Comparison Between UTP And STP

As one type of cable, Twisted Pair (TP) has enjoyed a great reputation in telecommunication for many years. But what is it? Twisted pair is a transmission medium which is most commonly used to connect home and many business computers to the telephone company. “Twisted pair” is named for the cable inside which two insulated copper wires are twisted together, and each connection on twisted pair requires both wires. With this inner structure, crosstalk or electromagnetic induction between pairs of wires can be reduced. It can also help to reduce noise pickup from outside sources. These advantages are particularly valuable in wide bandwidth and high fidelity system. Based on different applied technologies, twisted pair cable can generally divided into two types—UTP and STP. The detail information about them and the major differences between them will be fully covered in this article.

What Is Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)?

UTP is short for Unshielded Twisted Pair, which is used for connections within short range. Most people choose it for home networking. The name just implies UTP cable has no protective coating and no shielding. There is an insulating material that enrobes each of the eight (or relevant strand count) copper wires contained within the cable. UTP has been highly favored by most people all the time for its fast transmission speed and lower costs compared to optical fiber and coaxial cable. The categories of UTP have been developed from Category 1 to Category 7. They are different in number of using pairs of wires, transmission rate, and implementation. In recent years, Category 5, 6 and 7 become increasing popular for some new emerging applications. Among them, Category 5 is of popularity due to its widely supporting operations and reasonable price.

Information About Shield Twisted Pair (STP)

Shield Twisted Pair (STP) is mainly used for most business locations. In most occasions, the twisted pair is enclosed in a shield that functions as a ground. In an STP cable, cable pairs are shielded by a metallic substance, and then all four pairs (eight-strand cable) are wrapped in yet another metallic protector. Three techniques—shielding, cancellation and wire twisting have been applied to prevent interference. The protective layer could protect this kind of cable free from crosstalk and increase the cable’s fidelity. But there is one shortcoming that great attention should be paid to when installing the cable or installation faults may frequently occur. Most applications for this cable are between equipment, racks and buildings.

Here is a figure for you to have a better understanding of the inner structures of UTP cable and STP cable.

UTP VS. STP

• Technology—STP is shield while UTP is unshield. The shield technique could enhance the the confidentiality of STP. Thus, STP has a higher fidelity than UTP.
• Transmission speed—UTP is faster than STP based on the same type of copper wires on data transferring.
• Applications—UTP is widely used for data transmission within short distance, and is very popular for home networking connecting. STP is mainly applicable to connections among enterprises over longer distance.
• Cost—It is universally acknowledged that UTP has a nice price. The cost of STP is much higher than UTP.

Summary

According to this passage, we figure out that the differences between STP and UTP lie in technique, transmission speed, cost and applications. And UTP is more common in our daily life.