Cat 5/5e 2

[ScottCybak]

I'm curious as to what would happen if i was to install cat 5 female connectors on cat 5e line? I imagine the performane would be reduced to max of 100 mb/s.

TIA Scott Cybak
scott@athree.com

 

[ChrisAC]

You would have a CAT5 connection and not CAT5e! What's the point??

Chris.
************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
chrisac@gmx.co.uk
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[daronwilson]

Cat5 cable is rated at 100 MHZ bandwidth, not to be confused with 100mbs data throughput. Cat5e is rated with a higher bandwidth, 250-350 MHz depending on the brand. More bandwidth, more data throughput possible. So...bigger pipe, more room for data. Don't confuse the pipe size with the signal you are putting through it. You can have a large pipe (350Mhz) and run a small signal (10 Mbs or 9600 baud for that matter) and not use it to it's full potential. Lots of room for a theory discussion here.

However, the cable (and labor) is generally the expensive part. So, pull in the good cable (CAT5e) and if you want to be cheap put on the CAT5 ends (if you can still find them) and save a few pennies. For 100 mbs either should do fine if installed correctly.

Daron J. Wilson
Telecom Manager
LH Morris Electric, Inc.
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com

 

[mnmcomm]

The link rating is always the weakest link. If you put a Cat3 jack on a Cat6 cable, it will only be rated as a Cat3 link, and so on. the difference between the Cat5 and Cat5e jacks is minimal. I would go with the Cat5E system.

Just a reminder on cable, there are actually two enhanced Cat5 ratings. Cat5e & Cat5E, notice the big and little e's. The big E is the actual Cat5ENHANCED. Cat5e is minimally compliant (not Gigabit Eth. guaranteed) and Cat5E, or Cat5ENHANCED is a gigabit guaranteed cable. This is a result of the cable manufacturer's jumping the gun on the Cat5 enhanced standard. We may see the same thing w/ Cat6 and Cat7 cables, when they finally ratify those standards in the near future. Matthew Masi RCDD

 

[daronwilson]

OK I give up. I read this some time ago, and thought maybe I was missing something on the enhanced issue. However, I can't find any specification for anything other than just Cat5 enhanced. Little e, 100 MHz, end of story. My TDM chapter 4 page 100 shows the table of catagories and only one Cat5e.

As I understand it, the cat5e is tested more stringently...specifically transmitting on 3 pairs simultaneously while listening on the 4th for interference. Cat5 however only has to transmit on one pair while listening on another pair. The short story is that Cat5e is designed for applications using all four pairs.

Is there some updated reference I should be looking at to find the ENHANCED standard?

Daron J. Wilson
Telecom Manager
LH Morris Electric, Inc.
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com

 

[Guest_imported]

I don't think that will work.

 

[Guest_imported]

RJ-11 Inches,

You don't think what won't work????

 

[jeffmoss26]

I thought that cabling categories go like this:
Cat 3
Cat 5
Cat 5e
Cat 5e+
Cat 6

(I know that Leviton's jacks go cat 5, 5e, 5e+, 6)

 

[ChrisAC]

I don't think that CAT5e+ is an actual ratified standard, more of a manufacturer product name. I could sell Cat5e and call it Joe Bloggs GigaPlus UTP cable, but it doesn't mean that it's a standard.

Chris.
************************
Chris Andrew, CCNA
chrisac@gmx.co.uk
************************

 

[daronwilson]

I am unable to find any standard for anything other than CAT5 and CAT5e (well, actually cat3 and cat4 but those aren't important, cat4 is being removed in the next standards update, and cat3 won't be accepted for horizontal cabling).

As far as I can tell, Cat5 is specified to 100 MHz and meets the specs for Class D links in ISO/IEC 11801.

Cat5e is specified to 100 MHz as well and meets the ANSI/TIA/EIA 568-A-5 standard and is intended to use application that use more than one pair to transmit in one direction. Hence the testing is different on Cat5e cable, but the minimum bandwidth is the same.

Now, cable manufacturers seem to be producing cable that has varying maximum bandwidths. So you can get Cat5e at 100 MHz or maybe 250 MHz or 350 Mhz or higher.

Cat6 is specified up to 250 MHz and meets specs for Class E links in ISO/IEC 11801 (although it is not finalized yet). In my opinion, the plan should be to pull the best cable you can afford. We routinely use 350 mhz cable unless the customer requests something more or a specific brand. I have used this cable, Ortronics Giga-Mo jacks (anticipated for cat6) and tested the installation sucessfully to CAT6 proposed standards.

The problem with Cat6 isn't the cable, it is the hardware. If you keep one manufacturer's jacks and patch cables you should do pretty well. The first one I did we had to terminate jacks several times to get it into CAT6 compliance. It just requires every twist be just right and very tight or it won't pass.




Daron J. Wilson
Telecom Manager
LH Morris Electric, Inc.
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com

 

[rgroulx]

FYI:

Prior to Cat5e (TIA/EIA 568-B) becoming a standard, there was a "reccomended" specification for testing Cat5 called: "E-Cat5 or Cat5Enhanced". This included the PSNext & Return Loss tests (which are needed for testing full duplex & four-pair wire transmissions over UTP), not previously included in the Cat5 standard. However, Cat5Enhanced did NOT include ELFEXT (Equal Level Far-end Cross Talk) as one of it's test parameters. It was only determined later in the Cat5e standard, that ELFEXT was needed to certify for Gigabit four-pair wire transmissions over UTP cabling. Furthermore, Cat5e included everything that Cat5Enhanced tested for, and so, Cat5Enhanced is no longer recommended for UTP certification (or better yet...it was obsolete!).

You'll find that the same thing is happening with Cat6 today. At the time this was written, Cat6 is not yet a standard. Currently, there is only a recommendation to test "proposed Cat6" (includes all the same test parameters as Cat5e, but has tighter specs, and tests out to 250MHZ). When the Cat6 standard becomes ratified, that's the only time when you can truely test against the standard.

Just remember, you should not gaurantee Cat6/7/8/9/26/134 or whatever you think your tester will test to, until the standard is actually ratified! What you can do, however, is test to the recommended proposed standard issued by the Standards Commitee (EIA/TIA, ISO, IEEE, etc.).

"That's just the nature of the beast!"

RGROULX