Also aimed at data centers and requiring high-speed gear, the cables run at 1- or 2GHz and can move up to 40Gbps. Cat 8 Cable: The new 2GHz speed limitįinally, Category 8 is the new spec on the cable block. More recently, the introduction of Cat 7A cable increases the speed to 1GHz and throughput to 40Gbps, but tops out at 165 feet. This extra isolation is needed because the 600MHz frequency used can push a maximum of 10Gbps over 330 feet. Each cable is double-shielded: around each pair of wires and an overall shield around the entire bundle of wires. (See our primer on Gigabit-speed internet to learn why that 1Gbps threshold is so important.)Īlthough it's not recognized by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), Category 7 cable debuted in 2010 and is aimed at data centers and server rooms where top speed counts. Capable of moving up to 1Gbps over 330 feet, or 10Gbps for about half that, Cat 6A upgraded the spec to 500MHz for 330 feet of 1Gbps throughput. Category 6 runs at up to 250MHz and sometimes used shielding around the bundle of data-carrying wires to reduce interference. Soon after, Cat 5e cable emerged with the ability to speed data with 1Gbps throughput.Ĭategory 6 cable appeared at the start of the 21st century and remains popular with home networkers. It could reliably convey 100Mbps of data at a frequency of 100MHz over 330 feet. The year 1995 brought not only Microsoft's Windows 95 but Category 5 cable as well. By contrast, Category 4 cable pushed this to 20Mhz and roughly 16Mbps but it was used for Token Ring – rather than Ethernet – networks. This standard gave way to Category 2 cabling, which carried 4Mbps with a 1MHz signal.įast-forward to the early 1990s and Category 3 cable, which is often called the first modern networking cable, boosted the cable's frequency to 16MHz and Ethernet performance to 10Mbps. Capable of carrying a 10KHz signal, Category 1 cable could deliver upward of 1Mbps of data for early networkers. Also called voice-grade cable, it was generally composed of insulated telephone wires twisted into pairs to reduce crosstalk and covered in a plastic jacket. Hair was bigger, shoulders were padded and early networkers were using either coaxial cable or what came to be called Category 1 cable.
Set the Wayback Machine to the late 1980s. Data Evolution: The many types of Ethernet cable, and where they come from
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