The Physical Connection
This type of network connection uses cables to connect a device to a network.
What is a wired connection?
This type of copper cabling is the most common network media and typically uses RJ-45 connectors.
What is unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable?
This type of cabling is used to transmit data over longer distances and higher bandwidths compared to copper cabling, and is immune to EMI and RFI.
What is fiber-optic cabling?
This type of topology identifies the physical connections and locations of all networking devices and how they are interconnected.
What is physical topology?
In this mode of communication, devices can transmit and receive simultaneously on shared media.
What is full-duplex?
In a wireless network, devices connect to this point to access the network.
What is a wireless access point (AP) or wireless router?
This type of interference can distort data signals on copper media and includes sources like radio waves and electromagnetic devices.
What is electromagnetic interference (EMI) or radio frequency interference (RFI)?
This type of fiber-optic cable uses a small core and laser technology to send a single ray of light, making it ideal for long-distance applications.
What is single-mode fiber (SMF)?
This type of topology refers to the way a network transfers frames between nodes using virtual connections, often involving IP addressing.
What is logical topology?
This communication mode restricts data exchange to one direction at a time, commonly used in WLANs and legacy bus topologies.
What is half-duplex?
This type of network interface card (NIC) is necessary for wireless connections.
What is a wireless local area network (WLAN) NIC?
To reduce crosstalk, what technique is used in some types of copper cables that involves twisting pairs of wires together?
What is wire twisting?
In fiber-optic cabling, dispersion affects this property of the signal as it spreads out over time, more so in multimode fiber (MMF) than in single-mode fiber (SMF).
What is signal strength?
Name this physical WAN topology where each node is directly connected to every other node, providing high availability but at significant cost.
What is mesh topology?
This Ethernet LAN access control method operates in half-duplex, detecting collisions when multiple devices send data simultaneously.
What is Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD)?
These components are embedded inside some wireless routers to facilitate wireless connectivity.
What are wireless antennas?
This type of copper cable provides better noise protection due to its use of shielding, but it is more expensive and difficult to install compared to UTP.
What is shielded twisted-pair (STP) cable?
This is the color of the jacket typically used for single-mode fiber patch cords to distinguish them from multimode patch cords
In this LAN topology, all end devices are connected to a central device like a switch, making it easy to install and troubleshoot.
What is star topology?
Used in WLANs, this access method avoids collisions by making devices wait before transmitting data.
What is Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA)?
This layer of the OSI model is responsible for encoding frames into signals for transmission over network media.
What is the physical layer?
In cable internet installations, this type of copper cabling connects antennas to wireless devices and carries radio frequency energy.
What is coaxial cable?
This type of connector was one of the first types used for fiber optics and features a twist-on/twist-off bayonet-style locking mechanism.
What is the Straight-Tip (ST) connector?
This topology is used in legacy LANs where all end systems are chained together and terminated on each end, often using coax cables.
What is bus topology?
Networks that use this type of access, such as legacy Token Ring, allow each node its own time to use the medium, making them deterministic but inefficient.