Category Archives: Copper Cabling

Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable: Which Should You Use?

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Ethernet cables are classified into sequentially numbered categories (e.g. Cat6, Cat7) according to different specifications. And these categories are how we can easily know what type of cable we need for specific transmission speed, Cat5e Ethernet cable supports up to 1000Mbps, while the latest category Cat8 Ethernet cable can be up to 25/40Gbps. But as for shielded vs unshielded Ethernet cable, how to choose? To find this out, make sure you know the basic information and differences between the two types.

Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable: Basic Information

A shielded cable or shield twisted pair (STP) cable has an outside layer or “shield” of conductive material around the internal conductors, which needs to be grounded to cancel the effect of electromagnetic interference (EMI). The conductive shield can reflect or conduct external interference away without affecting the signals of the internal conductor. Therefore, shielded Ethernet cables are usually used to protect signals from EMI over the length of the cable run, so as to result in faster transmission speeds and fewer data errors.

Unshielded means no additional shielding like meshes or aluminum foil are used. Because of this, unshielded Ethernet cables, also called unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable are lighter and cheaper. These Ethernet cables are designed to cancel EMI with the way the pairs are twisted inside the cables. Compared with the shielded cables, unshielded cables provide much less protection. These cables performances are often degraded when EMI is present.

Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable

This is a figure of Cat6 shielded and unshielded cable.

Shielded vs Unshielded Ethernet Cable: Difference

Different applications

The typical difference between the two types lies in the application. Because of the shielding material design, STP and UTP cable will result in different performance. For example, Cat6 shielded and unshielded cable can be up to 10Gbps speed. However, in some cases such as the radio or airports stations, Cat6 UTP cable will experience slower speed and more data transmission errors may be caused when they are close to the machines or other electronics that produce high EMI. But with the additional shielded safeguard, Cat6 STP cable can provide some protection from EMI, performing better than the UTP one. Therefore, STP cables are the best choice for the environments where there is a high chance of electronic interference, while UTP is most suitable for office or home LANs.

Different grounding methods

In addition, due to the different designs, their cabling grounding methods are different. UTP cables don’t rely on grounding to the same extent as STP cabling. This will decrease the installation time and cost. However, STP needs a more robust grounding and bonding process. And note that the wrong grounded shield actually can worsen crosstalk and electromagnetic interference.

Which Should I Choose?

As for shielded vs unshielded Ethernet cable, the best choice should largely depend on where you plan to install the cables. As mentioned above, STP and UTP cables are widely used in different fields due to EMI interference requirement. Airports, medical centres and factories often benefit from STP cabling, because these places need to process numerous machines that produce considerable amounts of interference. On the other hand, for home and office use, it’s wise to choose UTP cables.

Besides, the budget is another factor which may determine the final decision. It’s believed that STP cost much more than UTP since it can provide better protection from EMI. It’s true, but the gap is narrow. For instance, Cat6 Ethernet cable at FS, the Cat6 UTP of 10ft length costs 2.6 dollars while Cat6 shield cable with the same length needs 3.6 dollars, there is only a very small gap, which may be significant for large scale installations, but not for small networks.

Therefore, as for shielded vs unshielded Ethernet cable, it should be determined by the intended application. If you’re still not sure what type of cabling you need, please contact us via sales@fs.com for expert advice.

Will Different Ethernet Cable Speed Affect My Network?

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Ethernet cables are the default physical connection for today’s home or business networks. People always want to buy a high speed Ethernet cable to enjoy a high speed network transmission. However, will different Ethernet cable speed actually affect your networks? Here, we’ll discuss the speeds of the most popular Ethernet cables categories (Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7 and the newest Cat8), to help you make a wise choice.

Ethernet Cable Speed of Different Categories

The following is the overview of Ethernet cable speed of Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8.

Cat5 Ethernet Cable Speed: 10/100Mbps for 100m

Cat5 Ethernet cable is the oldest type of these cables. It can support either 10Mbps or 100Mbps speed with a bandwidth of up to 100MHz, which was the first Fast Ethernet-capable to be introduced. However, with technology develops, this old-fashioned cable is no longer a recognized standard, that it’s hard to find it in today’s stores.

Cat5e Ethernet Cable Speed: 1000Mbps for 100m

Cat5e is an enhanced version of Cat5 cable. This Ethernet cable speed is up to 1000Mbps or “Gigabit” speed. In theory, it could be ten times faster than Cat5. Besides, it decreases crosstalk that happens between two wires inside a cable. Cat5e Ethernet cable is the most widely used category on the market.

Cat6 Ethernet Cable Speed: 1000Mbps for 100m and 10Gbps for 55m

Cat6 is certified to handle Gigabit speed with a bandwidth of up 250MHz. And it can be capable of 10Gbps speed under ideal circumstances. Cat6 Ethernet cable has some improvements like the better insulation and thinner wires, providing a higher signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, it’s quite suited for environments with higher electromagnetic interference. Note that, Cat6 Ethernet cable is provided with two forms, shielded twisted pair (STP) and unshielded twisted pair (UTP).

Cat6a Ethernet Cable Speed: 10Gbps for 100m

Cat6a Ethernet cable allows 10Gbps data transmission rate with the bandwidth of up to 500MHz. Its transmission can achieve to 100 metres, which is longer than the 37-55 metres of Cat6 cable. Cat6a is usually available in STP form. This cable is ideal for industrial situation, but lack flexibility that is often needed for a residential deployment.

Cat7 Ethernet Cable Speed: 10Gbps for 100m

Ethernet cable speed of Cat7 can reach to 10Gbps with a bandwidth of up to 600MHz. It consists of a screened, shield twisted pair of wires, which completely eliminates alien crosstalk. It’s more suited to data centres than home use.

Cat8 Ethernet Cable Speed: 40Gbps for 20m

Cat8 is capable of supporting bandwidth of up to 2000MHz. This Ethernet cable speed can be up to 25/40Gbps. It’s the fastest Ethernet cable, which is not intended for office environments, but suitable for connecting equipment in data centres such as connecting server to switch.
For better reference, the following table lists the Ethernet cable speed and bandwidth of these cables.

Category
Speed
Bandwidth
Cat5
10/100Mbps
100MHz
Cat5e
1000Mbps
100MHz
Cat6
1000Mbps
250MHz
Cat6a
10Gbps
500MHz
Cat7
10Gbps
600MHz
Cat8
25/40Gbps
2000MHz

Technical and Physical Differences

The typical technical differences are clear to see. As the category number increases, so does the Ethernet cable speed and bandwidth. This is not a coincidence, because each category brings more rigorous testing to eliminate crosstalk and add isolation between the wires. Thus, Cat8 supports the highest transmission speed.
As for the physical differences, Ethernet cables use different construction and isolation to eliminate interference and allow for faster speeds. Take the cables from FS.COM as an example. Its Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8 use screen shield and aluminum foil shielding for reducing crosstalk, while Cat5e and Cat6 don’t. So Cat6a, Cat7 and Cat8 have better performance.

Ethernet cable speed factor

Is It Worth to Upgrade?

Actually, for home connections, a Cat5e or Cat6 cable with 1Gbps Ethernet cable speed is fast enough. People should note that upgrade cables will not make a difference in how fast you load websites, because the Internet speed depends on many factors but not just the Ethernet cable speed. But for places like data centres, of course, the faster the better. Because these places have high requirements for transmission speed. If you decide to buy Ethernet cables, welcome to order at FS.COM that provides comprehensive products of Ethernet cables.

What is The Category 7 Cable

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A Category 7 cable (cat 7 cable) is a type of shielded twisted pair cable used in high-speed Ethernet based computer networks of 1 Gbps or higher. It is defined and specified in the ISO/IEC 11801:2002, Class F specification. The Cat 7 cable is backward compatible with Cat 6, Cat 5/e cabling standard and equipments.

The Cat 7 cable is similar to the Cat 6 cable. Each has the same four-pair of twisted cables that support 10 Gbps Ethernet networks and stretch to 100 meters in length. It can provide a bandwidth speed of 600 MHz.

The Cat 7 cable provides more enhanced performance against crosstalk and attenuation than its previous peers by requiring that each pair be completely shielded and form a screen-shielded twisted pair (SSTP) or screen-foiled twisted pair (SFTP) based cabling. It is used in Gb Ethernet and 10 Gb Ethernet networks.

Cat 7 cable is commonly terminated using a GG45 connector, which is a connector that it backwards compatible with the 8p8c RJ45 connectors used on Cat6 or Cat5e cable. The GG45 connector has four additional conductors that provide support for frequencies of up to 600MHz, and up to 1000MHz using Cat7a. The higher frequencies allow Cat 7 cable to support 10-Gigabit Ethernet. Cat7 cable may also be terminated using TERA connectors, which were developed by Siemon. The TERA connector has a unique footprint and is not compatible with a standard 8p8c (RJ45) connector. The TERA connector is also capable of supporting frequencies of up to 600MHz using Cat7a cable. The ability to support the higher frequencies allows Cat7 and Cat7a cable to carry more data. This allows Cat7 and Cat7a cable to support Ethernet applications up to 10-Gigabit Ethernet.

What is the application for a data center?

Cat7 and Cat7a cabling will be used for backbone connections between servers within a data center. This provides a high-speed interconnect used for data transfer within the network.

Does this replace fiber?

This provides an alternative to using fiber optic cabling within the data center. Cat7 and Cat7a cabling will provide similar performance to some fiber solutions. The cost of equipment that supports copper cabling is typically less than equipment that supports fiber cabling. Another advantage is that the copper cabling is not as fragile as fiber cabling.

What’s the practical performance difference with Cat5e/6?

Cat7 and Cat7a cable are designed to support much higher frequency signals than Cat5e and Cat6. This allows Cat7 and Cat7a cabling to carry a larger amount of information. Cat7 and Cat7a cable are also able to better protect the signals traveling over the cable. The shielding as well as the tighter twists of the pairs in Cat7 and Cat7a cable lessens the effects of crosstalk and EMI.

Currently, Cat7 is not widely adopted. Cat5e and Cat6 solutions sufficiently support the bandwidth requirements of today’s data centers, networks, and end users. Using Cat7 for a connection to a desktop would be unnecessary because the bandwidth would not be utilized. It may also be an unnecessary expense for many data center applications for the same reason. However, as technology advances and requirements increase, Cat7 cable will become more relevant in the data center and desktop connections.

As the best fiber optic products supplier, FiberStore Inc. offer Cat7 twisted pair cables, Cat7 Patch Cable, Cat 7 Ethernet cables, if you would like to know our Cat 7 cable price please contact us or visit our website. We also supply other fiber optic products, such as fiber transceiver, fiber attenuators, MPO connector and more. Welcome to contact us.

Why Choose the Shielded Cabling System

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Shielded VS. Unshielded

In Network Cabling system at all levels, there are two main technical types: Shielded and Unshielded cabling systems. Since the earliest fabric cabling standards since its establishment types on these two technologies are widespread in the market. Germany, Australia, Switzerland and France in the first preference or relatively shielded cabling system, while in other parts of the world, the more popular non-shielded cabling system and will soon be adopted. Both shielded and unshielded gigabit transfer rate to meet the requirements, but when the transmission rate up to Gigabit or even higher, the shield system to support the stability of the advantages of the high frequency transmission becomes very apparent.

What is the function of shielded?
F/UTP

F/UTP cable shielding structure is four pairs of wires in the data cable outside the contractor a layer of aluminum foil shielded, this layer of shielding can be reduced to a great extent the total package:

1. This is the root of the signal transmission cable radiated interference signals on the impact of adjacent data cable (for example: the same bundle of cables in the adjacent data cable).

2. Interference from other data cable or other interference source signal for this cable.

3. For a high quality data transmission system, which is significant in two kinds of effects. If the external interference signal is strong enough it will happen with the normal transmission signal stack a plus, resulting in reduced transmission performance even the entire system can not work properly.

S/FTP

S/FTP structure in addition to the total package of braided foil shield, Twisted Pair Cable is respectively in each pair with a layer of aluminum foil shield to protect the transmission signal does not interfere with each other, so near-end crosstalk attenuation (NEXT)performance dramatically.  NEXT better performance means higher SNR and better transmission quality and faster system output. S/FTP shielded cables NEXT excellent structural performance of other cables (such as non-shielded U/UTP) can not be compared, therefore, ISO11801 on the Cat 7 (600MHz) and Cat 7a  (1000MHz) only provides the S/FTP cable structure, U/UTP cannot meet.

10GBase-T make data cable is facing new problems: Alien Crosstalk

2006 Copper Gigabit Ethernet applications published the proposed new standard transport protocols 10GBASE-T compared to 1000Base-T, its transmission rate increased 10 times. 1000BASE-T copper cabling required parameters (Attenuation, NEXT, Return Loss, etc.) the bandwidth required to reach 1-100MHz, with UTP Cat 5e (Class D) cabling system to meet requirements. 10GBASE-T cabling channel requirements of all component parameters have to be up to 500MHz bandwidth, which requires copper to reach at least Cat.6A (Class Ea) or higher level.

Along with the development of 10GBASE-T, external noise problems become more evident, resulting in a specification for external noise to be used to assess in the same bundle of cables, the interaction between different cables. This is what we call Alien Crosstalk. Alien Crosstalk will increase with the increase of frequency. Worse, 10GBASE-T confronted with external noise, will not be able to “adaptive” to lower the rate at which the network may be subsequently face paralysis. Therefore, to support 10GBASE-T cabling system application, the ability to resist alien crosstalk is vital.

  • Since 10GBASE-T high transmission frequencies and complex coding method is very sensitive to the external noise.
  • Shielding system excellent coupling atttenuation performance makes it naturally have to resist alien crosstalk.
  • The unshielded system against alien crosstalk is usually only on the performance of 0dB.
  • Shielding system in the design is completely satisfy the application of 10G.
The installation of 10GBase-T: U/UTP VS. FTP

Unshielded system: As far as possible away from power cable during installation; Different applications (1Gb/s and 10Gb/s) in the same pipeline transmission will cause the external crosstalk.

Shielding system: With the power cable can be reduced separation distance; Allow different applications (1 Gb / s and 10 Gb / s) in the same pipeline transmission; Does not need additional external crosstalk test field.

The separation distance between the data cable and power cable

In EN50174 standard defines the content of different coupling attenuation value level of data cable, respectively, from A (low coupling attenuation, worse) to D (high coupling attenuation, good) four levels.

Installers need to know which cable separated levels to determine the choice of the data requirements of the standard cable with power cable between the minimum separation distance. Data cable coupling attenuation higher the value and power cables minimum separation distance between the smaller.

Relative to the shielded cable, the unshielded (U/UTP) separation distance between cable and power cable to further. In the implementation of the project, if need the data cable and power cable isolation far distance, we need a bigger size pipe/bridge, or even additional bridge, doing this will no doubt have higher cost, sometimes limited to the bridge installation space. To make matters worse, these additional requirements often neglected or ignored, resulting in network system is the key point of interference.

Grounding

For shielded, unshielded systems and Fiber Optics Cable, all need to implement protective grounding. Because of the need to consider personal and equipment safety, therefore no matter adopt what kind of cabling system, the metal part of the system must be grounded.

For the shielding system, also need to implement the functional ground. Grounded shielding system functions with respect to the implementation of non-shielded systems only difference is that when you install the module connector and the cable shielding mask area area connected.

Overview

Shielding system relative to the unshielded system has been greatly improved EMC performance. For Gigabit Ethernet applications, shielding against external interference effects is essential, and shielded cabling system had to meet the standards in the design of anti-alien crosstalk (A-XT) requirements, can effectively prevent the cable from the adjacent between the external crosstalk.