Commercial cable televisions are no more a luxury but are now part of our daily life, they bring us news, entertainment, and much more. With the increase of program options, the cable system of bandwidth has also increased. The cables that enable the transmission of these broadcasts are the same one used to establish broadband internet connections. They are called as coaxial cables and were designed to replace twisted pair cables that were previously used in for telephonic transmissions. Coaxial cables are designed to meet the increasing demand for high-frequency transmission and a wide range of bandwidth. To understand the working of a coaxial cable in regards to cable television signal transmission it is essential to understand the way coaxial cables are designed. The materials and structure of those materials used during the designing of coaxial cables greatly impact performance, flexibility, strength, and cost.
Design of Coaxial Cables
The term Coaxial refers to the design of the cable in which the inner tubular conductor and external insulating shield wrapped around it share the same geometric axis. This shared axis ensure minimum interference and loss of signal. The conductor used in the coaxial cables could be a solid copper, standard copper or copper-plated steel. The conductor is wrapped by an insulating layer which is further covered by a metallic shield to prevent interference. This structure is protected by an external insulating jacket. Conventionally, these cables have braided copper wire as a shield, which allows or more flexibility. The number of layers of shields impacts the amount of interference and number of channels and frequencies a particular cable can carry without interference and loss. This makes coaxial cables a good candidate for transmitting week signals and a large number of the channels.
Connectors
Usually, some connectors are installed at the end of a coaxial cable which helps to fix it on the television. The connectors are made from high conductivity materials to ensure that signal strength is not lost through them.
Advantages and Application
Coaxial cables are transmission wires designed to carry high-frequency electric signals for longer distances with less loss or interference. Coaxial cables have less interference and loss of signal than twisted pair and are more durable and flexible. Although fiber optics perform better than them, they are significantly more expensive and less durable. Coaxial cables are used in cable television connections and broadband internet connections.
