Cat 5 Cable

Category 5 cables which is more commonly known as the Cat 5 is an Ethernet cable. It is a high speed integrity cable and is from the family of the twisted pair cables. It follows the standards set by the Electronic Industries Association and Telecommunications Industry Association (EIA/TIA). Cat 5 is the most popular twisted pair Ethernet cable being used now days.

The Cat 5 is specifically used as the basic structured Ethernet cable but it is also used for many other jobs including the carrying of signals of basic voice service, ATM and token ring. Cat 5 cables are composed of a four pairs of copper wires and are used to support high-speed Ethernet which is up to 100 Mbps. But one thing which might be considered as a drawback of Cat 5 and all the other twisted pair cables is that it can run a maximum recommended run length of 100m.

The older Cat 5 cable had 4 pairs of copper wires but only two of them were consumed but now due to the advancement in technology the newer specification for the Cat 5 cable, which is known as the Cat 5e, has can carry data at a speed up to 1000 Mbps and is compatible with Gigabit Ethernet networking over short distances utilizing all the four pair of wires unlike the older specification.

Cat 5 has two major types:

•    Solid
•    Stranded

The Solid Cat 5 cable can bear longer length runs and works effectively in fixed wiring pattern like those in the office buildings. Whereas the Stranded Cat 5 cables is much more flexible and better suited for short distances and movable distances.

Although technologies have changed but Cat 5 or Cat 5e are still the most popularly used cable for Local Area Networking.