Introduction
It is important to choose the right Ethernet
cable for your home or business network. When choosing the right cable option, you
need to understand the difference between category cables. Because the type and
category of the cable will not only affect the speed and overall performance,
but also have a huge impact on the quality of the connection. The two most
popular Ethernet cables are Cat5e and Cat6, but which one is better?
What is CAT5e Cable?
CAT5e, also known as Category 5e or Category 5
Enhanced, is a network cable standard approved in 1999. Cat5e cable is an
enhanced version of the traditional Cat5 cable, and it is also the oldest cable
category. Cat5e cables are backward compatible with Cat5, which allows you to
easily upgrade all or part of your network for superior performance. Generally,Cat5e cables consist of 24 twisted pair wires and provide Gigabit Ethernet up
to 328 feet. The MHz rate of a Cat5e cable is 100, which means that the CPU can
process up to 100 million commands in one second.
What is CAT6 Cable?
Cat6 cables, also known as Category 6 or Cat 6 cables
only came out after CAT5e a few years later. It provides Gigabit Ethernet up to
100 meters long. CAT6 is a standardized twisted pair cable for Ethernet, which
is backward compatible with CAT5/5e and CAT3 cable standards. Cat6 cables are
the current standard for high-speed Ethernet cabling because they can support
the speeds required for 10 Gigabit networks. However, they have limited support
for higher standards, after which the limit speed distance of Cat6 cables is
the same as Cat5e cables.
Bandwidth
Both CAT5e and CAT6 can handle speeds up to 1000
Mbps or gigabits per second. The main difference between CAT5e and CAT6 cables
is bandwidth, and the cable can support data transmission. The CAT6 cable is
designed for operating frequencies up to 250 MHz, while the CAT5e operating
frequency is 100 MHz This means that CAT6 cables can process more data at the
same time.
Speed
As mentioned earlier, the performance of CAT6 cables is up to 250 MHz, which is more than twice that of Cat5e cables (100
MHz). Therefore, Cat6 cables can be used to power 10GBASE-T or 10 Gigabit
Ethernet, while Cat5e cables can only support a maximum of 1GBASE-T or 1
Gigabit Ethernet.
Maximum Length
Both Cat5e and Cat6 cable
specifications allow a maximum length of 100 meters. When used for 10GBASE-T,
the maximum length of CAT6 cable is reduced to 55 m. After this distance, the
rate drops to 1GBASE-T. In order to run 10GBASE-T for 100 meters, a Category 6a
cable or an enhanced Category 6 cable is required. If the network infrastructure
needs to cover a distance of more than 100 meters, repeaters or switches are
needed to amplify the signal.
Cost
Since multiple characteristics affect the cost
of an Ethernet cable, the main factors are length, quality, copper content, and
manufacturer. Generally speaking, Cat6 cables are 10-20% more expensive than Cat5e cables.
Conclusion
There are many considerations when choosing the
right cable. What is the required network speed? What is the number of users? Whether
it is used indoors or outdoors? Etc. The price difference between CAT5e and
CAT6 is not too much. Whether you choose CAT5e or CAT6, it is usually a good
idea to choose a better quality cable to prepare the network infrastructure and
performance for the near future.
Baudcom offers all
kinds of fiber optic cables. For more information, please visit Baudcom.