WAN Cabling question

I have read all about the LAN topologies & cabling etc..

Now last night I read in my CCENT book about Fundamentals of WANS. And all it showed was Serial cables... IS that all WANS use for cabling is Serial Cables?

It didnt say one thing about Fiber Optics or anything else. (I guess fiber optics is for LANS, CANS (Campus Area Networks) & MANS (Metro Area Networks)

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mikem2te

DerekAustin26 wrote: »

I have read all about the LAN topologies & cabling etc..

Now last night I read in my CCENT book about Fundamentals of WANS. And all it showed was Serial cables... IS that all WANS use for cabling is Serial Cables?

It didnt say one thing about Fiber Optics or anything else. (I guess fiber optics is for LANS, CANS (Campus Area Networks) & MANS (Metro Area Networks)

WAN links can be made on just about all types of cables - it depends on the service providers infrastructure. Traditionally though they were mostly serial (Frame relay / leased lines).

Other technologies are now probably more common or will be soon such as VPNs over the internet, MPLS etc. In my last place of work we had a microwave wireless link between two sites - don't now how it worked, the service provider just installed an ethernet jack in both buildings.

johnwest43

Thats the old school way when you had a separate CSU. Most T-1's today have an integrated CSU so the preferred cabling is cat5.

mikem2te

johnwest43 wrote: »

Thats the old school way when you had a separate CSU. Most T-1's today have an integrated CSU so the preferred cabling is cat5.

True. Although while the cabling between the socket on the wall and the router is CAT5, it is still a serial connection.

I know some providers get a bit grumpy if you remove their CSU, some consider the demarc to be the customer side of the CSU, if you take the CSU out and plug the cable directly into the router there can be issues with support from the provider if the connection has problems.

notgoing2fail

This goes back to a post I made recently on another site about the technical definition of a WAN connection.

Your linksys has a WAN port. But one can argue if it's really a true WAN port because it's just an ethernet port that connects to your ISP's modem. I think times are changing now on what the technical definition of WAN port is....

hermeszdata

notgoing2fail wrote: »

This goes back to a post I made recently on another site about the technical definition of a WAN connection.

Your linksys has a WAN port. But one can argue if it's really a true WAN port because it's just an ethernet port that connects to your ISP's modem. I think times are changing now on what the technical definition of WAN port is....

Regardless of the type of connection, if that connection is to a wider area than your home, office, branch office, it is a WAN!

However, for CCNA scope, it is limited to serial types of connections.

notgoing2fail

hermeszdata wrote: »

Regardless of the type of connection, it that connection is to a wider area than your home, office, branch office, it is a WAN!

However, for CCNA scope, it is limited to serial types of connections.

Agreed. One shouldn't get too deep into this concept. It's just an idea I was tossing around on another site. For the scope of the CCNA, keep it with serial...

rage_hog

Serial is a tx/rx method not a cable. A Cisco serial link just means a dedicated line between router A and router B. If there were more than one signal on a WAN link it would involve frequency multiplexing such as a satillite or microwave link. That is a whole different class of router. I have seen sat routers that have liquid coolled CPU's running at 24 Ghz

notgoing2fail

rage_hog wrote: »

I have seen sat routers that have liquid coolled CPU's running at 24 Ghz

I WANT TO SEE ONE OF THOSE!!!

gecco

Derek,
When referring to what used to be "traditional" WAN...serial cables were all that was available, as we connected routers serial ports..aka "s0" "s0/0" etc, to a device that would terminated a serial line such as a T1 or DDS line. This is physical layer only, and used be synonymous with WAN.

Now, in real life, the definition of WAN has broadened widely (no pun intended) with the use of Metro Ethernet, broadband, satellite, MPLS, and traditional site-to-site VPNs.

So, from a CCNA perspective, when a WAN cable is referred to, it is typically talking about a serial cable, such as DB60 to something cable (DB60 is the serial interface on most Cisco routers), even though in practice today's "WAN" cable can be a CAT5/6, Fiber Cable, or other.

I hope this helps!