10BASE5

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10BASE5 vampire tap Medium Attachment Unit (Transceiver)

10BASE5 transceivers, cables, and tapping tool

 10BASE5 cable with N connectors and transceivers

10BASE5 (also known as thick ethernet or thicknet) is the original "full spec" variant
of Ethernet cable, using cable similar to RG-8/U coaxial cable but with extra braided
shielding. This is a stiff, 0.375-inch (9.5 mm) diameter cable with an impedance of
50 ohms (Ω), a solid center conductor, a foam insulating filler, a shielding braid, and an
outer jacket. The outer sheath is often yellow-to-orange/brown foam fluorinated ethylene
propylene (for fire resistance) so it often is called "yellow cable", "orange hose", or
sometimes humorously "frozen yellow garden hose".[1]

10BASE5 has been superseded due to the immense demand for high speed networking,
the low cost of Category 5 Ethernet cable, and the popularity of802.11 wireless networks.
Both 10BASE2 and 10BASE5 have become obsolete.

Contents
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 1 Name origination

 2 Network design

 3 See also

 4 References

[edit]Name origination
The name 10BASE5 is derived from several characteristics of the physical medium.
The 10 refers to its transmission speed of 10 Mbit/s. The BASE is short
for baseband signalling as opposed to broadband, and the 5 stands for the maximum
segment length of 500 metres (1,600 ft).

[edit]Network design
10BASE5 coax cables had a maximum length of 500 meters (1,640 ft). The maximum
number of nodes that can be connected to a 10BASE5 segment is 100. [2] Transceivers may
be installed only at precise 2.5-metre intervals. This distance was chosen to not correspond
to the wavelength of the signal; this ensures that the reflections from multiple taps are not in
phase.[3] These suitable points are marked on the cable with black bands. The cable must
be one linear run; T-connections are not allowed.

As is the case with most other high-speed buses, segments must be terminated with
a resistor at each end. For coaxial-cable-based Ethernet, each end of the cable has a
50 ohm (Ω) resistor attached. Typically this resistor is built into a male N connector and
attached to the end of the cable just past the last device. If termination is missing, or if there
is a break in the cable, the AC signal on the bus is reflected, rather than dissipated when it
reaches the end. This reflected signal is indistinguishable from a collision, and so no
communication is possible.

Transceivers can be connected to cable segments with N connectors, or via a vampire tap,
which allows new nodes to be added while existing connections are live. A vampire tap
clamps onto the cable, forcing a spike to pierce through the outer shielding to contact the
inner conductor while other spikes bite into the outer braided shield. Care must be taken to
keep the outer shield from touching the spike; installation kits include a "coring tool" to drill
through the outer layers and a "braid pick" to clear stray pieces of the outer shield.
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