Category 6 Cable: A Category above the Rest!

Today's bandwidth expectations mean that Category 5 is strategically dead. The Category 5 Enhanced (5e) standards, which should have been ratified in August and may be finalized at November's committee meeting, specify new measurements that provide more margins for 100BaseTX and ATM-155 traffic. Critically, Category 5e standards make reliable Gigabit Ethernet connections possible. But many structured cabling suppliers argue that Category 5e is only an interim solution on the road to Category 6, which will support at least 200 MHz; in the interests of sufficient operating margin, the IEEE is requesting a 250-MHz Category 6 specification. Despite the fact that the Category 6 standards are only at draft stage, manufacturers are offering a host of products and claiming that these products comply with the draft proposals.
What is a category 6 cable? Out of the three cable categories (Cat-5, Cat-5e & Cat-6), Category 6 is the most advanced and provides the best performance. Just like Cat 5 and Cat 5e, Category 6 cable is typically made up of four twisted pairs of copper wire, but its capabilities far exceed those of other cable types because of one particular structural difference: a longitudinal separator. This separator isolates each of the four pairs of twisted wire from the others, which reduces crosstalk, allows for faster data transfer, and gives Category 6 cable twice the bandwidth of Cat 5! Cat 6 cable is ideal for supporting 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and is able to operate at up to 250 MHz. Since technology and standards are constantly evolving, Cat 6 is the wisest choice of cable when taking any possible future updates to your network into consideration. Not only is Category 6 cable future-safe, it is also backward-compatible with any previously-existing Cat 5 and Cat 5e cabling found in older installations.
Category 6, (ANSI/TIA/EIA-568-B.2-1) is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that is backward compatible with the Category 5, category 5e and Category 3 cable standards. Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. The cable standard is suitable for 10BASE-T / 100BASE-TX and 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) and is expected to suit the 10000BASE-T (10Gigabit Ethernet) standards. It provides performance of up to 250 MHz.
The cable contains four twisted copper wire pairs, just like earlier copper cable standards. Although Cat-6 is sometimes made with 23 gauge wire, this is not a requirement; the ANSI/TIA-568-B.2-1 specification states the cable may be made with 22 to 24 AWG gauge wire, so long as the cable meets the specified testing standards. When used as a patch cable, Cat-6 is normally terminated in 8P8C often incorrectly referred to as "RJ-45" electrical connectors. Some Cat-6 cables are too large and may be difficult to attach to 8P8C connectors without a special modular piece and are technically not standard compliant. If components of the various cable standards are intermixed, the performance of the signal path will be limited to that of the lowest category. As with all cables defined by TIA/EIA-568-B, the maximum allowed length of a Cat-6 horizontal cable is 90 meters (295 feet). A complete channel (horizontal cable plus cords on either end) is allowed to be up to 100 meters in length, depending upon the ratio of cord length: horizontal cable length.