Cat Standards

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A Cat specification is a particular twisted pair cable construction method rated for use with given Ethernet standards.

• Higher Cat specification cable is capable of higher data rates
• Created by:
  • The American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
  • Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)/Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA)
• Cat specifications are defined in the ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-C Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standards
• similar standards maintained by ISO (ISO/IEC 11801)
  • refers to categories of components and classes of permanent links

Cat	Max. Transfer Rate	Max. Distance	Ethernet Standard Support
3	10 Mbps
5	100 Mbps	100 m (328 ft)	100BASE-TX (Fast Ethernet)
5e	1 Gbps	100 m (328 ft)	1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet)
6	1 Gbps	100 m (328 ft)	1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet)
6	10 Gbps	55 m (180 ft)	10GBASE-T (10G Ethernet)
6A	10  Gbps	100 m (328 ft)	10GBASE-T (10G Ethernet)

• Cat specification is printed on the cable jacket along with the cable type (UTP or F/UTP)
• Cat 5 cable supports the older 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet standard
  • no longer commercially available
• network cabled with Cat 5 will probably need to be rewired to support Gigabit Ethernet
• Cat 5e would still be an acceptable choice for providing Gigabit Ethernet links for client computers
  • but most sites would now opt to install Cat 6 cable
    • improved construction standards for Cat 6
    • more reliable than Cat 5e for Gigabit Ethernet
    • can also support 10 Gbps, though over reduced range
• Cat 6A supports 10 Gbps over 100 m
  • however, the cable is bulkier and heavier than Cat 5e and Cat 6
  • the installation requirements are more stringent, so fitting it within pathways designed for older cable can be problematic
  • TIA/EIA standards recommend Cat 6A for:
    • healthcare facilities
    • with Power over Ethernet (PoE) 802.3bt installations
    • for running distribution system cable to wireless access points