Cables are like the veins and arteries that carry everything from basic electricity to complex data. It is all dependent on how a machine is formed and what it does with the electricity provided to it. There are a lot of different specific types of cables but we will be focusing on 3 major categories and give you an idea of how each one is implemented. So, let’s find out about them.
Copper cabling
Copper cables are practically the father of all other modern cabling types. It is the basic formula that allowed humans to create long term connections for transmission of both electricity and data. The reason copper is used in cables is because of its physical properties. Copper is THE best conductor of electricity in existence among all non-precious metals. The level of conductivity is determined in percentage and copper has 100% conduction. For reference, you can consider aluminum which only has a conductivity rating of 61%.
In addition to the core requirement of conduction, copper also has a highly flexible nature, carries a cheap production cost and is universally compatible as all electric appliances use copper for transmission of both power and data. Copper is used in conventional power transmission and is a major source of data transmission as well. This is particularly an important aspect of copper as data is currently the most expensive commodity in existence. This automatically makes the channel of transmission an equally important thing. Data transfer and communication is still being done through copper wires, especially in telecommunications.
Coaxial cabling
Coaxial cables are an upgrade to the standard copper cables used for transmission of data. The structure of a coaxial cable also defines its name as it is basically a copper wire that is surrounded by insulation and another grounding cable to make sure there is no interference in the data being transferred. You can see coaxial cables being used by TV operators who use them with repeaters to transmit satellite data over incredible distances. It has also been a major source of telecom data transmission for decades and AT&T also launched a whole coaxial transmission system running all across North America in 1940. Even with that, the area where coaxial cables found the most use is in the transmission of data via Ethernet systems.
There are three popular types of Ethernet cables being used today. Cat5 supports up to 100 Mbps speeds, Cat5e is virtually the same concept wise but can go up to 1000 Mbps. Both of them work at 100MHz and they are also the most commonly used type of cable in commercial settings to date due to its low cost to utility ratio. The latest however are Cat6 (250MHz) and Cat6a (500MHz) which support up to 1Gbps and 10Gbps respectively. What you need to understand is that while the older generations may have lower speed, the lower frequency means that they can carry that speed to a longer distance. The high frequency of Cat6 and Cat6a means that they may have higher speeds but they will drop of after a much shorter distance.
Fiber Optic Cabling
The current craze in data transmission is all about fiber optic cables. Unlike traditional copper cables, fiber optic wires contain a much larger capacity for data transmission. They also have a longer life as compared to traditional cables and are currently taking over copper cabling quite quickly for data transmission applications. The main reason for optic fiber not being an instant hit however is the fact that its production cost is quite high. Even though the cost of the materials has reduced over the years, the process itself is quite expensive to perform.
Design and Installation of Cables
Our experts specialize in the design and installation of high quality, high performance IT infrastructure solutions and services. The development in technology regarding transmission of data is quite astounding. While we are moving forward at great speed, there is still a lot to be explored and the future of electronic and data transmissions is certainly exciting.
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