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Cat6 Patch Panel
hey guys,
Just wondering if there is such a thing as a Cat6 patch panel.... i know they sell them but is there actually a difference between the patch panels used for Cat5/e ?? Ive tried google many times but cant find anything to compare the two.
Any help and resources would be great.
Cheers
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You are aware that the cat5 is a definition for the cable ?
and that the patch panels are just where you do the 'plug and play' bit :)
I haven't heard of a cat6, and I do install a LOT of the cat5 / fibre cables
Is there any reason for the enquiry ?
or is it just idle curiosity ?
cat5 can sustain the 100Mbps and also 'do' the GB stuff, with certain parameters met.
and fibre is the choice for 'secure' transmission............
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No no, lol
Apparently there is such thing as a Cat6 patch panel... designed to be used with the Cat6 cable. I know it is really practicle to use the cat6 cable, but i guess its kinda future proofing. I also understand that the Cat6 is less flexible and more likiely to lose quality when moved.
I called a friend of mine in the cabling business after i did this, and he said the difference between the cat5 patch panel and the cat6 patch panel is that how far apart the terminations are, how the wires get looped around.....
After the conversation i was at where i was before in saying there really is no difference. I mean, i dont even think the density of the copper used is any different.... but yea, *apparently* there IS a difference....
Anyone back this up??? i spent ages on google before :/
Cheers guys
CTO
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I found a few white papers from my stash!
In a nutshell - Cat6 is the current standard however there is a proposed Cat7 currently under "development". Cat6 cabling and other hardware is essentially manufactured to a higher quality than previous standards stipulated. Specifically how, I'm unsure (presumably materials, manufacturing process, component builds etc), however, cat5e and cat6 (and also the previous "obsolete" categories like cat5 and 3) are all interoperable and part of the standards stipulate the same connections to be used (ie RJ45) and also compatibilty between different manufacturers.
Cat6 can support approximately double the bandwidth of Cat5e, due to lower resulting figures between signal loss (attenuation) and cross talk interference and also has a better signal to noise ratio. Any mixture of categories will support data transfer and performance to the lowest standards used e.g. if you use cat5 cabling with a cat6 patch panel, your network performance will be up to the performance dictated by cat5 implementation.
The newer category also further limits network errors and ultimately, network downtime due to the sum of the overall improvements.
Also, the newer cat6 has improvements to electromagnectic interference when cat6 cabling and other cat6 equipment (eg patch panels) are used together.
With regards movement, I'm not aware of any major issue with moving the cabling however, the one thing we would not do (kind of common sense) is put 90 degree bends in the cable, rather, a nice gentle curve if you need to install around corners.
We were installing cat6 ethernet cabling and panel equipment (also RJ45 outlets at the workstation) when it was only a proposed standard back in about 1999/2000 - the current was cat5e. I think the difference in cost is not that great.
If you google TIA / EIA standards, you should find enough info to do your own head in.