The cable, quality, distance, and connectors must comply with the Electronic Industries Association/Telecommunications Industries Association (EIA/TIA) 568 Commercial Building Wiring Standard and the Technical Services Bulletin TSB38 standards.
Twisted-pair cable consists of copper wires surrounded by an insulator. Two wires are twisted together (the twisting prevents interference problems) to form a pair, and the pair forms a circuit that can transmit data. A cable is a bundle of one or more twisted pairs surrounded by an insulator.
Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) is the most commonly used type of twisted-pair cable. Shielded twisted pair (STP) provides protection against crosstalk. Twisted-pair cable is now commonly used in Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, and other network topologies.
The EIA/TIA defines five categories of unshielded twisted-pair cable.
10BASE-T is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 standard for Ethernet signaling over unshielded twisted-pair wire at 10 Mbps.
Ethernet, as the most widely used network protocol, uses 10BASE-T as its primary cabling scheme. Ethernet characteristics include:
The 10BASE-T name indicates a signaling speed of 10 Mbps and twisted-pair wiring. Base stands for baseband, which denotes a technique for transmitting signals as direct-current pulses rather than modulating them onto separate carrier frequencies.
A wiring topology using 10BASE-T specifies a wiring hub, cable arranged in a star configuration, and unshielded twisted-pair cable. Each node has a separate cable run that must not exceed 100 meters (328 ft) from the node to the hub.
100BASE-TX is the IEEE 802.3u standard for Fast Ethernet signaling over Category 5 UTP or STP wire at 100 Mbps.
Based on an extension to the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet specification, Fast Ethernet characteristics include:
A wiring topology using 100BASE-TX specifies a wiring hub, cable arranged in a star configuration, and Category 5 UTP or STP wiring. Each node has a separate cable run that must not exceed 100 meters (328 ft) from the node to the hub.