What has Changed From CAT5e to CAT6a Plenum Cables?

CAT5e Plenum Cable’s introduction back in 1998 was one of the major introductions in Category series which paved the way for the next generation of augmented twisted pair cabling known as the sixth generation of augmented Plenum Cable aka. Category 6a Plenum cable.

In the midst of 1998, this cable was introduced with a high-end speed of 1 gig that could travel over the course of 100 meters and not only that but it also provided a frequency of up to 250 MHz. This was an amazing introduction to the category series which actually made the Category 6 look to make a better spec networking cable.

Before indulging into the talk of the generations, the jacket type plays an important part as well. In this scenario, The plenum is the jacket type of these networking cables. The word Plenum comes from the Plenum space concept. This concept revolves around the construction spaces of the building such as air vents which are home to heat and air conditioning.

Such spaces are the zone of heat and can burn the cable hence producing toxic gasses and visible smoke. The plenum jacket type of networking cable was introduced to deal with this problem. This jacket type has fire strict properties which help to protect the cable from burning. This is the reason the plenum spaces in the building always use the plenum cables and the reason why plenum cables can replace the non-plenum cables but not the other way around.

 

Knowing about the plenum jacket type, we can buy the cables as per our interests by looking at the specifications. If we move a bit further and look into the category 6’s augmented plenum spec sheet we come to know that it was really a massive improvement and upgrade on the lines of faster speed and better frequency.

The specifications of CAT6a Plenum Cable includes a faster speed of up to 10 gigabytes that can be used for over the course of 100 meters and better performance of this networking cable with a frequency of up to 850 MHz. If we see the time difference of 4 years between the two generations of networking cable, we can easily deduce that this was a massive upgrade.

So, if the question is really there of what has changed between the two generations, then it is a clear answer that faster speed and performance have changed but this is not all, there’s much more to the story. With better specs, comes better usage. With such speed, you can stream and transfer data in much less time and hence you can do so much more than a speed of 1 gigabyte will restrict you to.

All in all, if you really have a big budget then you should go big and enjoy better speed and performance with CAT6a Plenum Cable but if you have a low budget and a smaller network then you should definitely go with a fifth-generation of twisted pair Ethernet networking cable aka. Category 5e Plenum cable.