Cat7 cabling

At Lynx Networks we installs thousands of cabling systems every year but we only get about one enquiry per year for Cat7. Although Cat7 cabling has a vastly superior performance to Cat5e of Cat6 data cabling, there are very few applications that can use its greater bandwidth. The good news for Cat7 is that is was ahead of it's time and can support the IEEE 10Gigabit Ethernet standard, unlike Cat5e or Cat6. Howver, there is little need for 10Gigagit Ethernet outside of the backbone or the data centre, and it competes with fibre in the applications.

The drawback for Cat7 is that it is much more expensive. It's also physically bigger than Cat5e or Cat6 so requires much bigger containment.

Don't buy Cat6 cabling

Most cabling companies and virtually all manufacturers of cabling systems would prefer you to buy Cat6 cabling rather than Cat5e. My belief, as Managing Director of an honest cabling company, is that it's unlikely you'll need Ethernet speeds of more than 1Gigabit to the desk for the next ten years unless you running very demanding applications. Therefore, save your money and opt for a Cat5e cabling system. No adopted standard runs on Cat6 that doesn't already run on a compliant Cat5e cabling system, so why buy Cat6?

Cat6a, when the standard is ratified, will support 10Gigabit Ethernet so there will be a case for it in backbones, data centres and for bandwidth-heavy applications. Any Cat6a cabling systems currently being installed are proprietary systems that should meet the draft standard for Cat6a channels. It will be a while before the standard is ratified for permanent link and for the individual components of the cabling system i.e. patch leads, cable, sockets etc. Until then, every component in your cabling system would have to be supplied by the same manufacturer.

www.lynxnetworks.co.uk/cabling.asp