Cat 5e

A technician wants to physically connect two office buildings' networks.

The office buildings are located 600ft (183m) apart.

Which of the following cable types is the BEST choice?

A.

Cat 5e

B.

Cat 6a

C.

Multimode

D.

Coaxial.

C.

Option C, Multimode, is the best choice for physically connecting two office buildings' networks that are 600ft (183m) apart.

Multimode fiber optic cable is designed for short-range transmission, making it the ideal choice for connecting two buildings. It uses multiple modes (pathways of light) to transmit data and has a larger core diameter than single-mode fiber optic cable, which makes it more tolerant of misalignments and imperfections in the connection. This allows the signal to travel over longer distances without experiencing significant loss of quality.

In contrast, copper-based cables such as Cat 5e and Cat 6a have distance limitations of around 328ft (100m) before signal degradation occurs. Even if a repeater or amplifier is used, the distance between the buildings is still too great for copper-based cables to reliably transmit data without significant degradation.

Coaxial cable is typically used for cable television and has lower bandwidth capabilities compared to fiber optic cables, making it a poor choice for high-speed data transfer over long distances.

In conclusion, multimode fiber optic cable is the best choice for physically connecting two office buildings' networks that are 600ft (183m) apart, as it is designed for short-range transmission and has the ability to transmit data over longer distances without experiencing significant loss of quality.