What Is A Cat6 Cable And How Long Can It Run？

What is a Cat6 cable?

UTP CAT6 Cable, short for Category 6, is an Ethernet cable standard defined by the Electronics Industries Association (EIA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). What is a Cat6 cable for? As the sixth generation of twisted-pair Ethernet cable, the Cat6 cable consists of four twisted pairs, either terminated via RJ45 or terminated on patch cords or trapezoidal jacks. Theoretically, the maximum speed of the Cat6 cable is 10Gbps.

How long can Cat6 cables run?

A single Ethernet cable is designed for a maximum operating distance of 100 meters (328 feet). Exceeding this length will result in packet loss, performance degradation, and signal loss when deploying Cat6 cables. The maximum length of Cat6 cable typically includes 90 m (295 ft) of solid "horizontal" cable between the patch panel and wall jack and 5 m (16 ft) of stranded patch cable between each jack and connected equipment. For 10GBASE-T, the unshielded Cat6 cable should not exceed 55 meters.

Are our Cat6 cables compatible with Cat5e cables?

Both UTP CAT5E Cable and Cat6 cables use the same end pieces, i.e. they can be plugged into the same ports. The difference lies in their capabilities, as well as the methods and materials used to make them. The common "end" of all cables is RJ45, which can be plugged into any Ethernet jack on a computer, router, PoE switch, or another device.