CAT- 8 cable???

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Ponchik

Senior Member
Location
CA
Occupation
Electronologist
Is CAT-8 out?? and have anyone of you installed it?

The client is asking for it and I have not seen it or installed it. I am wondering if the utilization equipment (TV boxes, modems, wifi hubs...) that is out today can support/handle CAT-8.

Any thoughts or ideas is much appreciated.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Is CAT-8 out?? and have anyone of you installed it?

The client is asking for it and I have not seen it or installed it. I am wondering if the utilization equipment (TV boxes, modems, wifi hubs...) that is out today can support/handle CAT-8.

Any thoughts or ideas is much appreciated.
Apparently there is a standard and possibly is some cable. From what I have read it is backward compatible so equipment currently using cat 5/6 would still work on it. It essentially is still a four pair cable using similar 8 pin connectors, just designed to be able to use higher speed without data loss/errors.
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
Last I heard, cat7/type f was the latest thing. It was more expensive than running fttd (fiber to the desktop). Short of a data center, I cant imagine a need for 40GB/sec transfer speed.

Clients will often want the latest and greatest even tho there is no need now, or ever. Cant tell you how many miles of Cat 6 I ran for VOIP phones when 5 or even 3 would do. or the number of customers that wanted a GB system until they got an estimate. If you want to future proof for data, install conduit.

Cat6a is the fastest currently available cable that is EIA/TIA recognized. There is almost nothing out there that is going to tax or make full use of a 10GB/s system.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Last I heard, cat7/type f was the latest thing. It was more expensive than running fttd (fiber to the desktop). Short of a data center, I cant imagine a need for 40GB/sec transfer speed.

Clients will often want the latest and greatest even tho there is no need now, or ever. Cant tell you how many miles of Cat 6 I ran for VOIP phones when 5 or even 3 would do. or the number of customers that wanted a GB system until they got an estimate. If you want to future proof for data, install conduit.

Cat6a is the fastest currently available cable that is EIA/TIA recognized. There is almost nothing out there that is going to tax or make full use of a 10GB/s system.

That is just it, CAT 5 is still sufficient for most end user things and has been around for a pretty long time. Data centers maybe need something higher level - that likely being fiber instead of copper.

By the time CAT 8 performance is needed for end user equipment something else will be the newest standard anyway.
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
That is just it, CAT 5 is still sufficient for most end user things and has been around for a pretty long time. Data centers maybe need something higher level - that likely being fiber instead of copper.

By the time CAT 8 performance is needed for end user equipment something else will be the newest standard anyway.

when I looked up cat 8, cat 9 came up too.

Cat5 (not cat5e) is considered legacy wiring now, but you are correct in that it's good enough in most existing installs. I see plenty of RG-59 working for HDTV even tho it hasnt been widely installed for CATV in 30+ years.

I always got a chuckle when I installed cat 6 to the desktop---I wonder how many people have 1000MB internet service...or in the case of a hotel, 100,000MB service... with no d/l limit... wonder how much that would cost.

Cat 7 uses tightly, variable twist rate 23ga wire pairs, with shielded pairs and an overall shield, and, initially, TERA connectors. 6a is already enough a pita that fiber is the next big step. Nobody in distribution is using copper anymore; its all going fiber.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Is CAT-8 out?? and have anyone of you installed it?

The client is asking for it and I have not seen it or installed it. I am wondering if the utilization equipment (TV boxes, modems, wifi hubs...) that is out today can support/handle CAT-8.

Any thoughts or ideas is much appreciated.

cat 6 is pretty much what is being used everywhere.

a side note, i test all my cables, 5, 5e, and 6 at 6 protocol.
i've never seen a 5 or 5e cable fail a cat 6 speed test, ever.

i'd seen mention of 7 as being in beta, but have never seen it
in the wild.... but i don't get out a lot.

i've got wireless 802.11ac that is running above 300 mbps up and down...
the speedy wire race sorta lost interest for me personally.....

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5363878378

btw, that wireless hub is running on a cat 5 cable that passed a cat 6 test.....
 

Ponchik

Senior Member
Location
CA
Occupation
Electronologist
Thanks for all of your replies.

I will upgrade to CAT-6 for this project. I don't see a huge cost difference vs CAT-5e.
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
I have always said that it is because of the copper cartel that the industry still entertains copper for data. As was said, terminating high bandwidth copper is a PITA while terminating fiber is becoming easier and easier. When you consider that fiber can handle probably as much bandwidth as any network will ever need, it's pretty much obsolescence proof. I can't see why the industry hasn't ditched copper by now.

-Hal
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
Even for patch panels and for short switch to equipment runs?

6A is rated for 10G over 30m at 500MHz. Pristinely manufactured cable with top end keystones and patch panels installed perfectly might do 20G over the same distance, or 10G out to 100M. Specs are usually conservative. "Upper end" is what an engineer hopes for, but none will guarantee, for obvious reasons.

eta: I meant companies like Verizon are installing fiber rather than Cat 7+
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Thanks for all of your replies.

I will upgrade to CAT-6 for this project. I don't see a huge cost difference vs CAT-5e.

wire's about the same.... jacks are what cost more.

here's what i've been using for about three years now....
[h=1]QuickPort® eXtreme® 6+ Component-Rated Cat 6 UTP Connector[/h]
fluke makes the one shot crimp tool for them.
i think my cost the last time i bought them was about $7 each.

so, let's say my cost for a drop is a quarter of a box of wire, and $15 for the jacks.
say, $30 per drop for the wire... normally, each position in an office gets three drops.
say $125 per drop, so $375 per position, minus $150 for materials, so $225 per position
clear.... you pull 10 positions and punch them down in a day, that's $2,225 minus incidentals
so... say $2k clear for a day's work.

i'll do a day in an office for $2k... :happyyes:
 

JFletcher

Senior Member
Location
Williamsburg, VA
wire's about the same.... jacks are what cost more.

here's what i've been using for about three years now....
[h=1]QuickPort® eXtreme® 6+ Component-Rated Cat 6 UTP Connector[/h]
fluke makes the one shot crimp tool for them.
i think my cost the last time i bought them was about $7 each.

so, let's say my cost for a drop is a quarter of a box of wire, and $15 for the jacks.
say, $30 per drop for the wire... normally, each position in an office gets three drops.
say $125 per drop, so $375 per position, minus $150 for materials, so $225 per position
clear.... you pull 10 positions and punch them down in a day, that's $2,225 minus incidentals
so... say $2k clear for a day's work.

i'll do a day in an office for $2k... :happyyes:

The jackrapid for cat6 keystones is nowhere near as useful as the one for cat 5e imo. If you can afford the lead time, you can find those exact keystones elsewhere for half or less. I prefer patch panels over keystones on both ends tho sometimes it isnt possible.
 
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