Cat5e vs Cat6
Posted on 05. Oct, 2011 by KrebStar [archives]
Cabling for a new office can be tricky because it’s all about prediction. Not only do you have to choose how many ports you need and where they will go (based on how many employees you expect to have in the near future and where they will sit), but you also have to decide between Cat5, Cat5e, and Cat6 cabling. Let’s start with a quick definition:
Cat5 – Category 5 cabling is an out-of-date standard for Ethernet cabling, which is capable of speeds up to 100 megabytes per second.
Cat5e – Category 5e is an improvement on the original Cat5 design. From the outside they look the same, but Cat5e is capable of speeds up to 1,000 megabytes per second. This is because Cat5 and Cat5e cable both have 4 pairs of wires inside, but Cat5 only utilizes 2 pairs at a time while Cat5e uses all four. The other improvement comes from tighter twisting of those wires. Cat5 was prone to “crosstalk”, interference between wire pairs, which the tighter twisting in Cat5e remedies.
Cat6 – Cat6 twists the pairs even tighter, and insulates each pair in its own sheath, which prevents crosstalk even in areas with outside interference. Its other improvement is that it handles information at a higher frequency (250MHz instead of the previous 100MHz), which translates to speeds up to 10,000 megabytes per second.
So what should you cable your office with? Well first of all, forget about Cat5. As of 2011 its completely out of date for the speed demands of today’s technology. The real question is: Cat5e or Cat6. The answer is a little grey, but there are two schools of thought:
1. Cat6: Opt for the more expensive investment up front because it will pay off in the future. Currently there are no devices (in typical office spaces) that require 10,000 megs per second of connectivity, so the extra power of Cat6 is pointless… For now. But recent history has shown us that advancements in data and processing power increase exponentially. So the Cat6 school of thought depends on this phenomenon continuing as is.
2. Cat5e: Opt for Cat5e because hard-wired connections will soon be a thing of the past. As fast as wired technology is advancing, wireless technology is advancing faster. The Cat5e school of thought says “By the time our devices require the strength of Cat6, everything will be wireless anyways.”
If your business needs to upload and download huge time-sensitive files consistently throughout the day, the choice is Cat6. For the rest of us, though, its a predication game. Will wireless technology improve in bandwidth and reliability? Yes. Will it improve in time to meet the demands of next year’s devices? Nobody knows.
4 Responses to “Cat5e vs Cat6”
Leave a Reply
Cloud9 Smarthome
|
 |
Our Commercials
Very well put, Jordan. I understand we were successful at a few Cat7 installs. What’s the difference between Cat6 and Cat7? Is Cat7 considered 100Base-T or 1000Base-T?
Basically Cat7 is another improvement in terms of bandwidth and interference prevention. We’ve had requests for Cat7, but actually nobody in the United States installs Cat7 currently, to the best of my knowledge.
People aren’t installing cat7 because optical offers more guarantees at lower cost.
Collocation:
Thanks for taking the time out to read our post. The cost of fibre has gone down significantly over the past few years while throughput speeds increase so of course this makes an excellent backbone for any network. That said, I will agree with you 100% on this aspect. On the contrary, replacing an existing copper-based LAN’s with fibre will be a bit costly, though. This is where Cat7 will be essential (in my opinion) in keeping up with fibre’s lightning fast speeds.
One disadvantage Cat7 may have over fibre is that it may be a little harder to get when compared to the readily available Cat5e or Cat6 cabling. Also, it is labor intense to install, according to one of my cabling techs. The advantage of Cat7 is that it’s way more durable than fibre, especially those delicate connectors. These should ALWAYS be ran & installed by a skilled technician.