Even with many consumer, commercial, industrial, and even automotive electronics moving to wireless technology for networking, many local area networks (LANs) are still wired using physical cabling and applications with reliability concerns still heavily use physical cabling. As there are a wide range of application requirements for Ethernet cabling, there are also a wide range of cabling types at different performance and price points to accommodate these various needs.
Among these are the most common cabling types for residences, office networks, and data centers; Cat 6, Cat 6a, and Cat 7. By just observing these cables, they may appear to be indistinguishable from each other, other than the printed information on the cabling jacket. This information is critical, as the performance of these cables is very different.
Cat 6 Cable Performance
- 100 meter runs
- 250 MHz maximum bandwidth
- Lowest cost compared to Cat 6a and Cat 7
- May be shielded or unshielded
- 1 Gbps to 10 Gbps maximum data rate (10 Gbps to 165 feet)
- Mainly used in phone lines (and perhaps with a DSL Filter for Phone) and residences
Cat 6a Cable Performance
- 100 meter runs
- 500 MHz maximum bandwidth
- Can cost up to 30% more than Cat 6
- Shielded
- 10 Gbps maximum data rate(10 Gbps to 328 feet)
- Often used in office networks
Cat 7 Cable Performance
- 100 meter runs
- 600 MHz maximum bandwidth
- Over 20% greater cost than Cat 6a
- Shielded
- 10 Gbps to 100 Gbps maximum data rate (100 Gbps to 15 meters)
- Common in data centers
The main differences between Cat 6 and Cat 6a is that Cat 6a is “augmented”. Cat 6a cable is manufactured and terminated to tighter tolerances than Cat 6. This means that the copper conductors are twisted tighter than Cat 6. Hence Cat 6a can support bandwidths to 500 MHz whereas Cat 6 tops out at 250 MHz. This increase in bandwidth capability also involves the addition of shielded twisted pair cabling, which makes the cable more expensive, heavier, more difficult to bend, and wider in diameter compared to unshielded twisted pair cabling. Like Cat 6a cables, Cat 7 Ethernet cables are also shielded. However, Cat 7 cables don’t use the standard RJ-45 ethernet connector that Cat 6 and Cat 6a cables use, but instead use a modified GigaGate 45 connector.
Explore our vast selection of Cat 6, Cat 6a and Cat 7 cable assemblies.
