Editing 10BASE5 (section)

{{Short description|First commercially available variant of Ethernet}}
{{use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2020}}

[[Image:ThicknetTransceiver.jpg|thumb|10BASE5 [[vampire tap]] [[Medium Attachment Unit]] (transceiver)]]
[[Image:10Base5transcievers.jpg|thumb|10BASE5 transceivers, cables, and tapping tool]]

'''10BASE5''' (also known as '''thick Ethernet''' or '''thicknet''') was the first commercially available variant of [[Ethernet]]. The technology was standardized in 1982<ref name=VonBurg2003>{{cite journal |last=von Burg |first=Urs |last2=Kenney |first2=Martin |title=Sponsors, Communities, and Standards: Ethernet vs. Token Ring in the Local Area Networking Business |journal=Industry & Innovation |date=December 2003 |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=351–375 |doi=10.1080/1366271032000163621 |url=http://hcd.ucdavis.edu/faculty/webpages/kenney/articles_files/Sponsors,%20Communities,%20and%20Standards:%20Ethernet%20vs.%20Token%20Ring%20in%20the%20Local%20Area%20Networking%20Business.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111206202221/http://hcd.ucdavis.edu/faculty/webpages/kenney/articles_files/Sponsors,%20Communities,%20and%20Standards:%20Ethernet%20vs.%20Token%20Ring%20in%20the%20Local%20Area%20Networking%20Business.pdf |archive-date=December 6, 2011 |url-status=dead |access-date=17 February 2014 |df=mdy }}</ref> as [[IEEE 802.3]]. 10BASE5 uses a thick and stiff coaxial cable<ref name="Belden9880">{{cite web |last1=Belden |title=Product 9880 |url=https://catalog.belden.com/techdata/EN/9880_techdata.pdf |website=catalog.belden.com |publisher=Belden |access-date=8 April 2023}}</ref> up to {{convert|500|m|sp=us}} in length. Up to 100 stations can be connected to the cable using [[vampire tap]]s and share a single [[collision domain]] with 10&nbsp;[[megabit per second|Mbit/s]] of [[Bandwidth (computing)|bandwidth]] shared among them. The system is difficult to install and maintain.

10BASE5 was superseded by much cheaper and more convenient alternatives: first by [[10BASE2]] based on a thinner coaxial cable (1985), and then, once [[Ethernet over twisted pair]] was developed, by [[10BASE-T]] (1990) and its successors [[100BASE-TX]] and [[1000BASE-T]]. In 2003, the IEEE 802.3 working group [[deprecated]] 10BASE5 for new installations.<ref>IEEE 802.3-2005 ''8. Medium attachment unit and baseband medium specifications, type 10BASE5''</ref>