10BASET

10BASE-T is an Ethernet standard that defines 10 megabits per second baseband transmission over unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling. It is part of the IEEE 802.3 family and was standardized as 802.3i in 1990. The name encodes three properties: 10 for the speed, BASE for baseband signaling, and T for twisted-pair copper cabling.

Physical medium and topology: The standard uses unshielded twisted-pair cabling, typically Category 3 or better, with RJ-45 connectors. Endpoints connect to a central hub or switch in a star topology. The network originally operated in half-duplex mode and used CSMA/CD for media access.

Transmission and distance: The maximum length of a single cable run from device to hub/switch is 100 meters. To build larger networks, multiple hubs can be interconnected using repeaters, yielding a network diameter limited by the standard (around 500 meters in typical configurations).

Signal encoding and access: 10BASE-T uses Manchester encoding at 10 Mbps. It is a baseband signal and employs CSMA/CD to manage access to the shared medium in half-duplex operation.

Legacy and evolution: Introduced in the 1990 IEEE 802.3i standard, 10BASE-T helped popularize Ethernet over copper and switched networks to a star topology. It was widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has largely been superseded by 100BASE-TX (Fast Ethernet) and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet).