CAT5e cabling has been around for over 15 years. It was the first cable to allow for Gigabit networks. In the past few years, hardware costs have come down and allowed Gigabit networking to become easier to afford. The most common network cabling installed today is still CAT5e. CAT5e cables are typically 24 gauge twisted pair wires, which can transport Gigabit speeds up to distances of 328 ft., including patch cables at both ends.
CAT6 cables became available a few years after CAT5e. CAT6 cable provides the ability to have a 10 Gigabit network. For quite a while, CAT5e was run to the workstations and CAT6 was run as a backbone from router to switches. It is important to note that 10 Gigabit network on Cat 6 cables is limited to 164 ft., including patch cables. At distances over 164 ft. CAT6 cable will only provide speeds the same as CAT5e ( i.e. 1 Gigabit)
CAT6a is considerably thicker then CAT6, which in turn is considerably thicker than CAT5e. Partly, this is due to the extra-thick plastic around the wires themselves, and partly due to the tighter winding of the pairs themselves, creating more copper per inch. CAT6a will allow 10 Gigabit per second networking for the full distance of Ethernet (328 ft.) CAT6a also reduces the crosstalk among the pairs, which further reduces the delay in the cables. CAT6a provides the best performance (10 Gigabit) at the full distance of 328 ft/100 meters and so it’s a more long-term solution.
Many companies are deploying servers in the cloud today. This means that if everything you do is in the cloud, and you require little internal networking, your limiting factor will be your Internet speed, not your cabling speed. Most probably, CAT5e will achieve faster connections than your Internet speed, making CAT5e the right choice.
Applications like video and audio editing/processing, AutoCAD, SQL databases, file transfers, and roaming profiles on domain controllers will all benefit greatly by having Cat 6A cables with 10 Gigabit networking.
With all that said, most of our customers today are still installing CAT5e based on current network hardware demands.
ECS is an AVAYA Edge Emerald Level Business Partner located in Seattle, WA & Portland, OR.
ECS provides local technicians for on-site work installing and servicing a variety of voice/data equipment, ie; Avaya Aura Servers, Gateways, Messaging, Telephones, Firewalls, Ethernet Switches, Low Voltage Cabling, WiFi, CCTV, POS, Paging, etc.
ECS provides services in the states of Washington & Oregon, primarily in the greater Seattle & Portland areas.