Standards and categories of ethernet cables

Standards and categories of ethernet cables

In the field of network communications, when it comes to Ethernet cables, the terms Ultra Category 5 ethernet cable, Category 6 ethernet cable and Category 7 ethernet cable are often mentioned. In recent years, Cat8 Category 8 ethernet cable has also begun to be more mentioned, the latest Cat8 Category 8 cable is the latest generation of double-shielded (SFTP) network patch cables, in which it two signal pairs, which can support a bandwidth of 2000MHz, and the transmission rate of up to 40Gb/s, but it is the maximum transmission distance is only 30m, so it is generally used in short-distance data centres for servers, switches, patch panels and other equipment.

There are five common types of ethernet cables on the market today: Cat5e cable, Cat6 cable, Cat6e cable, Cat7 cable and Cat7e cable.

■ Category 1 cable (CAT1): the maximum frequency bandwidth of the cable is 750kHZ, used for alarm systems, or only for voice transmission (Category 1 standards are mainly used for telephone cables before the early 1980s), unlike data transmission.

■ Category 2 cable (CAT2): the maximum frequency bandwidth of the cable is 1MHZ, used for voice transmission and data transmission at a maximum transmission rate of 4Mbps, commonly used in the old token network using the 4MBPS specification of the token passing protocol.  

■ Category 3 cable (CAT3): refers to the cable currently specified in the ANSI and EIA/TIA568 standards, which has a transmission frequency of 16MHz and a maximum transmission rate of 10Mbps (10Mbit/s), and is mainly used for voice, 10Mbit/s Ethernet (10BASE-T), and 4Mbit/s token ring, with a maximum segment length of 100m. Adopting RJ form factor connector, it is now fading out of the market.

■ Category 4 cable (CAT4): this type of cable has a transmission frequency of 20MHz and is used for voice transmission and data transmission at a maximum transmission rate of 16Mbps (referred to as 16Mbit/s token ring), mainly used for token-based LANs and 10BASE-T/100BASE-T, with a maximum segment length of 100m, and a connector in the form of an RJ, which has not been widely adopted.

■ Category 5 cable (CAT5): This type of cable increases the winding density, coat a high-quality insulation material, the maximum frequency bandwidth of the cable is 100MHz, the maximum transmission rate of 100Mbps, for voice transmission and the maximum transmission rate of 100Mbps data transmission, mainly used for the 100BASE-T, the maximum segment length of 100m, the use of RJ form of connector. This is the most commonly used Ethernet cable within the twisted pair cable, different pairs have different stranding lengths. Usually, 4 pairs of twisted-pair cables are twisted within a length of 38.1mm, twisted in an anti-clockwise direction, and a pair of pairs twisted within a length of 12.7mm.

■CAT5e: Category 5e has low attenuation, low crosstalk, and improved performance with higher attenuation to crosstalk ratio (ACR) and Structural Return Loss (SRL), and lower time-delay variance. Cat5e cables are mainly used for Gigabit Ethernet (1000Mbps).

■ Category 6 cable (CAT6): This type of cable transmits from 1MHz to 250MHz. Category 6 cabling systems should have a large margin for the combined attenuation crosstalk ratio (PS-ACR) at 200MHz, which provides two times the bandwidth of Cat5e. The transmission performance of Category 6 cabling is much higher than that of the Ultra Category 5 standard and is best suited for applications with transmission rates higher than 1Gbps. An important difference between Cat6 and Cat5e is the improved performance in terms of crosstalk as well as return loss, which is extremely important for the new generation of full-duplex, high-speed network applications. Category 6 standard cancellation of the basic link model, cabling standards using a star topology, the required cabling distance: the length of the permanent link can not exceed 90m, the channel length can not exceed 100m.

■ Super Category 6 (CAT6e): CAT6e is an improved version of Cat6, also an unshielded twisted-pair cable specified in ANSI/EIA/TIA-568B.2 and ISO Category 6/E standards, which is mainly used in Gigabit networks. In terms of transmission frequency and Cat6 cable, also 200 ~ 250 MHz, the maximum transmission speed can also reach 1000 Mbps, only in the crosstalk, attenuation and signal-to-noise ratio and other aspects of a greater improvement. Another feature is the addition of a cross-shaped pair separator between the four twisted pair. Without the cross, one pair of wires in the cable may be trapped in the gap between the two wires of the other pair, reducing the spacing between pairs and exacerbating the crosstalk problem. The divider also works with the cable jacket to hold the four pairs of wires tightly in their designed positions and mitigates the loosening of pairs caused by bending of the cable, thus reducing performance degradation during installation.

■ Category 7 (CAT7): This cable is the newest type of twisted pair in the ISO Cat7/F standard, which is primarily designed to accommodate the use and development of 10 Gigabit Ethernet technology. But it is no longer a kind of unshielded twisted-pair cable, but a kind of shielded twisted-pair cable, so it can provide at least 500MHZ comprehensive attenuation on the crosstalk ratio and 600M Hz of the overall bandwidth, is more than two times that of the Cat6 and Cat6e cable, the transmission rate of up to 10Gbps. in the Cat7 cable, each pair of wires have a shield, four pairs of wires together there is a common large shield. From the physical structure, the extra shield makes the Cat7 cable have a larger wire diameter. There is also an important difference in its ability to connect to the hardware, the parameters of the Cat7 system requires the connection header at 600MHZ when all pairs of wires to provide at least 60DB of integrated near-end winding. Whereas an Cat5e system is only required to provide 43DB at 100MHZ, Cat6 has a value of 46DB at 250M Hz.  

■ Category 8 cable (CAT8): the relevant standards for Cat8 network cables were officially released by the Communications Industry Association of America (TIA ) TR-43 committee in 2016, as follows:

1. Conforms to the IEEE 802.3bq 25G / 40GBASE-T standard, which specifies the minimum transmission rate for Cat8 Category 8 cables, and can support 25 Gbps and 40 Gbps.

2. ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1 standard, which specifies the channel and permanent link of Cat8 Category 8 cable and includes the limits of resistance imbalance, TCL and ELTCTL. 

3. ANSI/TIA-1152-A standard, which specifies the measurement and accuracy requirements of the Cat8 Category 8 cable field tester. 

4. Conforms to ISO/IEC-11801, which specifies the channels and permanent links for Category I/II Cat8 network cables. 

The Cat8 cable network has a bandwidth of 1200MHz, allowing it to provide a wide range of services at the same time, handling Terrestrial TV, CCTV, DAB, FM, audio, IR control, 10/100 and 100/1000 Ethernet, video, telephony, USB peripherals and more!.

Finally

5G network brings ultra-high-speed network, downlink peak rate of up to 20Gbps, while the 4G downlink peak rate of gigabit (1000Mbps), 5G network rate is fully 20 times that of 4G. In the near future, the popularity of 5G network, CAT5E cable, CAT6 cable will inevitably face the elimination of the situation, and the existence of network cable is difficult to replace the drawbacks of the line, home furnishing line, engineering line, server room construction and other projects, replacement costs, so you must be one step ahead of the wiring, in advance of the higher specifications of the network cable, and CAT7 or CAT8 is undoubtedly the best choice.

By HornmicLink_Bob Kuo @230731 21:23