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 Mbit/s. 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:

RJ-45 Wiring (EIA/TIA-568B)

Pin	Pair	Wire	Color
1	2	1	white/orange
2	2	2	orange/white
3	3	1	white/green
4	1	2	blue/white
5	1	1	white/blue
6	3	2	green/white
7	4	1	white/brown
8	4	2	brown/white

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 1 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s 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, RJ-45, 25 pair color code