Cabling Standards: Cat, Coax, & Fiber

Cat, Coax, Fiber

 

Any of the cabling standards ending in “T”, “TX”, or “Tv” are twisted pair cables.

 

10BASE-T

100BASE -TX

1000BASE-T

10GBASE-T

10GBASE-Tv

40GBASE-T

  

Any cabling standards ending in a number like 2 or 5 are Coax.

 

10BASE-2 (Thinnet)        Maximum distance is 185 meters

10BASE-5 (Thicknet)       Maximum distance is 500 meters

  

CompTIA only uses the following standards with fiber: FX, LR, LX, SR, & SX.

 

100BASE-FX           Maximum distance is 2 km (1.2 miles)

100BASE-SX           Maximum distance is 550 m (1804 feet)

1000BASE-LX         Maximum distance is 5 km (3.1 miles)

1000BASE-SX         Maximum distance is 550 m (1804 feet)

1000BASE-LR         Maximum distance is 10 km (6.22 miles)

1000BASE-SR         Maximum distance is 400 m (1312 feet)

 

There are other distances for these standards. They occasionally will use EX.

 

For the exam think of EX, FX, LR, & LX as SMF (Single Mode Fiber). The trick I have used is to think of the following as:

EX: Extended Range

FX: Far Range

LR: Long Range

LX: Long Range

 

For the exam think of SR & SX as Multimode Fiber.

The trick I have used is to think of the following as:

SR: Short Range

SX: Short Range