82 APPENDIX A: SPECIFICATIONS AND CABLING REQUIREMENTS
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