Data and Communication Cables - WEEK SIX

Week 6
Topic: Data and Communication Cables.
Specific Objectives: By the end of the lesson, student should be able to
1. Define data and communication cables
2. State and explain three types of data and communication cables
3. State advantages of coaxial and fibre optic cable
4. State disadvantages of fibre optic cable
DATA AND COMMUNICATION CABLES.
Data and communication cables are those cables designed to transmit electronic information from a source to a destination. Extensively used in computer and telecommunication system.
Types of Data and Communication Cables
The type of data cabling is either copper or fibre optics. The types are as follows:
1. Twisted pair cables
2. Coaxial cables
3. Fibre optic cables.
Twisted pair: Telecommunications and computer networks use mainly twisted pair copper wiring . twisted pair cabling consists of copper wires that are twisted into pairs. The use of two wires twisted together helps to reduce crosstalk and induction. Two types of twisted pair are: Shielded twisted pair (STP) and Unshielded twisted pair (UTP). Shielded twisted pair has a foil wrapped around the wires, but unshielded twisted pair does not.
Coaxial: It is widely used for cable television system, office building and other work sites for local area networks. The cables consist of copper or aluminum wire surrounded by an insulating layer (typically a flexible material with a high dielectric constant), which itself is surrounded by a conducive layer. The insulating helps to minimize interference and distortion. Transmission speed ranges from 200 million bits per second to more than 500 million bits per second.
Advantages of coaxial cable:
1. It has higher bandwidth and attenuation
2. It is efficient
3. It has added advantages of shielding
4. Light in weight
Fibre Optic
Fibre optic cable is made of light conducting glass of plastic fibre. It consist of a centre glass core surrounded by several layers of protective material. The outer insulating jacket is made of Teflon or Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The fibre optic cable transmits light rather than electronic signals thereby eliminating electric interference (i.e. it transmits data signals in the form of light). It is used extensively by cable and telephony companies to provide fast connection to the internet.
Advantages of Fibre Optic.
1. Immunity to electromagnetic interference.
2. Eliminating spark hazard
3. It has high bandwidth over long distance
4. It has high fast transmission speed.
5. Lighter in weight
6. One can use different colours of lights to increase the number of messages being sent over a fibre optic.
7. Lower signal loss.

Disadvantages
1. Fibre optic cable is very fragile due to the glass part of the cable
2. It is more expensive
Evaluation
1. Define data and communication cable
2. State three types of Data and Communication Cables.
3. State three advantages of coaxial and fibre optic cable.
Assignment
1. Explain in details the three types of data and communication cables
2. What is the difference between data and communication cable and other cables.