The Essential Technical Information On CAT 6 Plenum CableCash-rich companies going in for new installations of computer networks are preferably opting for CAT 6 plenum cable over the cheaper CAT 5e plenum cable. Even those companies that are implementing upgradation measures are opting for it. Military multimedia networks in the US have already adopted the cable as part of their warfare strategic design. This is because the CAT 6 plenum cable offers double the bandwidth of a CAT 5e cable that is used in 100BaseT networks. CAT 6 plenum cable comes in standard 1000 feet length bundled in the form of a roll on a spool. A spoolful of the cable currently costs somewhere in the region of $350. The cable is still worth the cost because not only can it carry data, but also both audio and video. So, it is future ready, offers multimedia capabilities, and is basically used in a 1000BaseT gigabit Ethernet installation. It operates at a minimum frequency of 200 MHz (megahertz) and being a plenum cable is routed through air conditioning ducts. You should not leave bundles of unused CAT 6 Plenum cables in a duct as they will be exposed to fire hazard. This last requirement also makes it fire and smoke resistant as it needs to follow NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standard 262, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) standard 910, or CSA (Canadian Standards Association) standard FT7. FT here stands for flame test. CAT 6 plenum cable consists of 8 individually sheathed solid copper wires covered with a composite Teflon Flamarrest insulation on top. The 8 wires are in the form of 4 pairs, with 2 wires twisted together in one pair. The solid copper wires used in the cable offer maximum data throughput without any appreciable losses. Braided cables on the other hand are flexible but do not offer as much data throughput efficiency. Because the CAT 6 plenum cable uses solid copper conductor, it is more rigid than the braided variety and has a much less bend radius. The bend radius of a CAT6 Plenum cable cannot exceed 10 times its diameter. If you try to bend it more during routing you may break it and it will be very difficult to find the exact location of the fault. Since the only solution left then will be to replace the entire cable, it will prove to be exorbitantly expensive to do so. Therefore it is recommended that the bend radius restriction be strictly followed during the installation of a CAT 6 plenum cable. The cable is rated CMP (communications plenum) and comes in 2 different NEC (National Electrical Code) classes CL2P and CL3P. The CL2P and CL3P cable diameter cannot exceed 0.250 inches. Generally, the CAT 6 plenum cable uses AWG (American Wire Gauge) 23 copper conductor. |