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Flip to reveal answersWhat are the three transmission media and what does each carry?
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All 5 Flashcards — Transmission media
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Question
What are the three transmission media and what does each carry?
Answer
Twisted pair sends bits as electricity down copper, fibre optic sends them as light down glass, and wireless sends them as radio through the air.
Question
What is the difference between attenuation and interference?
Answer
Attenuation is the signal getting weaker with distance — copper fades after about 100 m, fibre runs kilometres. Interference is something else corrupting the signal: electrical noise for copper, walls and other radios for wireless.
Question
Why is fibre used between buildings but not to every desk?
Answer
Between buildings its very low attenuation and immunity to interference are worth paying for. To a desk the run is short and the bandwidth is never used, so copper's much lower cost wins across hundreds of sockets.
Question
Why is wireless the least secure medium?
Answer
The signal leaves the building, so anyone nearby can receive it, whereas tapping copper or fibre requires physical access to the cable. That is why wireless must always be encrypted.
Question
What limits wireless bandwidth in practice?
Answer
It is shared with every device nearby, and walls, appliances and other networks all cause interference, so the rate a device actually achieves varies with conditions rather than being fixed.
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Full study notes for Transmission media
Topic 2.3 hub
Data transmissions
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Computer Science exam skills
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