Cat6 Cable Speed

As a means of future proofing your network cat6 is generally a better choice and worth the small premium in price.

Cat6 cable speed. It s theoretical top speed is 10 gbps over 100 meters. The category 6 augmented cable standard or cat 6a was created to further improve the performance of cat 6 ethernet cables using cat 6a enables 10 gigabit ethernet data rates over a single cable run up to 328 feet. When used for gigabit ethernet and below the maximum allowable cable length is 100 meters. Beyond the speed distance factor cat 6 has a tighter twist in the cables which allows for two way communication on each pair of wires where cat 5e does not allow this feature.

It s also compatible with both cat5 and cat5e cables. Just because you have cat 6 cable doesn t mean you have 1 gb network speeds either. Cat6 cables also called category 6 or cat 6 cables provide lower crosstalk a higher signal to noise ratio and are suitable for 10gbase t 10 gigabit ethernet while cat5e cables support only up to 1000base t gigabit ethernet. Every connection in your network needs to support the 1 gb speed and in some cases the connection will need to be told in software to use the available speed.

However if you ve ever shopped at an electronics store you may have encountered some terms that aren t very familiar such as cat5 cat5e and cat6. The cost is about 20 35 higher than cat6 but the maximum cable length is 100 meters across all systems and conditions for gigabit ethernet. We have noticed that in certifying our cable installations cat 5e cable has a tendency to have a higher delay and skew than cat 6 cable. Category 5 cable was revised and mostly replaced with category 5 enhanced.

The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e. Your daily dose of fiber infographic a cat6 cable is used mainly for computer networks reaching a gb 1000 mbps or one gbps of data transfer speed dtr or higher. Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than cat 5 and cat 5e. While cat6 cable supports 37 55 meters depending on crosstalk when transmitting at a speed of 10 gbps.

It consists of four pairs of copper wire which supports up to 10 gbps of ethernet connection. When connecting to your broadband service one of the most important cables that you can have is your ethernet cable which allows these high speed transmissions to reach your computer. Cat5e and cat6 cables are both backwards. For 10gbase t speeds the maximum cable length is 55 meters.

Cat6e or enhanced cat6. A cat6 cable has a bandwidth capacity of 250 mhz for example and it offers you speeds of up to 10 gbps. Normally it supports a maximum transmission speed up to 1 gbps within 100m. The one major caveat of cat6 cables is that installation can be tricky as compatibility with 8p8c requires the use of special adapter pieces for optimal performance.