We provide all types of cable installation and testing in all networking areas. We install cables as Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7,Cat7a etc. The category refers to the performance specification of the cabling system. Generally speaking, a higher category represents a higher performance level. So for example, a compliant Cat6 system will be guaranteed to perform to a higher specification than Cat5e. Apart from performance, the physical formats of the systems are typically the same. So for example, they all use 4-pair cables and apart from Cat7/7a, the most common connector is the 8-pin RJ45. Components are also normally backwards compatible, so a Cat6 patch cord may be used in a Cat5e system, but the resulting system will only perform to the lowest performing component, Cat5e in this case.
Cat6 Cable a higher performance, supporting more than double the frequency and running to a tighter specification. This gives it significant performance headroom to support the faster protocols like 1000BaseT and is therefore considered more reliable than Cat5e. A properly installed Cat6 system will potentially run 10GBaseT over lengths of up to between 30 and 45 metres. However, this is not guaranteed and may depend on the installation being ‘tweaked’ to pass. More than 95% of Cat5e and Cat6 installations in the UK are unshielded (U/UTP) which are easier to install and maintain than shielded systems.
A Cat6a cabling system is higher performance than Cat6 (500MHz v 250MHz) and designed to support 10GBase-T over the full 100 metre, 4 connector channel. Cat6a uses 4-pair twisted cables and will typically use RJ45 connectors. It is backwards compatible with Cat6 and Cat5e. TIA Cat6a and the corresponding ISO/IEC Class EA standards were ratified in 2008.