10BASE-T

10BASE-T is an implementation of Ethernet which allows stations to be attached via twisted pair cable. The name 10BASE-T is derived from several aspects of the physical medium. The 10 refers to the transmission speed of 10 Mbps. The BASE comes from the term baseband, which means only Ethernet signals are transmitted on the medium. The T comes from twisted pair, which is the type of cable that is used.

10BASE-T uses the second and third pairs (orange and green) of the TIA-568B wiring standard.

10BASE-T was the first vendor-independent standard implementation of Ethernet on twisted pair wiring. However, it was in fact an evolutionary development from AT&T StarLAN which had both 1Mbps and 10Mbps versions. 10BASE-T is essentially StarLAN-10 with the addition of the link-beat.

In the OSI model, 10BASE-T is at the physical layer. Ethernet encompasses both addressing at the data link layer and a number of physical-layer implementations. In this model, 10BASE-T is one of the possible physical layer standards for ethernet-- some others include 10BASE2, 10BASE5, and 100BASE-TX. Network layer protocols, such as IP, do not generally need to know whether they are being hosted on 10BASE-T or not, provided they know that they are being hosted on Ethernet.

See also:

• Computer network
• Ethernet