Ethernet Cat 6 Cable Length Limit

There is a cat 6a cable distance limit based on how cables are designed and deployed.

Ethernet cat 6 cable length limit.

It should be noted that cat7 cable has harsher distance limits than cat5e cat6 and cat6a. Also aimed at data centers and requiring high speed gear the cables run at 1 or 2ghz and can move. The category 6 augmented cable standard or cat 6a was created to further improve the performance of cat 6 ethernet cables using cat 6a enables 10 gigabit ethernet data rates over a single cable run up to 328 feet. The cat6a doubles data transmission bandwidth from 250 to 500 mhz.

Cat6a cables allow performance up to 500 mhz. Decreases the chance of crosstalk interference. Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than cat 5 and cat 5e. Both cat5e and cat6 cable specifications allow lengths up to 100 meters but cat6e has a lower max length 55 meters when used for 10gbase t 10 gigabit ethernet.

The category 6a or cat6a cable is the latest iteration of gigabit ethernet cabling. The a stands for augmented and is a nod to cat6a s improved specifications compared with its predecessor the category 6 or cat6 cable. In order to run 10gbase t for 100 meters category 6a cable or augmented category 6 cables need to be used. There are certain factors that can negatively impact data transmission along a cable impacting the cat 6a cable distance limit.

And provides superior reliability and transmission. The new 2ghz speed limit. Finally category 8 is the new spec on the cable block. The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 mhz compared to 100 mhz for cat 5 and cat 5e.

They re also capable of maintaining higher transmission speeds over longer cable lengths. This cable offers a maximum speed of 1gbps but improves over cat 5 and cat 5e products with better crosstalk protection and a higher 250mhz. Ethernet 100 meters 328 feet there are a few different versions of ethernet cable but they all have a maximum distance of 100 meters 328 feet. For information on audio video cable distance limits click here.

Category 6 cable cat 6 is a standardized twisted pair cable for ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the category 5 5e and category 3 cable standards. The longer the path that data has to travel the more susceptible it is to signal degradation.