PuNch DoWn ToOL

A punch down tool, also called a punchdown tool or a Krone tool (after wiring systems manufacturer ADC Krone), is a small screw-driver sized tool used for connecting wiring to a punch down block. The tool consists of a handle with a spring mechanism inside and at the tip a small square piece of metal with a square hole in it. To use the punch down tool, a wire is inserted in between the two metal blades on a punch down block and the punch down tool is pressed down on top of the wire and the two blades on the punch down block. This requires a bit of pressure until with an audible snap the wire is stripped and contact made as it is pushed down between the two punch down block blades.

PatcH PanEL

A patch panel or patch bay is a panel, typically rackmounted, that houses cable connections. One typically shorter patch cable will plug into the front side, while the back will hold the connection of a much longer and more permanent cable. The assembly of hardware is arranged so that a number of circuits, usually of the same or similar type, appear on jacks for monitoring, interconnecting, and testing circuits in a convenient, flexible manner.

CSMA/CD versus CSMA/CA

CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection) is a type of contention protocol. Networks using the CSMA/CD procedure are simple to implement but do not have deterministic transmission characteristics. The CSMA/CD method is internationally standardized in IEEE 802.3 and ISO 8802.3.

CSMA/CA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Avoidance), a network contention protocol that listens to a network in order to avoid collisions, unlike CSMA/CD that deals with network transmissions once collisions have been detected. CSMA/CA contributes to network traffic because, before any real data is transmitted, it has to broadcast a signal onto the network in order to listen for collision scenarios and to tell other devices not to broadcast.