Cat6 vs Cat7 differences - both 10-gigabit but Cat7 "carries more information"?

[dvd]

This online store selling Cat6 cables is claiming that Cat6 cables "future-proof" your network by providing 10,000Mbps (10-Gigabit) maximum data rate: http://store.dynacable.com/network-cable-faqs/. By contrast, this store selling Cat7 cables says that Cat7 is "10-Gigabit" but then makes the claim that " Cat7 and Cat7a cable are designed to support much higher frequency signals than Cat5e and Cat6. This allows Cat7 and Ca7a cabling to carry a larger amount of information": http://www.cablestogo.com/learning/library/data-center/cat7-overview

 

Is this just marketing nonsense? If both Cat6 and Cat7 are 10-Gigabit then how can one carry more information than the other? I also thought that with Google Fiber or a fiber optic network the speed is currently not near 10-Gigabit so the difference between using Cat6 and Cat7 would be nonexistent from a user-end perspective due to bottleneck in the ISP or network speed. If anyone can clear this up then it would be appreciated.

[xendrome]

These aren't currently meant for home/SOHO/small biz for end users, they are meant for connetions between servers and switches in data centers/server NOCs.

[Zippo7]

Cat7 has been tested in lab environments upto 100Gbps at short distances (less then 50 feet) however to my knowledge that is only in lab environments and there is not any hardware on the market to use it (most people who are using 10Gbps and up use fiber). Also it is next to impossible to make a certified Cat 7 cable on your own without a lot of practice and most of the cheep cables you buy online wont even meet the specs for Cat 7.

[+BudMan MVC]

yeah to be honest there really isn't any reason to even run cat 6 in a home setup.. 5e is more than enough for a home/small biz setup..   Are you talking patch cables from device to device or device to switch or are you talking runs your perm setting up in the wall?

 

10ge is really not at a price point to see any sort of deployment in home setups or to end devices in the soho.. 

 

If your buying a patch cable to connect your computer to your switch then 5e is all that you really need..  Your buying anything above that your really just spending extra money that is not going to get you any sort of performance improvement at all.  Now if your wiring you home for Ethernet and you want to future proof it for say 10 years, then maybe need to have a bit discussion on what you might want to do..  Do you have a central location your wiring all the rooms too, where you core switch will be?  Are you running a backbone in your house from 1 location to another?  I have cat5e that runs from my computer room to living room (front of the house, and then another cable that runs from center of house to back of the house..  If I was going to do anything I would switch out this run to the front of the house with fiber.. I really wouldn't run copper at all other than to specific rooms from the core area.. 

 

So an overall understanding of your runs would need to be understood before determining the proper cable to use.

[sc302 Veteran]

The equipment cost isn't there for home use.  Cat 5e is more than capable of handling your gigabit needs. 10+ is internal business only for backbone and server links.  While it is getting more affordable, a new nic is still several hundred and the supporting switch is still several thousand.  You won't be seeing those speeds for about a decade, well after gigabit has become the norm. 

[dvd]

6 minutes ago, Zippo7 said:

Cat7 has been tested in lab environments upto 100Gbps at short distances (less then 50 feet) however to my knowledge that is only in lab environments and there is not any hardware on the market to use it (most people who are using 10Gbps and up use fiber). Also it is next to impossible to make a certified Cat 7 cable on your own without a lot of practice and most of the cheep cables you buy online wont even meet the specs for Cat 7.

Thanks, so I understand what you're saying is that since there is no hardware to actually use Cat7 at its theoretical maximum, especially for the target audience of that online store, so they are marketing them as 10-Gigabit but it is in fact faster than Cat6 (which actually is 10-Gigabit). 

 

6 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Are you talking patch cables from device to device or device to switch or are you talking runs your perm setting up in the wall?

This would be for device to switch and device to device. We were thinking that even if the Google Fiber speed is 1Gbps, using a cable with a theoretical maximum of 1Gbps would entail some loss of efficiency that made it effectively bottleneck the data speed (even if only a little bit), but with a cable that has a theoretical maximum of 10Gbps there would be no such bottleneck (or less of a bottleneck).

[+BudMan MVC]

^exactly.. The most cost effective way to get 10ge in the home currently is twin-axial (infiniBand connections)..

 

Have you priced a 10ge switch, even a low density model like 8 ports even... They are not home budget friendly that is for sure   I have looked...

 

edit:

Your never going to see 1gbps, its going to be something less that is for sure..  Lets call it 995...  Cat 5e is rated at gig, your not going to see any sort of loss in performance.. Just like you don't see 100 or 10 when your running at those speeds...  You see say 90's and 9's

[sc302 Veteran]

6 minutes ago, dvd said:

 

 

This would be for device to switch and device to device. We were thinking that even if the Google Fiber speed is 1Gbps, using a cable with a theoretical maximum of 1Gbps would entail some loss of efficiency that made it effectively bottleneck the data speed (even if only a little bit), but with a cable that has a theoretical maximum of 10Gbps there would be no such bottleneck (or less of a bottleneck).

Your equipment would have to be rated at above 1Gb/s to go beyond the maximum of 1Gb/s.

[dvd]

6 minutes ago, BudMan said:

Your never going to see 1gbps, its going to be something less that is for sure..  Lets call it 995...  Cat 5e is rated at gig, your not going to see any sort of loss in performance.. Just like you don't see 100 or 10 when your running at those speeds...  You see say 90's and 9's

So Cat6 is better if comparing to 5e if the cable is going to have a permanent in-wall installation, that's what they're talking about by saying it is future proofing. But in terms of the "rating" it means that it's actually more or less that speed (1Gbps / maybe 995 in reality), got it. I understand that the equipment has to be capable of 1Gbps or else it will bottleneck the speed. I think my questions have been answered, thanks for the responses everyone!

[seeprime]

9 minutes ago, dvd said:

Thanks, so I understand what you're saying is that since there is no hardware to actually use Cat7 at its theoretical maximum, especially for the target audience of that online store, so they are marketing them as 10-Gigabit but it is in fact faster than Cat6 (which actually is 10-Gigabit). 

Copper cables aren't faster or slower than another of the same type. The difference is in the quality of the materials and build. 5e is fine for home use. We use 6 simply because it's better shielded and seems to attract fewer mice to nibble on it (this is not a fact, just hypothesis based on observation).

[dvd]

On 12/7/2015, 1:01:03, seeprime said:

Copper cables aren't faster or slower than another of the same type. The difference is in the quality of the materials and build. 5e is fine for home use. We use 6 simply because it's better shielded and seems to attract fewer mice to nibble on it (this is not a fact, just hypothesis based on observation).

Someone recently told me that the "shielding" in the cat6 cables is shielding against internal electrical interference (that is what the twisted-pair design of the cable accomplishes). So they claimed that for external sources of interference (e.g. flourescent lights) there is zero difference in protection between cat5 and cat6. Is the internal type of interference protection what you meant when you said the cat6 are better shielded?

[jasondefaoite]

Cat 7 cables are not an official spec from the TIA/EIA-568 standard. And to see a difference in performance over Cat 6 you'd need to terminate the cables with GG45 connectors as opposed to RJ45. Don't waste your time or money.

 

Cat5e/Cat 6 are fine for home.

 

After Cat6a, per the official standard you are looking at Cat 8.1/8.2.

[jasondefaoite]

7 minutes ago, dvd said:

Someone recently told me that the "shielding" in the cat6 cables is shielding against internal electrical interference (that is what the twisted-pair design of the cable accomplishes). So they claimed that for external sources of interference (e.g. flourescent lights) there is zero difference in protection between cat5 and cat6. Is the internal type of interference protection what you meant when you said the cat6 are better shielded?

As the transmission speeds in the cable increase, it becomes more difficult to read those signals correctly at the opposite end of the cable. The standard is actually pretty good with intercable crosstalk between the pairs within the same cable. It's possible to filter noise on one pair produced by another pair within the cable, by knowing the data that was being transmitted producing the interference.

However, it is not possible to use this method to filter interference from another ethernet cable within the same trunking, called alien crosstalk. The fixes for this are either more shielding or an increase in the distance between the cables in the trunking. If you look at the Cat 6a cables, the jackets on the cables are thicker, for the sole purpose of increasing the distance between the cables. 

 

The last thing to remember when purchasing cables, the various category of cables are specified to meet the given speeds over a cable of 100m in length, without a repeater. The cable may not need to be fully up to spec to perform at 1Gbe or 10Gbe if the length is only 10-20m.

[sc302 Veteran]

28 minutes ago, dvd said:

Someone recently told me that the "shielding" in the cat6 cables is shielding against internal electrical interference (that is what the twisted-pair design of the cable accomplishes). So they claimed that for external sources of interference (e.g. flourescent lights) there is zero difference in protection between cat5 and cat6. Is the internal type of interference protection what you meant when you said the cat6 are better shielded?

The difference between a cat 6 and a 5e cable is that there is an internal separator. 

cat6

cat5e

 

 

this helps with, as you said, internal interference.  external interference is still an issue as the outer jacket is the same between cat 5 and cat 6.  This makes cat6 better for longer lengths. 

 

 

You can purchase shielded cables that will help with external interference.  but if you can use 12 inches of separation, you are good to go.

cat5e shielded
cat6 sheilded

 

 

this page may help a bit more:

https://www.comtecdirect.co.uk/category/structured-cabling/data-cable

 

 

 

 

[seeprime]

22 hours ago, dvd said:

Someone recently told me that the "shielding" in the cat6 cables is shielding against internal electrical interference (that is what the twisted-pair design of the cable accomplishes). So they claimed that for external sources of interference (e.g. flourescent lights) there is zero difference in protection between cat5 and cat6. Is the internal type of interference protection what you meant when you said the cat6 are better shielded?

Aluminum shielding inside the jacket is what I was referring to. The cables are tougher and are good for harsh environments.

[Marshall Veteran]

Just wired a home with Cat6a and those are a PIA to terminate. As others have stated, this is overkill for residential.