CAT5 vs CAT6: Which Should We Use?

CAT5 vs CAT6 might not be your idea of the fight of the century, but it's at least an important battle for your electronics dollars as you decide what's best for setting up your computer network.  Let's examine all the technical issues that are at the crux of your decision of which one to buy.Twisted pair cable is the main means of stringing together computer networks for data transmissions.  In North America this twisted pair cable takes the form of Unshielded Twisted Pair, and in Europe, it's Shielded Copper Twisted Pair.  Of those two, Shielded Copper Twisted Pair is the more expensive, however, it has fewer interference issues than Unshielded Twisted Pair.  Typically these will have a standard Rj45 modulator on them.There are two categories of these kinds of cables:  solid and stranded (in which a portion of the copper conduits are comprised of strands of wire which are braided together).  The solid cable is known to have superior transmission properties. It is, however, stiffer, and more difficult to get it into tight spaces.  Stranded is also more affordable and easier to form into patch cables.  Still, it suffers performance degradation, much more than the solid cable.Within these categories we find sub-categories.  Indeed, when we speak of CAT5 or 6 or even CAT3, we're using shorthand for Category 5, Category 6 and Category 3. A category 3 cable is for standard telephone use; it's seldom used for computer networks.Today, most cables used for networking computers or other networked electronics devices is Category 5, or CAT5.  CAT5 has been the traditional standard for the majority of communications uses; most legacy wiring is CAT5.  Category 5 is capable of both 10 megabit and 100 megabit Ethernet connections.  It's typically rated at a transmission capacity of one hundred megaherz.The newest, state-of-the-art category is CAT 6. It has arisen as more and more businesses and organizations are relying on fiber optic connections to the Internet.  This requires higher bandwidth--bandwidth provided by CAT6.  The current standard is an interim one between CAT5 and 6:  It's known as CAT5e.  This is simply an enhanced CAT5 which is used for transmitting a Gigabit (or 1000 megabits per second) of data.  It has enhanced shielding and is made to finer tolerances.  There is also a considerable reduction in between-line interference and crosswalk.  But none of these are quite to the level of performance and clarity of CAT6.All of which brings us back to the CAT5 vs CAT6 debate.  Which should you use? CAT6, like CAT5, is comprised of four pairs of copper wire.  It's different, though, because of its longitudinal separator that separate the wires.  It isolates the fair pairs from each other.  The result is a considerably reduced cross talk.  This does however, increase the manufacturing cost ever so slightly.Here's the bottom line, then, in the CAT5 vs CAT6 decision:  If your organization or business plans to go to ten gigabit Ethernet, then you'll want to go with CAT6.  It operates at as fast as 50 Mhz, thus greatly improving your transmission speeds And in today's heavy-bandwidth days, every gigabyte that you can transfer at faster speeds helps. However, if that kind of performance is not yet needed and your company cannot afford to pay the extra 10% premium, you'll probably need to stick with the CAT5 and CAT5e standards.