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Appendix A - Cables and Connectors
Cable Types
The cabling specifications are provided for troubleshooting purposes.
Copper (TP / UTP) CAT 1 – CAT 7 Cabling
ANSI/EIA Standard 568 is one of several standards that specify "categories" (each a "CAT") of twisted
pair cabling systems. Assigned by the American National Standards Institute/Electronic Industries
Association, these standards categories include CAT 1 – CAT 7, as shown below.
Category
Max Data Rate
Typical Application
CAT 1
Up to 1 Mbps (1 MHz)
Analog voice (POTS), ISDN BRI
CAT 2
4 Mbps
IBM Token Ring network cabling systems
CAT 3
16 Mbps
Voice (analog mainly); 10BASE-T Ethernet
CAT 4
20 Mbps
Used in 16 Mbps Token Ring, but not much else.
CAT 5
100 MHz
100 Mbps TPDDI. 155 Mbps ATM. No longer supported;
replaced by 5E. 10/100BASE-T.
CAT 5E
100 MHz
100 Mbps TPDDI, 155 Mbps ATM, Gigabit Ethernet. Offers
better near-end crosstalk than CAT 5.
CAT 6
Up to 250 MHz
Minimum cabling required for data centers in TIA-942. CAT 6
is quickly replacing CAT 5e.
CAT 6E
Up to 500 MHz
Field-tested to 500 MHz. Supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet
(10GBASE-T). May be either shielded (STP, ScTP, S/FTP) or
unshielded (UTP). Standard published in Feb. 2008. The
minimum requirement for Data Centers in the ISO Data
Center standard.
CAT 7 (ISO Class F)
600 MHz, 1.2 GHz in
pairs with Siemen
connector
Full-motion video, Teleradiology, Government and
manufacturing environments. Fully Shielded (S/FTP) system
using non-RJ45 connectors but backwards compatible with
hybrid cords. Standard published in 2002. Until Feb. 2008,
the only standard to support 10GBASE-T for a full 100m.
CAT 7A/Class FA and Category 6A/Class EA specifications were published in February, 2008.
Fiber (10/100/1000BASE-xx) Cabling
The IEEE recommends the maximum fiber cable distances shown below.
Standard
Data Rate
(Mbps)
Cable Type
IEEE Standard
Distance
10BASE-FL
10
850nm Multimode 50/125 μm or 62.5/125 μm
2 km
100BASE-FX
100
1300nm Multimode 50/125 μm or 62.5/125 μm
2 km
100BASE-SX
100
850nm Multimode 50/125 μm or 62.5/125 μm
300 m
1000BASE-SX
1000
850nm Multimode 50/125 μm
850nm Multimode 62.5/125 μm
550 m
220 m
1000BASE-LX
1000
1300nm Multimode 50/125 μm or 62.5/125 μm
1310nm Single mode 9/125 μm
550 m
5 km
1000BASE-LH
1000
1550nm Single mode 9/125 μm
70 km
