CAT6
Saturday, July 10th, 2010CAT6 is an Ethernet cable standard that is defined by Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunications Industry Association or EIA/TIA. The CAT6 is the sixth twisted pair Ethernet cabling generation. It contains 4 copper wire pairs like the previous CAT5 generation. Unlike CAT5, the CAT6 utilizes all its four pairs fully. The CAT6 supports gigabit Ethernet speed up to one gigabit/second and it supports communications more than twice the speed of CAT5e, which is the other popular Gigabit Ethernet standard for cabling. CAT6’s enhanced version, the CAT6a, supports up to 10Gbps speed.
Just like other types of twisted pair EIA/TIA cabling, the individual cable runs of CAT6 are limited to the maximum length recommended which is 100m or 328 feet. The printing along the cable sheath length is what helps to identify a Cat 6 Wire.