Blog 85

Category - 6 (normally called as Cat-6) is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5 and Category 3 cable standards. Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk (a kind of interference) and system noise (caused by both frequency and electricity). The cable standard is suitable for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) connections.

The cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards, although each twisted pair is made up of slightly larger 23 gauge copper wire as opposed to Cat 5's 24 gauge wire. When used as a patch cable (actually Cat-6 cable is very often used for this area), Cat-6 is normally terminated in RJ-45 electrical connectors. If components of the various cable standards are intermixed, the performance of the signal path will be limited to that of the lowest category.

The maximum length of one Cat 6 cable segment is 220 meter; beyond that, data loss may occur if a repeater is not present.

Written by resources retrieved from wikipedia.