Rating Structured Data Cabling Networks

Cat 5. Cat 5enhanced. Category 6. 6 Augmented. In researching data cabling to fit your home or business network needs, you may have heard all of these terms bandied about with regularity. You know that Cable X is Category 6 compliant, because the vendor says so. That's great, but what does it really mean to the reliability and functionality of your home and business network. Each of these terms represents an increase in the capability of the cabling and the underlying network they support.
Structured Data Cabling Categories Pertain to Network Speed
Someone that is well-versed in cabling standards knows that the higher the Category assigned to a cable, the faster the network it will work with. As an example, Category 5 cable can support network speeds of up to 100 megabits (100 Base-T) over distances of up to ninety metres, whereas Category 6 Augmented can support speeds of up to 10 Gigabits (10GB Base-T/10,000Base-T) at distances of up to ninety metres. Jump back to plain Category 6 cabling, and you still get 10GB support, but shorter distances supported. Electrical singles are also measured in Megahertz. Category 5 is capable of supporting signals up to 250 Megahertz, while Category 6 Augmented cables can support signal speeds up to 500 Megahertz.
How Structured Data Cabling Improvements Are Obtained
In a networking environment, crosstalk is the biggest enemy of the effective, error-free transmission of data. The less crosstalk prevalent on the cable, the faster that cable will be capable of transmitting data at. Crosstalk is the phenomena where signal that is transmitted on one cable pair, leeches, or bleeds over, onto adjacent cable pairs. An example of crosstalk in everyday life can be found when you pick up a telephone and can hear people other than the person you intended to ring up. Crosstalk is reduced by twisting the cable pairs. First each pair is twisted around itself at a specific rate of twists per centimeter rate. Then, the four cable pairs that make up an individual cable are twisted upon each other, again at a specific rate of twists per centimeter.
Structured Data Cabling Components Must Be Matched
Just because you have Category 6 Augmented cable installed, doesn't mean you're automatically going to have a network that supports speeds up to ten gigabits. All of the equipment in your network must be capable of operating at the ten gigabit date rate, otherwise, the network will operate at the data rate supported by the lowest rated piece of equipment. Using your car for an example, even if you put a set of Goodyear racing tires on it, if the engine is out of a lawnmower, the car isn't going to be able to go very fast, unless you upgrade the engine. This is true in your network also. Patch cords, jacks, connectors, patch panels, hubs, routers, and network interface cards must all support the ten gigabit network protocol in order for the network to operate at that speed. Of course, thanks to the Ethernet network topology, a single piece of equipment, such a network printer, isn't going to drag down the entire network, just that link.

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