CAT6 lan cable
1. Copper/CCA conductors, solid or stranded
2.23AWG/22AWG
3. UTP/FTP/SFTP
4. UL, Rohs compliant


Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as Cat-6, is a cable standard for Gigabit Ethernet and other network protocols that are backward compatible with the Category 5/5e and Category 3 cable standards. Compared with Cat-5 and Cat-5e, Cat-6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. The cable standard provides performance of up to 250 MHz and is suitable for 10base-T, 100base-TX (Fast Ethernet) , 1000base-T / 1000base-TX (Gigabit Ethernet) and 10Gbase-T (10-Gigabit Ethernet) . Category 6 cable has a reduced maximum length when used for 10Gbase-T; Category 6a cable, or Augmented Category 6, is characterized to 500 MHz and has improved alien crosstalk characteristics, allowing 10Gbase-T to be run for the same distance as previous protocols. Category 6 cable can be identified by the printing on the side of the cable sheath. [

Like most earlier cables, Category 6 cable contains four twisted wire pairs. Although it is sometimes made with 23 AWG wire, the increase in performance with Cat-6 comes mainly from better insulation; 22 to 24 AWG copper is allowed so long as the ANSI/TIA-568-B.2-1 performance specifications are met. Cat-6 patch cables are normally terminated in 8P8C (often incorrectly called RJ-45) modular connectors. Attenuation, NEXT (near end crosstalk) , and PSNEXT (power sum NEXT) in Cat-6 cable and connectors are all significantly lower than Cat-5/5e, which also uses 24 AWG wire.

The heavier insulation in some Cat-6 cables makes them too thick to attach to 8P8C connectors without a special modular piece; they are technically not standards compliant.

Connectors use either T568A or T568B pin assignments; the choice is arbitrary provided both ends of a cable are the same. Both schemes use straight-through wiring (pin 1 to 1, pin 2 to 2, etc) and the same pairing (pins 1&2, 3&6, 4&5, 7&8) . only the wire colors differ, and this does not matter outside the cable. This makes T568A and T568B patch cords interchangeable, with T568B being the most common.

If Cat-6 rated patch cables, jacks, and connectors are not used with Cat-6 wiring, overall performance is degraded to that of the cable or connector. Because the conductor sizes are generally the same, Cat-6 jacks may also be used with Cat-5e cable.

Because all 1000base-T (gigabit Ethernet) equipment and nearly all new 10base-T and 100base-TX equipment supports automatic crossover (auto-MDIX) , Cat-6 crossover cables are rare. [clarification needed] Crossover cables are needed only between 10/100 Mb/s hosts or switches where some endpoint does not support auto-MDIX; otherwise Cat-5 is sufficient for these slower speeds.