For a long time, copper network that is constructed of a massive and revolutionary network copper wires has been in the dominant position in the network architecture enabling us to talk with each other through these newfangled telephones. Under the fact that people’s desire for more growing transcontinental telecom traffic, the proper application of data cabling and wiring, also refer to the network cabling and wiring becomes imperative for successful business, government and academic network infrastructure installations. Here introduces copper network, fiber optic network and Ethernet over copper.
Types of Cabling & Wiring Method: Copper Network and Fiber Optic Network
There are two main types of network cabling & wiring method: copper network and fiber optic network.
Copper data network systems can be divided into several categories or standards by the cabling standards organizations which used the bandwidth needs to determine the proper customer application of each category of cabling. Frequency Bandwidth for each categories data cabling listed below:
Category 5e: 1 – 100 MHz
Category 6: 1 – 250 MHz
Category 6A: 1 – 500 MHz
Category 7: 1 – 600 MHz
Category 7A: 1 – 1000 MHz
Copper networks display the important performance in television, video, internet and telephone applications. And the copper data cabling can be further divided into three sub-types, unshielded twisted pair (UTP), screened twisted pair (F/UTP) and shielded twisted pair (S/FTP).
Fiber optic network or fiber optical cabling is the other second types of network data cabling system. In this data cabling system, data signals are transmit by the thin glass core fibers in the term of laser light pulses. Fiber optic cabling allows data signals to be transmitted much faster, at a higher bandwidth and over much greater distances than copper data cabling systems. Fiber optic cabling provides greater signals capacity than the copper network and it is impervious to interference with a small transmitting loss.
Ethernet Over Copper
The advantage of fiber optic over copper wires makes the fibers attractive for many companies today to deploy the fibers into their networks. But the reality is that the in most of countries, the total fiber miles is still dwarfed by copper miles and it will take many years and much money before fibers replace the copper networks. The quite dynamic existing copper network makes us have to think about a more cost-effective and efficient technology – Ethernet over Copper, which delivers high bandwidth and the latest features over that existing copper connection with affordable cost.
Fiber optics would have been a good option but it may also be less attractive because of the technological requirements and the costs implications. By using existing copper connections, combined with state of the art equipment including the copper Ethernet cable, some Ethernet over copper service companies can help deliver necessary bandwidth without compromising the quality with the foundation of the existing copper data cabling networks.
If your company is using a T1 line, EoC will provide you with the same bandwidth at a higher level of reliability. It is also cheaper to install than a T1 line. You need a lot of money to change a bonded T1 into partial or full DS3 service. By using EoC, switching to partial or full DS3 will be done at a much lower price.
Ethernet over copper is ideal for companies with bandwidth requirements that do not exceed 15 MB, which is adequately to meet the needs of most small and medium sized companies. If you want to higher bandwidth, you have to go for optical fiber network.
Related Articles: Twisted Pair vs Coaxial Cable vs Fiber Optic Cable
