Question

XYZ Corp.’s facilities in Nashua, New Hampshire, are two office buildings 400 feet apart, each with its own LAN. To connect the two networks, you plan to dig a trench and lay cable in conduit between the two buildings. You want to use fiber-optic cable, but your budget-conscious facilities manager wants to use 100 Mbps Ethernet over twisted-pair cable. Which of the following reasons can you use to justify fiber-optic cable in this case, and why?

a: Twisted pair won't span a 400-foot distance ·
b: Fiber-optic cable is cheaper and easier to work with than twisted pair
c: Twisted pair is a conductive cable and can, therefore, carry current based on the difference in ground potential between the two buildings.
d: Fiber-optic cable leaves more room for growth and future needs for · increased bandwidth than twisted pair does

Answer 1

a: Twisted pair won't span a 400-foot distance.

Step-by-step explanation:

The maximum distance that twisted pair cables can support without attenuation is 100 meters which is approximately 328 feet and the two office buildings are 400 feet apart, so it is useless to install a twisted pair cable for such a large distance. A much better option would be to install optic fiber. Though it is a bit expensive but it is the best option in this case.

Hence option (a) is the correct reason for installing an optic fiber cable rather than a twisted pair cable.