Cabletron Systems 100BASE-FX, Cabling Manual

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2-1
Chapter 2
Cabling Terms
This chapter identifies and defines several terms that are used throughout the text of this manual.
Physical Components
The following terms and definitions deal with the physical makeup of cabling
used in Local Area Networks.
Media
Media refers to a type or family of cables. When the term media is used, it
indicates a type of cabling, rather than a specific cable. A reference to “fiber optic
media” deals with the characteristics of all fiber optic cable types, such as single
or multimode fiber optics.
Cable
The term cable, as used in this document, indicates either a specific type of
transmission media (i.e., multimode fiber optic cable) or indicates a physical
section of that media (i.e., “the installed cable must be no longer than 200 m”).
Facility Cabling
Facility cabling, sometimes referred to as building cable or horizontal cable, is the
network cabling that is installed in a building or office. It only includes the actual
wires that are placed within the walls, conduits, or specific cable channels of the
building. The majority of cabling used in a network installation is facility cabling.