Coaxial Cable

Coaxial Cable
The construction of coaxial cable includes a solid metallic core with a shielding as a return
path, offering a path for electrical current representing information to flow. The shielding does
a good job of reducing electrical noise interference within the core wire. As a result, coaxial
cable can extend to much greater lengths than UTP. The disadvantage of coaxial cable, though,
is its bulky shape, making it difficult to install. Also, coaxial cable doesn’t lend itself very well
to centralized wiring topologies, making it difficult to maintain.
During the 1980s, coaxial cable was very popular for wiring LANs; therefore, you might find
some still existing in older implementations. Very few, if any, new implementations will
require the use of coaxial cable; however, you should be aware of these types of networks in
case you have to interface the wireless users to it.
IEEE 802.3 defines two physical-layer specifications, 10Base-2 and 10Base-5, based on the
use of coaxial cable. 10Base-2 uses RG-58 cable, the same used to connect your television to a
cable outlet, and it will operate over a distance of up to 200 meters (600 feet). 10Base-5 uses a  much larger cable than RG-58, but it is capable of operating up to 500 meters (1500 feet) without
the use of repeaters. Both 10Base-2 and 10Base-5 utilize a bus topology, as shown in