On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 06:00:35PM -0400, Timothy Miller wrote:
> On 5/12/06, Jack Carroll <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> >> OTOH, if you use flat cat 5 phone wire and standard RJs, if you break a
> >> connector, just cut it off and attach a new one like I do with my phone
> >> wires.
> >
> > While you're setting levels, and the show starts in 3 minutes...
>
> Did someone mention coax like the cable company uses to connect to your TV?
>
> Isn't that stuff cheap and a bit heartier?
Depending on what size, sure. The standard types aren't meant to be
walked on, though, and the standard coax connectors can get their coupling
rings bent if they're banged hard enough. Some of the crimp designs have
reasonable good strain relief.
While existing coax Ethernet interfaces are set to 10 Mb/S, even
small-diameter coax would have no trouble carrying 100 Mb/S data for 100
meters or so without unacceptable distortion. 1 Gb/S might be pushing it,
unless we go to more sophisticated modulation schemes that trade off
signal-to-noise ratio for data rate. QAM could transmit 10 bits per symbol
without too much trouble. The only other problem is, mechanical
mistreatment causes local impedance anomalies, which cause reflections, and
that could cause bit errors unless adaptive equalization is used. Of
course, that would probably exceed the capabilities of off-the-shelf
Ethernet silicon, so the network interface would end up looking something
like OGA. Large-diameter coax, on the other hand, is stiff and heavy,
besides being more expensive.
It would certainly be possible to spec a custom stage-duty coax with
a tough jacket and heavy cushioning to withstand being walked on. Armored
RG-58 might work; I think I once saw that in a catalog. The guts of a
standard connector could also be put into an armored shell something like an
XLR.
On the other hand, if we have to specially beef something up, it
might be just as well nowadays to go straight to fiber.
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