Comparisons b/w Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 Etehrnet Cables

There are many Improvements of Cat3, Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 in the passing years, and a little compression b/w the performances and structures of these networking cables.

CAT3 Networking Cables:

In the early 1990′s CAT3 cables were used for house or office wirings. Category 3 cable is known as Cat3. This cable supports the frequency 16MHz and it carries communications data up to 10 Mbit/s. Now it is using the two-line phone. It supported 10Base-T.

CAT5 Networking Cables:    

Category 5 known as Cat 5 cable, Cat5 cable supports the frequency up to 100MHz and it has 4-twisted pair. Cat5 supported 100BASE-T.

It has two varieties:

•      1.    Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
•      2.    Screened Twisted Pair (SCTP)

Screened Twisted Pair (SCTP) type was widely used in the world and which Screened Twisted Pair (SCTP) to provide a measure of extra safety against interference, but it is rarely used outside of Europe.

And I will be explaining about UTP in Cat6 specs.

Cat5e Ethernet Cable:

The specification of category/cat5e improves upon the cat 5.

Category 5e known as Cat 5e cable, it fulfills higher standards of data transmission. Cat5e Ethernet cable supports the frequency up to 350MHz and Cat5e supported 1000BASE-T. It also has 4-twisted pair.

It has two major types:

•          Cat5e Plenum (CMP) cable  
•          Cat5e non-plenum (CMR) cable

CMP stands for Communications Plenum Cable

CMR stands for Communications Riser Cable

     The most common cable in the United States is Plenum because it is low smoke. CMP cable is best for the Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilating Systems. The plastic jacket of the plenum is fire-retardant. It is used for indoor and also outdoor

      Cat5e non-plenum cable is also known as riser (CMR) cable. This cable is much cheaper against plenum. The plenum is used for indoor and out-door but riser is just used for in-door.

It has two verities:

•      Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
•       Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

And I will talk about the specs of UTP and STP in cat6 plenum Ethernet cables.

Cat6 Ethernet Cable:

Category 6 is also known as Cat6, and it is the most advanced cable against cat3, cat5, and cat5e and it is the best in performance. A Cat6 cable support 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and it is able to support the frequency up to 550 MHz, it means it fulfills standards of higher data transmission.

It has two major types:

•        Cat5e Plenum (CMP) cable  
•       Cat5e non-plenum (CMR) cable

I have described the specs of Plenum and non-plenum in Cat5e Ethernet Cables.

It also has two verities like cat5e cable:

•        Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)
•        Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

UTP is standards for all categories like cat3, cat5, cat5e and also for cat6. And also it is found in telephone systems. And this cable is most common cable used for networking, UTP is using for video applications and also many cameras providing UTP output.

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) Cable is introduced by IBM Cabling Systems. This type of cable protects the EMI from exiting and entering the wire and it also protects the neighboring pairs from crosstalk.

Regards
Jason Holder,
43333 Osgood Road Fremont, CA 94539, USA
PH: +1(408) 414-7437
http://www.westcables.com