Data Cabling, Cat5e Cat6/6a Cabling, Washington DC

Cat6 Q&A

4 Feb 2013

Data Cabling ,Cat5e ,Cat6/6a CablingWhat is Cat6? Cat6 components are interoperable between different vendors and are fully backward compatible. Cat6 has the same nominal Impedance of 100 Ohms as Cat5 and 5e components, but with tighter tolerance on Impedance variations. Transmission parameters are specified to 250 MHz, compared to 100 MHz for Cat 5/5e.


Do Cat6 components behave differently?   The diameters of Cat6 cables range between 0.21 to 0.25 inch (5.3 - 5.8 mm) compared to Cat5/5e’s range of 0.19 to 0.22 inch (4.8 – 5.5 mm).   Cat6 also has a tighter twist length to reduce crosstalk interference.


What about installation?  Cat6 cables and components are installed similar to Cat5/5e. There are design and installation issues that contractors and installers must pay greater attention to; including cable terminations and the pathway fill.


Will Cat6 supersede Cat5/5e?  Yes. The only question is when. The installed cost for Cat6 cabling can be about 20 % higher than Cat5e, but prices will decrease as usage increases.


Will Cat6 deliver what is promised?  Yes. There are no technical obstacles. Test parameters and procedures to qualify Cat6 components to ensure interoperability between different vendor’s products are in place and detailed.


What about the installed performance compared with Cat5/5e?  The biggest benefit is much-improved Signal-to-Noise Ratio at the Receiver:  Cat6 provides about 16 times better Signal-to-Noise Ratio compared to Cat5/5e over a wide frequency range.


Why do we need Cat6? The real question is “is Cat5e good enough for today and in the foreseeable future?”  The answer is “Yes, but…”. Network switch ports are often at the “marginally compliant” limits of the IEEE standard and susceptible to cabling and temperature variations. Cat6 provides fewer bit errors than Category 5e for 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T applications.

Cat6 Cabling: What’s the Difference?

17 Jan 2013

Cabling is an evolutionary process. New challenges require new capabilities, and based on past trends and future projections, data rates will double about every 18 months. Running applications at 1 Gb/s pushes the limits of category 5e cabling, so doubling the bandwidth is like adding two or more lanes on a highway – you get faster and more efficient data “traffic flow”.


Streaming media applications such as video and multi-media are now commonplace, so the demand for faster data rates are increasing. These new applications will require the higher bandwidth of category 6 cabling.

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Cabling, Installations, Network Cabling

Cat6 Installation Tips

9 Jan 2013
Data Cabling, Cat5e Cat6/6a CablingAlways study and document the required cabling layout and the distances between the equipment to be cabled before starting a Cat6 cable installation.

Refer to ANSI/TIA/ EIA 606 Document for color coding the different functions used in the system guidance. Use either PVC or plenum cable as required depending on where the cables are run. Fiber optic and/or copper cable may be required depending on the transmission speed and type of equipment.
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Wireless Access at Hotel Saves Clients

28 Dec 2009

I met with the General Manager of a Holiday Inn in Northern Virginia. She manages a 200-unit building in Arlington, Virginia, an affluent suburb of Washington, DC. Her property provides rooms and facilities to handle meetings and conferences for vacationers and business travelers. She told me that she is trying to get wireless access installed into her building because she is losing business and wasting money.


She said that her hotel is providing free Internet access but her competition is providing free wireless access. Clients and management prefer wireless because it is much easier to manage and access. Clients don't like having to plug in a cable and having to make changes to their network settings to enable network access. Management does not like having to deal with multiple failure points in managing the hundreds of routers spread throughout the building. There is one in each room.


So, they have a lot of complaints about Internet access. It is not convenient. Sometimes clients don't even have a patch cable. So, the problems are overwhelming for both sides. Additionally, they have Meeting and Conference Rooms that are not hard-wired. So, every time they schedule a Conference for a business client they also have to pay their Internet Service Provider (ISP) to extend a bundle of network cables into the Meeting and Conference Rooms. As you can imagine, this is a hassle and a large financial expense. It cuts into their profit margins. And it is also a major inconvenience for both the staff and the customers.


We have presented a proposal to install network cabling and I expect to get approval in the coming weeks. It will save them time, money and reduce their efforts in providing reliable and fast Internet to their clients. I will update this posting as things progress.