What Is Cat6 Cable Length

Also cat6 cable can reach 10 gigabit ethernet speeds by reducing the length to less than 50 meters.

What is cat6 cable length. The maximum cabling length of cat6 network cable is 100m with 1 gbps while cat7 of 100 m with 10 gbps. Cat6 max speed is theoretically 10gbps. Cat6 short for category 6 is an ethernet cable standard defined by the electronic industries association eia and telecommunications industry association tia. As for cable price of cat6 vs cat7 cat7 cable is more expensive than cat6 cable if they are compared under the same conditions.

For example a 25 ft unshielded cat6 cable goes for 8 on amazon while a 25 ft shielded cat6a goes for 11. Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than cat 5 and cat 5e. The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e. The cost is about 20 35 higher than cat6 but the maximum cable length is 100 meters across all systems and conditions for gigabit ethernet.

When these factors impact distance a cable often has to be length de rated in order to maintain performance levels. Cat 6 supports 10 gigabit ethernet only up to 164 feet of cable length. Category 6e cat6e is an augmented specification of cat6. In order to run 10gbase t for 100 meters category 6a cable or augmented category 6 cables need to be used.

The cost differences between cat6 and cat6a cables are relatively small around 20 35. Only when a cable is designed and manufactured to fulfill the full 100 m reach will it be able to do so. The tighter specifications guaranteed that 100 meter runs using cat6 cable is capable of 1000 mbit s transfer speeds. The bottom line is this.

The category 6 augmented cable standard or cat 6a was created to further improve the performance of cat 6 ethernet cables using cat 6a enables 10 gigabit ethernet data rates over a single cable run up to 328 feet. Cat6a cables allow performance up to 500 mhz. Both cat5e and cat6 cable specifications allow lengths up to 100 meters but cat6e has a lower max length 55 meters when used for 10gbase t 10 gigabit ethernet. It s theoretical top speed is 10 gbps over 100 meters.

Cat6a 10gbase t cable using rj45 connectors can deliver 10g performance of higher frequencies 500 mhz and with longer link lengths 100 m than that of cat6 cable 250 mhz 55 m. Obviously 10gbe cat6a cable has better network performance than 10gbe cat6 cable. If you cannot afford both of them and then cat5e would also be a good choice for 10g network. What is cat6 cable.

After introducing cat6 icc made enhancements and produced cat6e.