What are the different Categories of Twisted Pair Cables?
Before learning about the categories of these cables, you must be well acquainted with what a twisted pair cable is.
These cables as suggested by its name are obtained by putting 2 separate wires together. The insulated copper wires are wrapped around one another to reduce electromagnetic induction between a pair of wires. Further, these cables are of 2 types namely, shielded twisted pair(STP) and unshielded twisted pair(UTP).
There are various categories of these cable systems that are running generation wise. Each of these categories have their features. In case you are planning on buying LAN cables, you can go through these categories and choose accordingly.
- Category 5e Cable System
The Category 5e Cable System is a modified version of category 5 cables with a similar physical structure. It supports gigabit ethernet and full-duplex ethernet operation. These are also called as Cat 5-enhanced cables and uses 4 pair of unshielded twisted cables.
In the Cat 5 cables, you will find improved noise reduction and lesser interference. In addition to this, these cables can handle a bandwidth higher than Cat 5 cables. Near-end crosstalk(NEXT), Power Sum Equal-Level Far-End crosstalk(PS-ELFEXT) and attenuation are some of the other areas where these cables have enhanced.
- Category 6 Cable System
The next type of twisted pair cable is the Cat 6 cable system. The working of the 6th generation cables includes the ability to accommodate 10-gigabit ethernet connections up to a fixed distance of 55 meters. It supports the gigabit ethernet data at the rate of 1 gigabit per second.
To carry out transmission via these wires, the patch-panels, cross-connects, jacks, and patch cables must qualify the Cat 6 standards. Plus, these are backward compatible with Cat 5, Cat 5e standards.
- Category 6a Cable System
The augmented Cat 6 cabling has additional tighter twisting than its preceding generation category 6 cables. These cables support twice the maximum bandwidth. Another key feature of the Cat 6a cables is that it can maintain higher transmission speeds over an extended network length.
The Category 6a Cable system uses unshielded twisted pair of cable. These are backward compatible with Cat-6 and Cat-5e cables. The 6A cables available are smaller in size than it was originally which leads to an increase in its weight.
- Category 7 Cable System
Cat 7 cable system can support 10 Gbps like a Cat 6 cable system. There is a theoretical concept that these cables are capable of carrying out transmission up to 40 Gbps and 100 Gbps at 50 and 15 meters respectively.
The cabling done in these are pretty stiff and has a larger shielding for further reduction in interference. However, the speed that a Cat 7 can achieve is currently unable to support any of the home networks.
Conclusion
Since these cables are more effective in avoiding crosstalks, they are highly preferred over other cabling systems. If you want to shop for these categories of twisted pair cable, you can check out the online store Dintek that deals with such products.
