Category 6 Cable Article Index for
Category
Website Links For
Category
 

Information About

Category 6 Cable




The cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards, although each twisted pair is made up of slightly larger 23 Gauge copper wire as opposed to Cat 5's 24 gauge wire. When used as a patch cable, Cat-6 is normally terminated in RJ-45 electrical connectors. If components of the various cable standards are intermixed, the performance of the signal path will be limited to that of the lowest category. As with all cables defined by TIA/EIA-568-B, the maximum allowed length of a Cat-6 horizontal cable is 90 m. A complete channel (horizontal cable plus cords on either end) is allowed to be up to 100 m in length, depending upon the ratio of cord length:horizontal cable length.


OTHER CATEGORIES OF NETWORK CABLES

  • Cat 1 : Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Previously used for POTS telephone communications, ISDN and doorbell wiring.

  • Cat 2 : Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Previously was frequently used on 4Mbit/s token ring networks.

  • Cat 3 : Current cable standard, used for data networks utilizing frequencies up to 16 MHz. Popular for 10 Mbit/s Ethernet networks.

  • Cat 4 : Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Provided performance of up to 20 MHz, and was frequently used on 16Mbit/s token ring networks.

  • Cat 5 : Currently unrecognized by TIA/EIA. Provided performance of up to 100 MHz, and was frequently used on 100Mbit/s ethernet networks. Suitable for 1000BASE-T gigabit ethernet.

  • Cat 5e : Provides performance of up to 125 MHz, and is frequently used for 1000BASE-T gigabit ethernet.

  • Cat 7 : Draft standard, proposed to include four individually-shielded pairs (ScTP) inside an overall shield. Designed for transmission at frequencies up to 650 MHz.




EXTERNAL LINKS