Nowadays, working environments are highly dependent on internet speeds and network performances. It is due to the increasing need for data transmission. Therefore, the use of high-quality Ethernet cables is a must to achieve better results.
For this purpose, category 6 Ethernet cables are highly in demand these days. Especially, Cat6a plenum 1000ft and Cat6 plenum pure copper cables are very popular among network administrators due to their quality features.
In this article, we are going to discuss some of their main features. We will also do a little comparison of those features to make it easier for the users to understand their work.
1. Cat6a VS Cat6 Cable Jacket Types: –
The Ethernet cables are available in different jacket types. The most common ones are the following.
- Plenum-rated
- Riser-Rated
The use of both jacket-type cables is different from each other. Cat6 Plenum Cable is designed to be installed in the plenum spaces of the buildings whereas the riser-rated cables are designed to be installed in the Riser spaces only.
Although you can install Plenum-rated cables in the riser spaces as well it is not recommended due to their high cost. The riser-rated cables cannot be installed in the plenum spaces. The plenum jackets are made of a special type of material known as Polyvinyl Chloride. This material is highly fire-retardant which makes the cable an extremely safe and secure option to be installed in the plenum spaces of the buildings.
Cat6 and Cat6a cables are available in both jacket types in the market. Cat6 plenum cable is a bit less expensive in comparison to the Cat6a plenum cable. It is due to the up-gradation. Cat6a plenum cable is the advanced variant of category 6 Ethernet cables.
2. Cat6a VS Cat6 STP and UTP Variants: –
Cat6 Solid Copper cable is available in both STP and UTP variants. STP stands for “shielded twisted pair” and UTP stands for “unshielded twisted pair”. Each Ethernet cable comes with four pairs of conductor wires. These wires are the main carriers of signals. Therefore, they are very important in these cables.
In some variants of Ethernet cables, these conductor wires are shielded with an extra foil covering. In some cases, each pair of conductor wire is foiled separately while in some all four pairs are foiled together. Cat6 Ethernet cable is available in the market in both types. Some of its variants are shielded while some are unshielded.
On the other hand, Cat6a Ethernet cable mostly comes with a shielding feature. There is a very rare case that you will find a Cat6a cable without this extra shielding. The shielded variants are more efficient in places where the interference factors are high. Therefore, network managers opt to use Cat6a shielded cables in the network that are located at high-interference places. Cat6 unshielded variant is good to use in residential networks or small commercial networks.
3. Cat6a VS Cat6 Data Transfer Speeds: –
The data transfer speed is one of the main factors in selecting a specific Ethernet cable. If we compare Cat6a VS Cat6 Ethernet cable data transfer speeds. There is not much difference between them. Both Cat6 and Cat6a Ethernet cables are capable of delivering 10Gpbs data transfer speeds.
The difference between them arises when the distance is increased from above 50 meters. Cat6 Ethernet cable is capable of delivering 10Gbps speed only up to a 50 meters distance. When the distance increases from 50 meters, the speed of the cable comes down to 1Gbps.
In comparison to this Cat6a Ethernet cable is capable of maintaining 10Gbps data transfer speed up to a distance of 100 meters efficiently. This is the main reason for installing Cat6a cable in large commercial networks where the end systems are placed from the network switches at more than 50 meters distance. The best example of such networks is Hospitals.
