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There are two schemes, one being TA and the other being TB. From a practical standpoint, they perform and function identically in a modern data network.
Just be sure you are using the same color scheme at both ends of your cable and you will stay out of trouble. Fifteen years ago I might have given you a different answer, but things change. TA and TB are the termination standards used by Internet backbone infrastructure, Internet providers and all the way down to homeowners or businesses.
The only real difference between these two pin-to-pair assignments are the green and orange pairs. These two sets are swapped in the cable. There is misinformation out there on this topic, fortunately most of it benign. The culprit is often out of date information.
There are rare instances like US government contractual requirements when TA may be specifically called out for use. Unless you have a customer dictating which one to use, then it comes down to personal preference. However, the standards have changed over time and this takes some by surprise, leading to confusion and misinformation. It also leads to lively debates! In reality, just how many people are using this old equipment any longer?
I personally switched over to cell phones in and have not looked back. This was to maintain backward compatibility with older equipment like in the residential space fax machines, etc. There is a warning in the commercial standard about making certain that both ends of the cable are terminated to the same scheme. In other words, pick one and stick with it. This change is small and definitely not larger than what is produced by using cable brands in-channel interchangeably or together.
Here is a short guide on when and where you should choose either TB or TA: If you are installing in a residential setting, use TA, except when other situations apply. If elements that have been used within the project are set up using TA or TB, repeat the same wiring. I will once again reiterate that usually, TA and TB should not be used together or interchangeably. Chris Lee. Chris Lee has an extensive background in preconstruction management as a former specialty contractor and business owner.
Subscribe to our newsletter Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team. Company About Blog Privacy Policy. Facebook YouTube Twitter. All Rights Reserved. Request a Demo. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Even professionals that install Ethernet networks for a living, often get confused between TA and TB.
This is not exhaustive, but should help cut through all the confusion and guide you in understanding which to choose or sorting out what may already be installed in your home or office. Terminating an Ethernet wire requires lining up the eight 8 individual internal wires in a row and inserting them into the connector in a pre-determined order.
If you think about it for a while, this is actually a reasonable solution. If you wire both ends the same way, the order may not matter. As long as the signals in wires 1 to 8 are connected to the same signals in wires 1 to 8 of the next device or cable, the internal order of the wires in the connector might not matter.
This is actually the case with the Ethernet cables you buy in retail store or online from an eCommerce website. Just plug in that Lutron Caseta bridge to your home router, or plug your desktop PC Ethernet port into your Ethernet switch nearby and you are set to go. Technical aside: In the early days of Ethernet one did have to worry about straight through or cross-over Ethernet cables.
The former were used to connect devices to a switch and the latter used for direct device to device connections. Fortunately, all Ethernet equipment now has hardware based self-configuring connections that magically configure either way as needed. Unfortunately, it is not that simple as ignoring the wire ordering inside Ethernet cables in modern Ethernet wiring for house-wide or system-wide installations.
First, with electronic signals, transmitting them down tiny thin wires of copper is actually an astounding feat of electromagnetic physics. Real world issues of interference other signals or background radiation can corrupt the signals along with other esoteric problems such as induced noise, near-end crosstalk, far-end crosstalk, and other effects that are just as inscrutable to most of us.
Kind of like a tug of war — the cable is unshielded bad for protection from interference so pairs of wires are loosely twisted together good to provide some protection. If you really want to get deep into it, there is a whole discussion of how many twists per foot, and which pairs of wires in the eight-wire cable should be twisted together which is completely complementary to the topic today of what order to use for the individual wires themselves.
Second, that bugaboo of modern products and systems we all face sooner or later — backward compatibility, or the lack thereof with older wiring — specifically telephone wires. TA and TB are two different standardized ways of ordering the individual wires inside an Ethernet cable.
TA is designed for backward compatibility with older telephone wires; TB is designed for better signal isolation and noise protection for newer networking systems and products.
So the choice was supposed to be simple — if you need backward compatibility, use TA, if you want maximum future expansion to higher speeds and newer equipment, use TB. Rapidly becoming extinct, the traditional telephones used in residences use two copper wires.
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