CAT 6 vs CAT 6a | Cabling Point

Category 6 (CAT 6) cables have been around for a long time. These cables are used for network speeds up to 1Gbps. CAT6 has been quite sufficient for most applications to communicate between devices within the same Local Area Network. However with the increase use of more rich multimedia content in many applications, the need for higher netwrok speeds has increased greatly over the years. Network speeds of 10Gbps is not uncommon anymore. Fiber optic cables were used to support 10Gbps speeds in the past. However with the improvement in the copper cable technologies, now it is possible to support 10Gbps speeds with copper cabling as well. The cable type used for this purpose is Category 6a cabling (CAT6a). With CAT6a it is possible to support speeds upto 10gbps for a maximum distance of 100 meters (Apprximately 300 ft). CAT 6 cables use 22-24 AWG gauge wires where as CAT 6a uses 16-20 AWG guage cabling which has lower resistance. CAT6a cables are typically more expensive compared to CAT 6 cables.