Communication Media
Twisted Pair Wire are insulated pairs of wires that can be packet close together (bundles of thousands of wire pairs) (e.g., connecting your home telephone to the central office)
Coaxial Cable has a copper core with an outer cylindrical shell of insulation. A 2-inch diameter bundle of coaxial cables can handle approximately 20,000 voice or data telephone calls
Fiber Optic Cable technology utilizes high speed streams of light pulses from lasers or LEDs (light emitting diodes) in hair-thin strands of glass or plastic called optical fibers
- multimode optical fiber carries several light beams (problems: weakening of the signal spreading of the pulse)
- single mode optical fiber carries one beam (more modern, fewer problems)