Cat 6 Cable is an Ethernet cable standard defined by the Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunications Industry Association. Cat 6 is the sixth generation of twisted pair Ethernet cabling that is used in home and business networks. Cat 6 cabling is backward compatible with the Cat 5 and Cat 5e standards that preceded it.
How CAT 6 Cable Works
Category 6 cables support Gigabit Ethernet data rates of 1 gigabit per second. These cables can accommodate 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections over a limited distance—commonly about 180 feet for a single cable. Cat 6 cable contains four pairs of copper wire and uses all the pairs for signaling to obtain its high level of performance.
Other basic facts about Cat 6 cables include:
1.The ends of a Cat 6 cable use the same RJ-45 standard connector as previous generations of Ethernet cables.
2.The cable is identified as Cat 6 by printed text along the insulation sheath.
3.An enhanced version of Cat 6, called Cat 6a, supports up to 10 Gbps speeds at greater distances.
CAT 6 Cable Manufacture
There is lot of manufacturer worldwide. In Bangladesh some popular brand are available such as Dlink, Vivanco, Rosenberger, Micronet, SYSTIMAX etc.
How to choose best Cat6 cable?
The appropriate application of Cat6 cables can help save money, decrease the install and maintenance time, and meet the future-proofing network requirements. So it is necessary to know how to choose suitable Cat6 cables. Actually, to buy suitable Cat6 patch cable, many factors can be taken into consideration, such as shielding type, conductor type, flame retardant class, etc. Here, we have summarized several main features that help you choose suitable cables for different scenarios.
Shielded Cable vs Unshielded Cable
The shielded cable is a twisted pair cable confined in foil or mesh shield that helps protect the data from high electromagnetic interference(EMI) or radio-frequency interference (RFI). The EMI/RFI is produced when cables are close to power cables, RF devices or some high-power machines. This will slower transmission speeds and create more data errors. Therefore, shielded Cat6 cable has faster transmission speed and fewer data errors, which is ideal for high-speed networks such as data centers.
Due to the twisting of the wire pairs, unshielded Cat6 cable helps reduce noise and crosstalk, and can offer some resistance to EMI/RFI but less effective than the shielded cable. The unshielded Cat6 cable is less expensive than shielded cable, and easier to install since no shielding and the drain wire involved. It is the most common type used in desktop communications applications.
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Length And Color
The cable length and color also need to be considered when choosing Cat6 cables for your network. Cat6 patch cables can come in short lengths such as 0.15m, or longer lengths such as 61m. Moreover, custom lengths are available. The cable length you need mainly depends on two aspects. One is the distance between your network devices, and the other is the extra length for future capacity expansion. In terms of the color, various colors are available such as red, blue, gray, white, etc. Among them, blue may be the most common one. Different colors can distinguish different applications, but the ultimate decision is based on your preference.
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