A twisted pair consists of two conductors (normally copper), each with its own plastic insulation twisted together.
- One of the wire is used to carry signals to a receiver, and the other is used only as a ground reference. The receiver uses the difference between the two.
- In addition to the signal sent by the sender on one of the wire, interference (noise) and crosstalk may affect both wires and create unwanted signals.
- If the two-wire are parallel, the effect of these unwanted signals is not the same on both wires because they are at different locations relative to the noise or crosstalk resources. This results in a difference at the receiver. By twisting the pairs, a balance is maintained and will reduce the effect of noise or external interference.
Advantages:
- Easy to implement and terminate.
- It can be used to carry both analog as well as digital data.
- Less expensive for short distances.
Disadvantages:
- Attenuation is high.
- Very poor security.
- Supports only lower bandwidth.