Module 1: Physical Layer

Unshielded Twisted-Pair Cable

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Shielded Twisted-Pair Cable

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Coaxial Cable

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Technicians Toolkit

Tool Description
Wire Cutter also known as side-cutters, these wire cutters are specifically designed to snip aluminum and copper wires.
Wire Strippers used to remove the insulation from wire so that it can be twisted to other wired or crimped to connectors to make cable. These typically come with a variety of notches for different wire gauges.
Crimper used to attach connectors to wires. The tool shown can attach RJ-45 connectors to networking cables used for Ethernet and RJ-11 connectors to telephone cables used for land lines.
Punch down tool used to terminate wire into termination blocks.
Multimeter measures AC/DC voltage, electric current, and other electrical characteristics to test the integrity of circuits and the quality of electricity in the computer components.
Cable tester checks for wiring shorts, faults, or wires connected to the wrong pins.
Loopback adapter tests the basic functionality of computer ports.
Tone generator and probe two part tool used to trace the remote end of a cable for testing and troubleshooting. When the probe is near the cable the toner is attached to, the tone can be heard though a speaker in the probe.
Wi-Fi analyzer mobile tools for auditing and troubleshooting wireless networks by detecting misconfigurations, AP failures and RFI problems.

Types of Fiber Media

Single-Mode Fiber

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Multimode Fiber

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Fiber-Optic Connectors

Connector Type Description
Straight-Tip (ST) Connectors One of the first connector types used. Locks securely with a "twist-on/twist-off" mechanism.
Subscriber Connector (SC) Connectors Referred to as a square or standard connector. Uses a push-pull mechanism for positive insertion and is used with multimode and single-mode fiber.
Lucent Connector (LC) Simplex Connectors A smaller version of the SC connector, popular due to its size.
Duplex Multimode LC Connectors Similar to the LC connector but uses a duplex connector.

Wireless Standards