Please Note:
In the Telephone binder groups there is no binder group corresponding to the 25th group Violet/Slate This group was omitted intentionally to facilitate ease of counting in 600 pair groups. 25 x 24 = 600
By using these simple 10 colors a combination of 25 unique pairs can be realized. Where Each Tip Color is combined with each Ring Color. Each time the 25th pair is reached that group of 25 is wrapped with a plastic binder that follows the same color coding sequence as the pairs of wires until it reaches 600 pairs total. Then that group will be wrapped with a super binder color that follows the Tip Color sequence only.
Mnemonics: Ring Colors
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Blue Orange Green Brown Slate
3001-3600 3601-4200
Mnemonics: Tip Colors
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White Red Black Yellow Violet
1-600 601-1200 1201-1800 1801-2400 2401-3000
Note: 4200 Pair is the Largest color coded copper cable produced.
As a point of interest: General Cable Manufacturing made a variation of the 600 pr. Super binder for cables larger than 2400 Pr. The 300 Pr. Super Binder They also included spare pairs in the event some were bad see www.generalcable.com for additional information.
Fiber Optic Color Coding
Fiber Optic cables utilize the same primary 10 colors for the first 10 fibers but then add two additional colors Rose and Aqua for the 11th and 12th tubes which completes the 144 fiber count.
Unlike Telephone cables fiber color coding has only a single color on each fiber for the first 12 fiber strands. The second 12 are marked with an additional Black tracer line on each fiber except for the Black fiber # 20 which has a yellow tracer for visibility.
Also since there are no Tip or Rings only a single fiber the Ring colors of conventional telephone represent the first 5 fibers, the tip colors represent the second 5 fibers and the Rose and Aqua finish out the 12 fiber count per tube.
Some fiber can be found as only 6 fibers per tube and they will only have up to the white fiber in a single tube then restart with the Blue fiber inside of the orange tube.
The unique feature about fiber optic as a medium over copper is that the fiber is actually a piece of glass and can be fused to another piece of glass which allows for much greater distances of transmission without the need for signal amplification. Distances of greater than 37 miles have been achieved without the use of any repeater or signal boost, and successful information transfer from one node to another of up to 1 terabyte on a single piece of glass have been achieved in the laboratory, although 80 Gigabyte are the more widely used formats in use today.
Switches continue to operate faster, and software continues to demand more memory, so as processors evolve switches and routers continue to follow suit.
Unlike Telephone cables fiber color coding has only a single color on each fiber for the first 12 fiber strands. The second 12 are marked with an additional Black tracer line on each fiber except for the Black fiber # 20 which has a yellow tracer for visibility.
Also since there are no Tip or Rings only a single fiber the Ring colors of conventional telephone represent the first 5 fibers, the tip colors represent the second 5 fibers and the Rose and Aqua finish out the 12 fiber count per tube.
Some fiber can be found as only 6 fibers per tube and they will only have up to the white fiber in a single tube then restart with the Blue fiber inside of the orange tube.
The unique feature about fiber optic as a medium over copper is that the fiber is actually a piece of glass and can be fused to another piece of glass which allows for much greater distances of transmission without the need for signal amplification. Distances of greater than 37 miles have been achieved without the use of any repeater or signal boost, and successful information transfer from one node to another of up to 1 terabyte on a single piece of glass have been achieved in the laboratory, although 80 Gigabyte are the more widely used formats in use today.
Switches continue to operate faster, and software continues to demand more memory, so as processors evolve switches and routers continue to follow suit.
Ethernet Cabling
(568A Business) and (568B Residential)
Note: Many businesses have elected to utilize the 568B standard as their primary wiring standard, either will typically work but consistency is the key.
(You cannot connect an 568A to a 568B and have it work.)
Balanced Twisted Pair Cabling
Horizontal Cabling balanced twisted pair is by far the most commonly ran cable at present time. While this page offers a brief description of how they are numbered there is not enough space to cover the topic in depth here.
Some information to consider is the speed of the connection -
this varies by cable type CAT3, CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, CAT7, CAT8 each has their own limits on speed determined by not only conductor gauge, and conductor length, amount of twists per inch, and also the type wire solid or stranded.
NOTE: Stranded conductors are only used as patch cables, used as to patch a connection from one horizontal to another.
NOTE: (Stranded conductor is never used as the horizontal portion of the circuit).
Typically the horizontal cannot run more than 100 meters total, with the limit on the horizontal cabling at 295', and the patch cables 16'.
Some articles to read on this subject would include:
Horizontal Cabling balanced twisted pair is by far the most commonly ran cable at present time. While this page offers a brief description of how they are numbered there is not enough space to cover the topic in depth here.
Some information to consider is the speed of the connection -
this varies by cable type CAT3, CAT5, CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, CAT7, CAT8 each has their own limits on speed determined by not only conductor gauge, and conductor length, amount of twists per inch, and also the type wire solid or stranded.
NOTE: Stranded conductors are only used as patch cables, used as to patch a connection from one horizontal to another.
NOTE: (Stranded conductor is never used as the horizontal portion of the circuit).
Typically the horizontal cannot run more than 100 meters total, with the limit on the horizontal cabling at 295', and the patch cables 16'.
Some articles to read on this subject would include:
- Ethernet Cabling
- Structured Cabling
- Balanced Twisted Pair
- VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)
- Video Conferencing
- Data Communications
Calculating Resistor Values by Resistor Color Codes
