10BASE5

10BASE5
7.1.2 This page will discuss the original 1980 Ethernet product, which is 10BASE5. 10BASE5 transmitted 10 Mbps over a single think coaxial cable bus.


10BASE5 is important because it was the first medium used for Ethernet. 10BASE5 was part of the original 802.3 standard. The primary benefit of 10BASE5 was length. 10BASE5 may be found in legacy installations. It is not recommended for new installations. 10BASE5 systems are inexpensive and require no configuration. Two disadvantages are that basic components like NICs are very difficult to find and it is sensitive to signal reflections on the cable. 10BASE5 systems also represent a single point of failure.

10BASE5 uses Manchester encoding. It has a solid central conductor. Each segment of thick coax may be up to 500 m (1640.4 ft) in length. The cable is large, heavy, and difficult to install. However, the distance limitations were favorable and this prolonged its use in certain applications.

When the medium is a single coaxial cable, only one station can transmit at a time or a collision will occur. Therefore, 10BASE5 only runs in half-duplex with a maximum transmission rate of 10 Mbps.

Figure illustrates a configuration for an end-to-end collision domain with the maximum number of segments and repeaters. Remember that only three segments can have stations connected to them. The other two repeated segments are used to extend the network.

The next page will discuss 10BASE2.