CAT6 Wiring

Difference between Cat5 and Cat6 Network Cable

With the increase in the demand for faster data rates, higher bandwidth Ethernet cables are required and thus people moves to Category 6 cable wire. Just because of this category 5 cabling come in light after category 3 cable. You repeatedly come across with the term category 5, category 5e and category 6 when you are finding the different types of twisted pair copper cable which is used to transmit data in network and home theater application. Based on their performance level cables are being classified in to various categories. Here is the some discussion over cat 5 or cat 6 network cables.

Cat5 network cable is the most basic one. This is available in two varieties. One is Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP) and other one is Screened Twisted Pair (SCTP). UTP is widely used in united state. SCTP has shielding to provide an extra protection against interference. Category 5 cables are either solid or standard. For the data transmission for long distance Solid Cat 5 is preferred because it is more rigid. On the other hand Standard Cat 5 is very flexible and used as patch cables. Cat 5 cable support 10 or 100 Mbps Ethernet and has capability of up to 100MHZ.

The Enhanced version of Cat5 is called Cat 5e. This is also same as cat5 basic line up but with the higher standards of data transmission. It can handle data transfer at 100 Mbps which is suitable for Gigabit Ethernet. Instead of Cat5 it experiences much lower levels of near-end crosstalk (NEXT) than ca t 5.

There are some differences between cat5 and cat6 and this is in the transmission performance. Cat6 is the most advanced network cable. This is made up of four twisted pairs of cooper wire. Just because of one particular structural difference that is a longitudinal separator. Separator separates each of the four pairs of twisted wire from each other wires and due to which it reduces the crosstalk. Due to this it allows faster data transfer and Cat6 cable is recognize as having double bandwidth than cat5. This is the perfect cable which supports 10 gigabit Ethernet and it is able to operate at up to 250 MHz. One of the most important features of cat6 which help you to decide which is better cat 5 or cat6 cable is its backward compatibility.

Cat6 has better insertion loss, return loss, near end crosstalk (NEXT) and equal level far end crosstalk (ELFEXT). These features provide higher reliability and higher data rates for current and future application.