atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Cat 6 verses Cat 6e

What is difference between these 2 cables, is it speeds, Mhz, better resistance to cross talk?

We might be cabling a job using both Cat 6 and Cat 6e. Its 15 runs, owner has a box of 6e he would like us to use,to keep his cost down a bit. We have a bunch of boxes of Cat 6. Will this cause any problems with network? I think patch panel is only Cat 6, not sure.

If the job is being quoted and sold as a Cat6 installation, then you won't have any issues using Cat6e. 6e is not an official standard, but something that the manufacturer dreamed up on their own to indicated that their cable exceeds the requirements for Cat6. It would be like calling their cable "Super Cat6" It really doesn't mean anything, it's just marketing. It may have a higher twist ratio, it may have better resistance to cross talk. In practical terms the network isn't going to know the difference, but it may be a bit more difficult to terminate.

You can look up the standards info for Cat6 and Cat6a, but for "6e" you would need to check the manufacturer's website for that specific product.

Like Clinton said, probably just marketing hype. 6a on the other hand has a considerably larger OD than cat6, which is something to consider when conduit is involved. I have boxes of 6e, they are tested or swept to 550 or 650Mhz, whereas the standard for cat6 is 250Mhz.

Jack

Marketing hype? If 6e is tested at 550-650 MHZ compsred to 250 MHZ for regular Cat 6, isn't that a better cable to use?

If you are using 1000Base-T, you only care what the cable is doing up to 250MHz. If you are using 10GBase-T you care about performance up to 500MHz. Anything beyond those numbers is just more marketing hype. You've probably seen patch cables that say they are tested up to 350Mhz, or something similar. But what does that mean exactly? There is no network technology that operates at exactly 350MHz, and no standard to say what the performance characteristics are.

Can you say that the 6e cable is better than the Cat6 cable? Absolutely, it probably is better cable and probably does at least come close to being Cat6a. It just doesn't matter.