A cable is a cord that is protected by some kind of coating and that allows it to conduct electricity or different types of signals. The cables are usually made of aluminum or copper.
UTP, according to abbreviationfinder, is an acronym that stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair (which can be translated as ” Unshielded Twisted Pair “). The UTP cable, therefore, is a kind of cable that is not shielded and is often used in telecommunications.
The twisted pair cable was created by the British Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922). It is a connection path with a pair of electrical conductors intertwined in such a way as to eliminate crosstalk from other cables and interference from external media.
After the invention of the telephone, its wiring shared the same route with electrical power lines. However, there was interference that shortened the distance of the telephone signals.
To avoid this, the engineers began to cross the cables every few posts, so that both cables received similar electromagnetic interference. Beginning in 1900, twisted pair cables were installed throughout the North American network.
It is known as “25-pair color code” to the system used to identify a driver in a telecommunications cable with UTP cables. The first grouping of colors follows the order of white-red-black-yellow-violet, while the second color group is blue-orange-green-brown-gray.
The most common subset of these colors is white-orange, orange, white-green, blue, white-blue, green, white-brown, and brown.
Among the limitations of UTP cable are its limited effectiveness when trying to connect very remote points, the transmission bandwidth and speed. In addition, both interference and noise from the medium through which the cable passes influence the quality of communication, so it is necessary, in addition to the coating and the braiding technique, to amplify the signal every a certain number of kilometers, which is an average of 2.5 in the case of a digital connection and double for an analog one.
On the other hand, as strengths of UTP cables, it should be noted that they are economically accessible and that their implementation is simple and efficient to solve many of the problems that basic communication networks present.
Of the cables that have four pairs of braids, only two are usually used: one that sends information and the other that receives it. However, both tasks cannot be performed simultaneously, so the connection type is considered half duplex. When instead all four are used at the same time, these jobs can be done in parallel, and this is known as full duplex.
UTP cable is often confused with other similar ones, which are based on the same technologies, but have important differences. With nomenclatures also very similar, the three types of cables in question are:
* UTP itself, which is used in different kinds of local connections. Their manufacture is not expensive and they are simple to use, although one of their disadvantages is the greater occurrence of faults than in other classes of cables, as well as their poor performance when the distance is considerable and the signal is not regenerated;
* STP, or shielded twisted pair, which does have an insulating coating to protect the transmission from potential interference. Its uses include Ethernet and Token Ring computer networks and it is worth mentioning that its price is higher than that of UTP;
* FTP, or globally shielded twisted pair, which is cables protected against interference in a much more efficient way than UTP.
