Various standards organizations have contributed to the definition of the physical, electrical, and mechanical properties of the media available for different data communications. These specifications guarantee that cables and connectors will function as anticipated with different data link layer implementations.
Hardware components such as network adapters (NICs), interfaces and connectors, cable materials, and cable designs are all specified in standards associated with the physical layer. The various ports and interfaces on a Cisco 1941 router are highlighted in the figure. Each connector has specific connectors and pinouts resulting from standards.
As an example, standards for copper media are defined for the:
- Type of copper cabling used
- Bandwidth of the communication
- Type of connectors used
- Pinout and color codes of connections to the media
- Maximum distance of the media
The figure shows different types of interfaces and ports available on a 1941 router.