10Base-T, 100Base-TX, 1000Base-T and 1000Base-TX

10Base-T, 100Base-TX, 1000Base-T and 1000Base-TX. The differences and commonalities.


10Base-T: 10 Mbps (megabits per second), over 100 meters of standard Ethernet cable, consisting of four twisted pairs. Only two are used for data pairs. Two are unused (spare pair). One wire pair is dedicated to sending signals in one direction while the other communicates in the opposite direction. So it is unidirectional on each data pair and bidirectional on both data pairs.

100Base-TX: 100 Mbps (megabits per second) over 100 m cable consisting of four twisted pairs. Also, only two unidirectional twisted pairs are used for data. This is called Fast Ethernet and is today's most ubiquitous Ethernet standard.


1000Base-T: 1000 Mbps (megabits per second) over 100 m of cable consisting of four twisted pairs. All four twisted pairs are used for data. In addition, each pair is bidirectional, which means two-way signaling on each pair, four pairs in parallel for higher speed. This is sometimes called 1GBase-T or Gigabit Ethernet. Its main advantage is that it can use the same cabling infrastructure commonly used for 100Base-TX.


1000Base-TX: 1000Mbps (megabits per second) over 100m of cable consisting of four twisted pairs. Theoretically, this is done to save the cost of the electronics because although all four twisted pairs are used for data, as in 1000Base-T, each twisted pair is still unidirectional, as in 10Base-T and 100Base-TX. However, to compensate for the reduction in electrical capability, the data capability of the cable must be increased accordingly. In other words, 1000Base-TX requires more expensive cables than 1000Base-T or 100Base-TX, which are not readily available. So, 1000Base-TX is now considered a commercial failure and obsolete for all practical purposes.


The "T" comes from the twisted pair. We emphasize it because before 10Base-T came along, there were 10Base-2 and 10Base-5. Instead of using twisted pairs, they used thin and thicker coaxial cables to transfer data up to 200m and 500m, respectively.

The "Base" refers to the baseband. A baseband network is a physical medium that provides a single channel for communication so that only one device can transmit at a given time. Devices on a baseband network can transmit using all available bandwidth (there is no need to share bandwidth). The opposite of baseband is broadband. Broadband implements multiple channels, usually using frequency-division multiplexing techniques. Broadband shares the bandwidth. This is the reason why cable modem users notice slower speeds when they connect on busy nodes, or when their colleagues keep downloading at maximum speed. Of course, with Ethernet you will also notice a slowdown, but it will be smaller compared to broadband. Learn more about broadband and baseband with this article: https://support.linovision.com/portal/en/kb/articles/broadband-vs-baseband

About the 100m restriction, the specification says a maximum length of 90 meters plus a 10 meter patch cable. So the idea is to have an overall length of 100 meters, but a maximum of 90 meters in the cabling infrastructure, and then add a patch cable of max 5 meters at each end to connect to the equipment.





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