Categories of Copper Twisted Pair cables

On my previous article we have seen the classification of copper twisted-pair cables. Let us have a look into different categories of twisted pair cables available in the market. These categories are made based on technology advancements. Hence please be reminded that when the category goes up we are getting more advanced features and capability to these twisted pair cables. 

A variety of different cables are available for ethernet and other telecommunications used by networking applications. I believe that a simple table description is much easier for you to understand the features,

Notes from Table

·      When we write down CAT 6, CAT 7 or so on, how you ever wondered that what is the word ‘CAT’ means to you? It’s nothing but the abbreviation of the word ‘Category’. 

·      The length of the cable and data transfer speed is co-related. For example, We can use CAT 8 cables to transfer data up to 100 meter at a speed of 1Gbps. But when we have to transfer the data at a speed of 40Gbps the maximum cable length is limited to 30 meters.

·      Frequency is directly proportional to the data transfer rate.

Imagine you can only drive two cars, one passenger each, at a given time on a highway in each of the two lanes. Now you would be able to transfer more people over the same highway if you can drive the same two cars 500 trips per day compared to 250 trips per day. Now imagine the same analogy but replace cars with bits of data. So if you can only drive two bits on a given data-line then 100 MHz(or 100 million cycles per second) will give more bandwidth (i.e. ability to transfer data over the same line) then 50 MHz (or 50 Million cycles per second).

Category 1 (CAT 1)– Defines a traditional UTP cable. It is designed to carry only voice and not data. This type of cable is not recommended for networking purposes and is used in telephony services.

Category 2 (CAT 2)– Defines a cable that can carry data up to 4 Mbps of speed. It consists of 4 pairs of wires or to say a total of 8 cables.

Category 3 (CAT 3)– Defines a cable that can carry data up to 10 Mbps. It consists of 4 pairs of wires. It is 1000 feet in length with marks of length at every 2 feet. The frequency of this cable is 16 MHz and It is used for the 10BaseT network.

Category 4 (CAT 4)– Defines a cable that can carry data up to 16 Mbps. Its cable consists of 4 pairs of wires. The signaling frequency of this cable is up to 20 MHz.

Category 5 (CAT 5)– Defines a cable that can carry data up to 100 Mbps. The signaling frequency of this cable is up to 100 MHz. This type of cable is primarily used in today’s networking environment. The cable is used in 100BaseX Ethernet architecture and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) architectures.

Category 5E (CAT 5 Enhanced)– Defines a cable that can carry data up to 1000 Mbps with a signaling frequency of 125 MHz It is used to connect computers, hubs, switches, and print servers.

Category 6(CAT 6)– Defines a 4-pair cable that provides improved performance as compared to Cat 5e. It can carry data up to 1000 Mbps with a signaling frequency of 250 MHz. This is the most seen network cables on these days which has almost replaced all previous cable categories. Even though we have further developed categories of cables this still continues to be the favorite of all network administrators.

Category 6A (CAT 6 Augmented)– These are capable of supporting data transfer rates of up to 10Gbps at a maximum bandwidth of 500MHz. CAT6A has additional and tighter twists, with additional insulation to reduce crosstalk.

Category 7 (CAT 7)– Defines a fully shielded twisted pair cable that operates at the signal frequency of 600 MHz Fully shielded means all the four pairs of a cable have an additional shield over them.

Category 8 (CAT 8)– These are the ethernet cables which differs greatly from the previous cables in that it supports a frequency of up to 2 GHz (2000 MHz), and is limited to a 30-meter 2-connector channel. While Cat8 cable requires shielded cabling as well. Most importantly, Cat8 Ethernet patch cables can support a speed of 25 Gbps or even 40 Gbps.

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