Structured cabling standards specify generic installation and design topologies characterized by a “category”" either "“class”"to carry out the transmission. These cabling standards are subsequently used as a reference in application standards, developed by committees such as IEEE and ATM, as the minimum level of characteristics necessary to ensure the operation of applications. Specifying structured cabling according to standards offers many advantages. These include guaranteed application operation, flexibility in cable and connectivity choices that are interoperable and compatible with previous categories, and a structured cabling design and topology universally recognized by professionals responsible for the operation and management of systems. Below is a brief explanatory summary of the most noteworthy characteristics of what we consider to be the cabling categories currently in use in our market.".
Category 7
In cabling, Category 7 or Class F (ISO/IEC 11801:2002) specifies a frequency range of 1 to 600 MHz in 100 meters of fully shielded twisted-pair cabling.
Cables that meet Category 7 or Class F, containing four individually shielded pairs inside and a general shield, are called Shielded/Flat Twisted Pair Cables (S/FTP) or Foil/Flat Twisted Pair Cables (F/FTP).
There is a pending Class Fa, which is based on the use of 1000MHz S/FTP cable, thus supporting 10GBase-T transmissions.
In both types of cable, each twisted pair is wrapped in foil.
In S/FTP cable, the four pairs are covered with a general metallic mesh, and in F/FTP cable, the four pairs are covered by a foil.
Category 7 or Class F cable can be terminated with the connectors specified in IEC 6063-7-7 and IEC 61076-3-104. One is a GC-45 connector compatible with RJ-45, and the other is the TERA connector, which is a more common connector.
Fully shielded cables virtually eliminate all cable-to-cable interference. Furthermore, these cables are noise-resistant, making Category 7 or Class F cabling systems ideal for areas with high electromagnetic interference, such as industrial or medical facilities.
Category 6a
Category 6a is a proposed 10Gigabit Ethernet (10-GbE) for copper transmission to the CAT6 standard.
The IEEE published a draft standard (Standard 803.3an) in October 2004. The draft establishes the transmission of 10-Gigabit data over a 4-pair copper cable up to a distance of 100 meters in Class F or augmented Class E copper cabling.
Class E cabling requires a line coding scheme and an electronic system to achieve 10-Gbps transmission up to 100 meters.
Current CAT6 cabling systems support 10 Gigabit Ethernet over short distances.
The preliminary standard expands the technical specifications of CAT6 from 250MHz to 500MHz and also proposes a new measurement: Power Sum Alien Crosstalk at 500 MHz.
Alien Crosstalk (ANEXT) is a coupled signal on a disturbed pair that originates from the signal on an adjacent cable.
For the practical elimination of the ANEXT problem, a CAT6a F/UTP cable can be used.
The F indicates an outer foil covering. This cable is also very suitable for situations requiring security, as it does not emit signals.
The CAT6a F/UTP cable works well in noisy environments and IEMs.
Category 6
Cabling that complies with Category 6, or Cat 6 or Class E (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1) cabling installations are cabling installations that meet the specifications of the cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that are backward compatible with the standards of Category 5/5e and category 3.
Category 6 has characteristics and specifications for crosstalk and noise. The cable standard is usable for 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, and 1000BASE-TX.Gigabit Ethernet) and reaches frequencies of up to 250 MHz on each pair. Category 6 cable contains 4 pairs of twisted copper wire, just like previous copper cable standards.
A complete channel (horizontal cable plus each end) is allowed to reach 100 meters in length.
Category 5e
In new installations, it is not common to work with Category 5e cabling components since the higher categories are very competitive in terms of cost and functionality, and we can say that categories 5 and 5e are categories that have moved to a second technological level, even though a large part of the companies have Cat5e network cabling that can perfectly support applications at 1Gbits speed.
The Category 5e/Class D cabling requirements were first published in 2000 and were intended to standardize the additional transmission feature to CAT5 for applications such as 1000BASE-T, which use bidirectional, all-four-pair transmission schemes.
The standard added leeway to the limits of the Category 5 standard and characterized several new transmission criteria that were required for Gigabit Ethernet support in the worst-case scenario of a four-pin channel (the 1000BASE-T application was originally intended to operate with Category 5 channels, which only have two pins).
To ensure compliance with the additional margins of the CAT5 standard, the Category 5e/Class D specifications added leeway to the NEXT loss, ELFEXT loss, and return loss parameters, and introduced crosstalk characterization using power summation, which approximates the total crosstalk present when all pairs are working, as in a four-pair transmission scheme.