| With increasing requirements for transfers of | | | | crosstalk (NEXT), better insertion loss, return loss |
| large volumes of data, a number of businesses | | | | lead to a high signal-to-noise ratio. Hence with |
| are shifting to the Category 6 cable which | | | | greater immunity from external noise and |
| incidentally is the sixth generation cabling standard | | | | improved transmission performance a system |
| for Gigabit Ethernet. It retains compatibility with | | | | using Cat 6 cable will be prone to fewer errors as |
| the earlier standards like Cat 3 and Cat 5/5e. This | | | | compare to Cat5e. Thus it provides greater |
| standard is defined by EIA/TIA - Electronic | | | | reliability for current applications (with fewer |
| Industries Association and Telecommunications | | | | re-transmissions of lost data) and high data rates |
| Industry Association. It provides more stringent | | | | for applications of the future. It is expected to |
| specifications for system noise and crosstalk. Cat | | | | support 10 gigabit Ethernet standards, with some |
| 6 cable can handle frequencies of up to 250 MHz. | | | | limitations on the acceptable length. It is |
| It is suited for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and | | | | recommended across short distances that run for |
| even 1000BASE-T (i.e Gigabit Ethernet). | | | | maximum 100 m in length. |
| The Cat 6 cables mainly have two variants. They | | | | If you are wondering which cable you should use |
| either have a stranded or a solid core. Stranded | | | | for your network, Cat6 is a good choice even |
| cables are flexible and suitable for short distances | | | | though they are expensive. Cables usually last for |
| For example for temporary or movable cabling. | | | | around 10 years and support 4-5 generation of |
| Solid cables can work with longer distances. For | | | | equipments in their lifetime. It would be too |
| example for fixed wiring configurations like office | | | | expensive to replace your Cat 5e cables inside |
| buildings. | | | | walls, under floors and other places if in future |
| It has a set of 4 twisted pair copper wires which | | | | you need better performance cables like Cat 6 to |
| are insulated by an outer jacket. These 24-gauge | | | | support higher data rates. |
| copper wires are similar to the previous network | | | | Hence it is always wise to invest a little more |
| cabling standards. The main difference between | | | | during installation than go through hassles in the |
| Cat 5/5e and Cat 6 is in terms of transmission | | | | future. In fact most of the new installations today |
| performance and extension of available bandwidth | | | | are cabled using Cat 6 cables. Also since Cat 6 is |
| from 100 MHZ to 200 Mhz. In comparison to Cat | | | | backward compatible with Cat 5e, it is easy to |
| 5/5e standards Cat 6 has a better performance, | | | | supersede Cat 5e in the current networks. All |
| as crosstalk and attenuation is significantly lower. | | | | applications that ran over Cat 5e can work on Cat |
| The improvements in Cat 6 in terms of near end | | | | 6 too. |