View Source: 10Base2 - Waikato Linux Users Group

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10Base2 is a co-axial bus-based physical cabling for Ethernet.  In the OSI seven layer model, this is LAYER 1 - PHYSICAL.

10base2 follows the following naming structure: Speed in Megabits/second, followed by the term 'base', to signify baseband transmission, and some other qualifier
dependant upon the technology. In this case, the 2 refers to the maximum distance allowed in this protocol - about 200 Metres (185 or so, in fact). 10base5 is the only other similar technology which uses the same nomenclature - and it allows up to about 500 Metres.

Other names for [10Base2] include thin net, cheapernet, curtainwire and coax.

There are two general styles for [10Base2] cabling.  The common style involves the use of one tee connector per station, with coaxial cable joining to each station in series.  At the end of each bus there is a 50 ohm connector across the core/shield which is commonly referred to as a TERMINATOR.  Because this is a bus system, any fault in the wire will affect all stations.

The other variant of 10base2 is made by [AMP] and offers the ability to add and remove a station without interfering with the rest of the bus.  This method uses a short (under 1 metre) flylead with an unnamed push-in connector to a wall plate, essentially taking the place of a tee connector.

Regardless, 10base2 uses [BNC] connectors almost exclusively for connecting to stations, terminators and other equipment.

10base2 can be used on the same network as [10BaseT] or [100BaseT].  Because 10base2 is at the physical layer, a hub or media converter is required to change the layer two (logical) to a new layer one (physical)  Hence one may have a hub with [100BaseT] to your flash new machines, and a [10Base2] segment for older items like an Xterminal.

10base2 is not recommended for use nowdays - [10BaseT]/[100BaseT] hubs are cheap and UnshieldedTwistedPair ([AKA] [UTP]) cable is not expensive either.  However [10Base2] is very cheap (read that as "don't expect to pay anything for cable cos most places are throwing it out")

A [10Base2] segment is limited to a total length of 185 metres from terminator to terminator.  You can have up to 100 stations with a minimum of 1 metre between stations, however the performance will degrade with additional stations.

See also:
* [10BaseT]
* [100BaseT]
* [BNC]
* [Ethernet]
* [OSIModel]
6 pages link to 10Base2:
Last edited on Sunday, March 7, 2004 10:33:51 pm by StuartYeates
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