Free Wired and Wireless Media Essay Sample
Abstract
This paper discusses the meaning of wired media and wireless media. Types of wired media include copper cables and fiber optic cables. Copper cables consist of coaxial, unshielded twisted pair and shielded twisted pair. Fiber optic consists of singlemode and multimode. Wireless media and advantages and disadvantages of both wired and wireless has been analyzed. Lastly, ethernet has been stated as an example of a structured wiring protocol that enables data networking in an organization.
Wired and wireless media are forms of transmission channels. They are physical paths in which information flows from a transmitter to a receiver. Wired media consist of copper and fiber optic cables while wireless media consist of microwave, radio, infrared and satellite transmission.
Wired media has for a long time being using copper wire for communications circuit. Copper cables are classified into three main types; coaxial, unshielded twisted pair and shielded twisted pair.
Coaxial cable contains two conductors separated by insulation in which one of them forms an electromagnetic shield around the other. It’s used for long distance, low noise of information transmission and low attenuation. Unshielded twisted pair is used for higher data rates and consist of pairs of copper wires twisted together and protected by polyvinyl-chloride or a Teflon jacket. It is used for voice or data communication but restricted to long-distance transmission. Shielded twisted pair contains two copper pairs wrapped in metal foil and then covered with a braided metal shield and an outer PVC jacket. It’s used by telephone companies to move digitized information. It is the most expensive type of a copper wire. Signal travelling in a copper wire becomes weaker the more it travels due to frequency, resistance, impedance mismatch and crosstalk.
Wired media comprise of fiber optic which are today’s technology. It’s made of glass or plastic. It transmits digital signals in the form of pulses of light. It is better than copper cables as they are more immune to EMI, electrical discharges, lightning, crosstalk, short circuit problems, high temperature and nuclear radiation. There are two types of optic fibers; single mode that carries single light ray only and multimode that carries multiple light ray.
Wired media can transmit voice, video and data over long distance. It is more secure hence less affected to security attacks, fast in data transmission, more reliable and it has less faults. It can reach areas that wireless can’t reach such as thick walls or cold spots. It can never be affected weather, highly compatible with older phones and computers, it is easier to connect more devices to one another using wired means and wired equipments are cheap.
Wired media has some disadvantages. Its installation process is tedious and time consuming, wired connection is expensive to set up and it is less flexible as it can only be used where there is a usb port. Wired connections might look disorganized and incase a cable gets faulty, the repair process might be quite a challenge.
Wireless media is a type of transmission in which electromagnetic waves carry a signal through atmospheric space rather than through a wire. Wireless communication is neat and appealing as there are no cables. It’s very flexible as one can move around within the limited range, its setup procedure is very easy, wireless network can serve a bigger number of people. However, wireless media is very insecure as it can be easily hacked. It covers limited range depending with the frequency band. It can be relied 100% as it can easily be interfered by several factors beyond the network’s administrator control. Its speed is reasonably slow, its equipments are expensive and consume a lot of power.
Structured wiring protocol is a method of wiring where a collection of several types of cables all go through the same place. Each cable runs through a central location known as Central wiring point. An example of a structured wiring is the use of ethernet to facilitate data networking. Central wiring point of ethernet contains a network switch. In an office where there are many computers, ethernet enables internet connection sharing, file sharing and sharing of resources like a scanner or a printer. Ethernet is more secure and less affected by hackers. Use of CAT5 wiring can support a fast ethernet or a gigabit ethernet. IEEE Computer Society.