● Two ways of configuration
○ Manually configured of ports
Configuring Ethernet Switch with specified duplex mode
Ports and speed.
■ Rarely used
○ Connecting a cable and let the
network to negotiate speed
and duplex mode.
■ Mostly used today
 Duplex Communications:

● Full-duplex communication.
○ Allows both ends of a
connection to transmit and
receive data simultaneously.
Configurating Ethernet Switch
Ports

● Improves perfomance.
● Increases effective bandwidth
utilization
 Duplex Communications:

● Half-duplex communications:
○ Allows traffic to be
communicated in one
direction at a time.
Configuring Ethernet Switch
■ Sending and receiving
Ports
data does not occur at the
same time.
 Half-duplex communication

● Half-duplex creates
performance issues
because of data flowing in
Configuring Ethernet Switch one direction at a time.
Ports ● Has been replaced by most
of modern hardwares.
 ● Most Ethernet and Fast
Ethernet NICs today offer
full-duplex capability.
● Gigabit Ethernet and 10
Gigabit Ethernet NICs require
full-duplex connections to
Full-duplex characteristics
operate.
● In full-duplex mode, frames
that are sent by two connected
devices cannot collide because
the devices use two separate
circuits in the network cable.
 ● Full-duplex mode require
switch that supports:
○ Full-duplex configurations.
○ Direct connection using an
Ethernet cable between
two devices
Full-duplex characteristics
 ● Most Ethernet devices comes with
enabled interfaces by default.
○ 10/100 Mbps- Ethernet
interfaces auto-negotiate
connection speed and duplex.
○ 10/100/1000-Mbps Interfaces
negotiate speed, duplex and flow
Auto Sensing in Ethernet Ports control.
○ 1000-Mbps Ethernet
Interface negotiate flow
control only