Cat6a Ultra Category 6 cable in 10G Ethernet

The Cat6a Ultra Six cable is currently considered the ideal cable type for next-generation 10GBASE-T applications, and this article will detail Cat6a Ultra Cat6 cable
in 10G Ethernet.

10GBASE-T

10GBASE-T is a 10G Ethernet standard defined by IEEE 802.
3an with twisted pair as the transmission medium, and the types of cables that can be used are Cat6 Category 6 cable, Cat6a Ultra Category 6 unshielded (UTP) cable, Cat6a Super Category 6 aluminum foil total shielded (F/UTP) cable, Cat7 Category 7 shielded (S/FTP) cable
.

Cat6a Ultra Cat6 cable in 10G Ethernet 2

Cat6a Super Category 6 cable

Cat6a Ultra Six cable is defined by the ANSI/TIA-568-C.
2 standard and can support a transmission rate of 10Gbps and a transmission distance
of 100 m.
It supports bandwidths of 500 MHz, which is much higher than the 250 MHz
required for Cat6 Category 6 cabling.
Cat6a super six network cable is composed of twisted pair and RJ45 crystal head containing four wire pairs, which can be fully backward compatible with Cat6 category 6, Cat5e super five and other twisted pairs
.
It is estimated that Cat6a CAT 6 cables will meet network cabling needs
for at least the next 10 years.

In addition, we also need to pay attention to an important performance parameter of Cat6a ultra-six cables: external crosstalk, if this parameter is not qualified, the transmission rate of Cat6a ultra-six cables will be greatly reduced
.
Extraneous crosstalk is crosstalk exerted on the interfered cable from other interfering cables when the bundle is transmitted, and is called extraneous crosstalk because the source of crosstalk
comes from outside the cable (other cables).
External crosstalk is related to many factors, including cable type, sheath type, cable length, twist degree, distance from interfering cables, electromagnetic interference (EMI), and more
.
The external crosstalk of Cat6a Super Six cables is often tested by the "6-pack 1" method, as shown in the figure below, the intermed cable located in the middle is called the victim cable, and the adjacent cable located in the periphery is called the interfering cable
.

Cat6a Ultra Cat6 cable in 10G Ethernet3

Cat6a CAT 6 cable in 10G Ethernet – unshielded (UTP) or foil total shielded (F/UTP)

After a lot of testing and practice, people finally believe that Cat6a super six cable can be used in
10G Ethernet.
However, Cat6a super six cable is shielded and unshielded, which one should we choose?

Now, unshielded twisted pair has been widely favored by people with its advantages of cheap price, convenient termination and simple installation, but in the application environment of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI) strong, shielded twisted pair is undoubtedly a better choice
.
In 10G Ethernet applications, due to the influence of external crosstalk, the use of shielded twisted pair transmission efficiency is higher
.

Cat6a Ultra Cat6 cable in 10G Ethernet4

Cat6a Super Category 6 unshielded (UTP) cable and Cat6a Super Category 6 aluminum foil total shielded (F/UTP) cable are two Cat6a Super Six cables widely used in 10G Ethernet (as shown above), which are described in detail below:

Cat6a Ultra Cat6 Unshielded (UTP) cable in 10G Ethernet

As shown in the figure below, Cat6a Ultra Six Unshielded (UTP) cables have a large outer diameter of about 0.
35 inches due to their large conductor diameter (at least 23 AWG), twisted pair twist, outer sheath thickness, and spacing between four pairs of wires, designed to reduce crosstalk and external crosstalk
.
In addition, Cat6a Ultra Six Unshielded (UTP) cables can be routed to maintain a certain distance between cables to reduce external crosstalk
.
It is important to note that external crosstalk testing of Cat6a Ultra Category 6 unshielded (UTP) cabling systems is necessary, but the testing process is complex and time-consuming
.

Cat10a Ultra Cat6 cable in 6G Ethernet <>

Cat6a Super Cat 6 foil total shielded (F/UTP) cable in 10G Ethernet

Cat6a super six aluminum foil total shield (F/UTP) cable is composed of 4 unshielded wire pairs and an aluminum foil total shielding layer, the function of aluminum foil total shielding is to isolate external electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI), but also to prevent data information leakage, with anti-monitoring function
.
Overall, Cat6a Cat 6 foil total shielded (F/UTP) cables are much
more resistant to external crosstalk than Cat6a Cat 6 unshielded (UTP) cables.

Conclusion

Both Cat6a Cat6a Unshielded (UTP) cables and Cat6a Cat 6 foil total shielded (F/UTP) cables can be used in 10G Ethernet, but Cat6a Cat 6 Foil Total Foil Shielded (F/UTP) cables are better
in the long term.