CAT5e, CAT6 or CAT6a? What is the difference?
Common Features of CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT6a
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CAT5a, CAT6 and CAT6a are all types of UTP (unshielded twisted pair) cables, which means that they all utilise 4 twisted pairs within a common jacket. Ultimately they also use the same RJ45 plugs and jacks and are all limited to a cable length of no more than 100 metres (this includes patch cables on either end of the link). While the parts are compatible; a CAT5e patch cable can be used with CAT6 or CAT6a housing cable the system will only perform to the lowest link, in this case the CAT5e patch cable.
The differences between CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a? |
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The first and most notable difference is that of price CAT6 costs approximately 30% more than CAT5e and CAT6a ccosts about 30% more than CAT6.
With each upgrade of cable (CAT5e being the lowest grade) there is better transmission performance, less signal loss, less interference and a larger frequency bandwidth when performance expectations.have been defined.
In reality the network speed is defined principally by the electronic transmission equipment such as the the network switch. A network switch will assign the fastest link it can manage, in increments of 10Mbit/s, 100Mbit/s, 1Gbit/s, or even 10Gbit/s.
For example a switch or NIC card will start off trying for the best speed it is rated for, this is usually either 100Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s. If the other end, and the cable can't handle that speed, it will drop down to the next level. So if you install a Gigabit switch, and have Gigabit NIC cards in your PCs, then you'll get Gigabit speeds so long as your cable supports that.
The following shows the rating of each cable:
With each upgrade of cable (CAT5e being the lowest grade) there is better transmission performance, less signal loss, less interference and a larger frequency bandwidth when performance expectations.have been defined.
In reality the network speed is defined principally by the electronic transmission equipment such as the the network switch. A network switch will assign the fastest link it can manage, in increments of 10Mbit/s, 100Mbit/s, 1Gbit/s, or even 10Gbit/s.
For example a switch or NIC card will start off trying for the best speed it is rated for, this is usually either 100Mbit/s or 1Gbit/s. If the other end, and the cable can't handle that speed, it will drop down to the next level. So if you install a Gigabit switch, and have Gigabit NIC cards in your PCs, then you'll get Gigabit speeds so long as your cable supports that.
The following shows the rating of each cable:
CAT5e:100 Meg Ethernet up to 100 meters
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CAT6:1 Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 meters
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CAT6a10 Gigabit Ethernet up to 100 metres
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Fibre Optic
In the current business environment there are basically three options for connecting your network: copper wire, fibre optics and wireless technologies:
Fibre optics work very well in enterprise networks as a backbone infrastructure. Fibre offers exceptional performance for high-bandwidth applications, and is extremely reliable and secure. Fibre is not susceptible to many of the sources of interference that cause chaos with copper-based cabling systems. Using fibre is also considered to be more secure since it cannot be tapped unless you cut and splice the fibre strands-a task that is virtually impossible to accomplish without detection. If you need to connect a set of buildings within a corporate complex or academic campus, then fibre optics may be the best solution.
Fibre optics work very well in enterprise networks as a backbone infrastructure. Fibre offers exceptional performance for high-bandwidth applications, and is extremely reliable and secure. Fibre is not susceptible to many of the sources of interference that cause chaos with copper-based cabling systems. Using fibre is also considered to be more secure since it cannot be tapped unless you cut and splice the fibre strands-a task that is virtually impossible to accomplish without detection. If you need to connect a set of buildings within a corporate complex or academic campus, then fibre optics may be the best solution.
So which cable is best suited to your needs?
It is important to bear in mind that it is your networking equipment that defines the speed and that your cabling needs to be able to keep up. CAT5e will meet the performance needs of most of today's workstations.
