UTP Cable Categories
UTP cable stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair cable. UTP cables are cost-effective and flexible enough to be used for most purposes. There are many grades or levels of UTP cables, and most are more advanced then their predecessors. There are eight categories of cable that can be used for a variety of reasons.
Category 1
CAT 1, or Category 1, cable is best suited for telephone communication wiring. This type of cable should not be used for data transmission or Ethernet data work usage. It is mostly used for small business or residential wiring.
Category 2
Category 2, or CAT 2, cables are used for data transmission of up to 4Mbps. CAT 2 is also not suitable for high amounts of data usage.
Category 3
CAT 3, or category 3 cables, are twisted and unshielded, yet are able to carry 100 BASE-T networking. It can aid transmission of up to 16 MHz at a speed of up to 10 Mbps. It is not recommended for use with new network installations.
Category 4
Category cables, or CAT 4 cables, are unshielded and twisted like their CAT 3 counterparts. They can support a transmission of up to 20 MHz and transmit data at a 16 Mbps speed. It is mostly used in token ring networks.
Category 5
CAT 5 cables, or Category 5 cables, transmit up to 100 MHz at speeds up to 1000 Mbps. This type of cable is a commonly used UTP cable, best suited for 100BASE-T, ATM and token ring networking. This type of cable is also used to hook computers up to the LAN network.
Category 5e
CAT 5e cables are an enhanced version of CAT 5 cables, with the only difference being that it supports transmission up to 10 MHz. It is best suited for Gigabit Ethernet and 1000BASE-T networking.
Category 6
Category 6 cables, or CAT 6 cables, are an unshielded twisted pair of cables that supports up to 250 MHz transmission. It is copper-wired and support a 1 GB speed, which is best used for 1000BASE-T, 100BASE-T and 10BASE-T networking.
Category 7
Category 7, or CAT 7, is a cable supporting transmission up to 600 MHz. It is a standard 10G Ethernet copper cable and is backward compatible with CAT 5 and CAT 6 cables.