10BASE-T Operation
10BASE-T is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 standard for Ethernet signaling over unshielded twisted-pair wire at 10 Mbps.
Ethernet, as the most widely-used network protocol, uses 10BASE-T as its primary cabling scheme. Ethernet’s characteristics include:
■A data rate of 10 Mbps
■A maximum station separation of 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) using fiber
■A broadcast architecture
■A specific media-access control (MAC) scheme
The specified networking technology for Ethernet is its MAC protocol called Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD). Ethernet uses CSMA/CD to prevent network failures or collisions when two devices try to access the network at the same time.
10BASE-T Specifications
The 10BASE-T name indicates a signaling speed of 10 Mbps and twisted-pair wiring. Base stands for baseband, which denotes a technique for transmitting signals as direct-current pulses rather than being modulated onto separate carrier frequencies. This is a feature of the Ethernet architecture.
A wiring topology using 10BASE-T specifies a wiring hub, cable arranged in a star configuration, and unshielded twisted-pair cable. Each node has a separate cable run that must not exceed 328 feet (100 meters) from the node to the hub.
The 10BASE-T four-repeater (hub) rule states that you can use no more than four repeaters between major LAN segments. If you add a fifth repeater, the timing of the packets can be impaired and the CSMA/CD media-sharing scheme may break down.
