If we complete deep comparison of STP and UTP in the characteristics that both of them are sharing, we might find many similarities.
Both types of cable are able to transmit data with great speeds of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps. Throughput can be affected by the cable grade and method used for data transmission.
RJ-45 is being used for both STP and UTP. It is a modular connector and data jack, that look very similar with RJ-11 phone connector. Figure 1 is showing comparison between RJ-11 and RJ-45. Note that all Ethernet networks with twisted pair cabling are using RJ-45.
Maximum length of the STP segment is exactly the same as the maximum length of the UTP – 100 m (328 feet). It is true for the Ethernet with data rate from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Maximum amount of nodes is 1024.
However, due to the different manufacturing processes, there are some tremendous differences between STP and UTP, mainly in cost and noise immunity.
STP is containing greater amount of materials than UTP, having more difficult manufacturing process and installation is more expensive due to required grounding . Depending on the type of UTP, its cost may increase when more features are added.
Shielding in STP is giving its main benefit over UTP – greater noise resistance. Alternatively, UTP can accommodate filtering techniques and balancing that can reduce noise.
