82
A
PPENDIX
A: S
PECIFICATIONS
AND
C
ABLING
R
EQUIREMENTS
Cabling Requirements
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
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.
Environment
Operating
temperature
32˚ to 158˚ F (0˚ to 70˚ C)
Storage
temperature
–
22
˚
to 194˚ F (
–
30˚ to 90˚ C)
Operating
humidity
10 to 90% noncondensing
Storage
humidity
10 to 90% noncondensing
Altitude
–
984 ft to 9,840 ft (
–
300 to 3,000 m)
Standards Conformance
IEEE 803.3x flow control
Microsoft PC98
PCI 2.1
DMI 1.0 and 2.0
book Page 82 Thursday, July 29, 1999 12:23 PM
