10base5

10base5

(networking)An Ethernet network cabling specificationoperating at ten Mbps, "baseband" (as opposed to radio frequency), and with a maximum single cable length of 500metres. This is normally carried on RG8 cable.

Compare 10base2, 10baseT.

10Base5

The original IEEE 10 Mbps Ethernet standard which used a bus topology comprising a thick coaxial cable. Network nodes attached via an "AUI interface" to transceivers that tapped into the bus. Also called "thick Ethernet," "ThickWire" and "ThickNet," 10Base5 had a distance limit of 1,640 feet without repeaters. See 10Base2, 10Base-T, Ethernet and CSMA/CD.

10Base5 "Thick" Ethernet
The first Ethernet used a bus topology, which was a common coaxial cable that ran by every node. Transceivers, which connected to the nodes via 15-pin AUI sockets, typically used a "vampire" tap to "bite" into the coax bus.