Patent ID: 7331816

Claim:
A bidirectional coupling for data transmission between two frame-based network devices, the coupling comprising: a cable; and a first cable connector coupled to a first end of the cable and a second cable connector coupled to a second end of the cable, the cable connectors each configured for coupling to a network device; wherein the cable includes wires, the wires including at least two differential pairs of wires, each differential pair of wires comprising at least two wires, wires in a first one of the differential pairs providing a transmission path between the network devices and wires in a second one of the differential pairs providing a reverse transmission path between the network devices; wherein each of the cable connectors includes a plurality of conductive pins each electrically coupled to a corresponding wire of the wires, the pins being arranged along a first row and a second row, the second row parallel to the first row; and wherein at least two wires in each of the differential pairs are coupled to two adjacent pins along one of the first row or the second row.