In the technological world we live in today we are all interconnected through millions of cables whether they can be seen or not. What we will be looking into today is the intercal design and purpose of two special cables called Category 5 cable and category 6 cable. Category 5 cable, commonly known as Cat 5, is a twisted pair cable type designed for high signal integrity. Many such cables are unshielded but some are shielded. Category 5 has been superseded by the Category 5e specification. This type of cable is often used in structured cabling for computer networks such as Ethernet, and is also used to carry many other signals such as basic voice services, token ring, and ATM (at up to 155 Mbit/s, over short distances).
Organizations such as the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) and Electronic Industries Association (EIA) set specific product standards, and these guidelines have resulted in cables being classified into various categories based on their performance levels. Just in case youre not too familiar with cabling terminology here are a few straightforward definitions and statistics on these three common grades of network cable:
Cat 5: Out of the...