Augmented Category 6 |
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Cat 5 - HistoryI think back to the days of pulling cable in the early 1990s. Category 5, which was being called Level 5 at the time thanks to Anixter's push for classification of UTP transmission standards, was in it's fledgling stages. Heck, I remember getting "speced" to install a Cat 5 installation before there was even a complete category 5 system. Category 5 cable was developed but not jacks or patch panels that would be certified as Cat 5. Finally, Category 5 became king and everyone was installing Category 5 complete systems. It wasn't long after this however, that folks realized that the standards set in place for Category 5 were not application dependant and that something a little better was needed for 1000BaseT. Along came Enhanced category 5, which is now the accepted standard (cat 5 only a footnote) and is called Cat5e. Cat 6 - History Repeating ItselfToday, we have a giant called Category 6. We are installing it everywhere and like it's predecessor Cat 5, it is not application dependant. Once again, ANSI/TIA/EIA are hard at work on standards for Augmented Category 6 which will serve 10GigEthernet. I think it's crazy that companies are spending so much on installing cat 6 cabling systems when it will be obsolete in the next couple years. Cat 5e would run those networks just fine, unless you plan on going to 10GigEthernet, whereby you would need to wait until Augmented Cat 6 is fully developed. There has been some speculation on the name Augmented Category 6 and how it wll be abbreviated, but if history continues to repeat itself, which it most likely will, we will soon have a Category 6a or Cat6a. Cabling Domains for Sale
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