Which Cat6a Ethernet Cable to Buy?

The Ethernet cables play a vital role in enhancing the performance of the networks. They are the vital component of any network on which the data transfer speeds are directly dependent. Therefore, network engineers select them with great care and caution. These days, one of the most demanding variants of Ethernet cables is the Cat6a. It is one of the advanced variants of Ethernet cables with high-performance qualities and features.

The Cat6a Ethernet cable becomes the first choice of many network engineers due to its superior features and performance in comparison to older variants of the Ethernet cables. The quality of the cable directly impacts the performance of the networks and with that, the performance of the network users as well.

There are different variants of Cat6a cable are available in the market. Now, it is the network designer's responsibility to choose the right variant for its network. Choosing the wrong variant can bring different problems with it. To avoid those problems, make your buying decision with great precision and caution.

Variants of Cat6a Ethernet Cable: - You will find many variants of Cat6a Ethernet cable in the market. In this article, we will study them according to their shielding variants. There are two important variants of Cat6a Ethernet cable according to this feature.

  1. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

  2. Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)

Shielded Twisted Pair Variant of Cat6a Ethernet Cable: - The Cat6a shielded twisted pair variant is one of the most efficient Ethernet cables. Each Ethernet cable comes with four twisted pairs of conductor wires. In this variant, these twisted pair of wires comes with extra shielding on them.

This extra shielding is done through a layer of copper or aluminum with a polyester backing. Another way to provide shielding to the conductor wires is through braided shielding. It is a formation of the tightly woven lattice of thin metal or copper wires. It is a traditional way to provide shielding to the cables.

This extra shielding layer enhances the performance of the cable against interference factors like EMI and crosstalk. The network engineers are planning to design their network structure at a location where interference factors are high due to different reasons. They should opt for these shielded twisted pair Ethernet cable variants for those networks. It improves their network performance and saves their investment as well.

Unshielded Twisted Pair Variant of Cat6a Ethernet Cable: - It is the most common variant of Ethernet cable. It comes with four twisted pairs of conductor wires with no shielding on them. The performance of the cable highly depends on the tightness of the twists given to these conductor wires.

Other Shielded and Unshielded Variants of Cat6a Ethernet Cable: - There are some other variants of Cat6a Ethernet Cat5e Pure Copper Cable that are also available in the market. Their shielding styles are a bit different as compared to normal shielded and unshielded variants.

· F / UTP – Foiled With Unshielded Twisted Pairs

· S / UTP – Shielded With Unshielded Twisted Pairs

· SF / UTP – Shielded And Foiled With Unshielded Twisted Pairs

· U / FTP – Unshielded With Foiled Twisted Pairs

· F /FTP – Foiled With Foiled Twisted Pairs

· S / FTP – Shielded With Foiled Twisted Pairs

· SF / FTP – Shielded And Foiled With Foiled Twisted Pairs

In the above-mentioned cable variants, the first letter shows the overall shielding type of conductor wires and the latter letter shows the shielding of each pair of conductor wires.

Conclusion: - The Cat6a variants come with high-data transfer speeds and bandwidth capacities. The only drawback of the unshielded variant is that it does not perform well at locations where interference factors are high.

The benefit of using it is that it comes at a low price in comparison to shielded versions of Cat6a cable. Therefore, it is the network engineer's choice if they think that the unshielded variant will do the work for them appropriately. In this case, they should not invest more in shielded variants. They should save their money and should go for unshielded variants.

Related Tags: Bulk Cat6a CMP cable, Cat6a Plenum Cable