What is Differences between CAT5e and CAT6 Network Cables

Network Bandwidth

• Physical bandwidth of CAT5e Cables: 100MHz, physical bandwidth of CAT6 Cables: 250MHz;

• Note: the larger the physical bandwidth, the higher the transmission rate supported.

Wire Gauge

• CAT5e cable usually adopts 24awg wire gauge (copper core diameter: about 0.51mm), CAT6 cable usually adopts 23AWG wire gauge (copper core diameter: about 0.57mm);

• Note: the coarser the copper core diameter is, the better the conduction performance is, and the smaller the signal attenuation on the line is.

• In the POE application field, 23AWG has an absolute advantage over 24awg in energy transmission.

Data Transmission

• The maximum data transmission rate supported by CAT5e cabling theory is 1200mbps, and the maximum data transmission rate supported by CAT6 cabling theory is 2400mbps;

• Note: the higher the data transmission rate, the greater the physical bandwidth is required.

Application

• 10GBASE-T 10 Gigabit Ethernet application standard that CAT5e cabling does not support, and 10GBASE-T Ethernet application standard that CAT6 cabling can support, but the transmission distance is limited to 37 meters.

• Note: the category 6 cabling system can barely meet the application requirements of 10 Gigabit Ethernet over a short distance, while the category 5 system cannot support it.

Strucure

• CAT6 cable usually adopts cross skeleton structure to reduce crosstalk between pairs, and its (next) near end crosstalk performance index is 5-10db higher than that of CAT5e without skeleton structure in the range of (1-100mhz);

• Note: reducing the crosstalk between pairs is the most important basic premise for the stable and high-speed transmission of data information in the cabling system.

Results

• Compared with the above two levels of cabling system, the six types of cabling system is not only far higher than the five types of cabling system in physical and electrical performance, but also far higher than the five types of cabling system in data high-speed and stable transmission.

• At the same time, with the continuous maturity of category 6 cabling market, the large-scale promotion of category 6 products drives the production of category 6 products, making the price of category 6 cabling products no longer much higher than that of category 5.