| If
we apply the 568A color code and show all eight wires, our pin-out
looks like this:

Note that
pins 4, 5, 7, and 8 and the blue and brown pairs are not used
in either standard. Quite contrary to what you may read
elsewhere, these pins and wires are not used or required to implement
100BASE-TX duplexing--they are just plain wasted.
However, the
actual cables are not physically that simple. In the diagrams,
the orange pair of wires are not adjacent. The blue pair
is upside-down. The right ends match RJ-45 jacks and the
left ends do not. If, for example, we invert the left side
of the 568A "straight"-thru cable to match a 568A jack--put
one 180° twist in the entire cable from end-to-end--and twist
together and rearrange the appropriate pairs, we get the following
can-of-worms:
This
further emphasizes, I hope, the importance of the word "twist"
in making network cables which will work. You cannot use
an flat-untwisted telephone cable for a network cable. Furthermore,
you must use a pair of twisted wires to connect a set of transmitter
pins to their corresponding receiver pins. You cannot use
a wire from one pair and another wire from a different pair.
Keeping
the above principles in mind, we can simplify the diagram for
a 568A straight-thru cable by untwisting the wires, except
the 180° twist in the entire cable, and bending the ends upward.
Likewise, if we exchange the green and orange pairs in the 568A
diagram we will get a simplified diagram for a 568B straight-thru
cable. If we cross the green and orange pairs in the 568A
diagram we will arrive at a simplified diagram for a crossover
cable. All three are shown below.
| 12345678
12345678 |
12345678
12345678 |
12345678
12345678 |
 |
| STRAIGHT-THRU
568A |
STRAIGHT-THRU
568B |
CROSSOVER
568A TO 568B |
[
Top | Contents
| Previous | Next
- Let's Make it Simple ] |