Cat6 Bare Copper VS Cat6a Bare Copper – An Advanced Versions of Ethernet Cables

Introduction to Ethernet Cables: –

The importance of Ethernet cables is increased significantly in a wired computer network. These wires are highly responsible to maintain good data transfer speeds and bandwidth provisioning to the users. Therefore, the installation of the right cables in a network is very important. In today’s modern world, the use of Cat6 bare copper and Cat6a bare copper cables is increased immensely due to their high-performance ratio.

A wide range of network cables is produced by different brands and companies such as Cat6 Bare Copper Cable, Cat5e Plenum, and others. It is always been a tricky task for the network engineers to select the right one from the available range of cables. It is not necessary that installing an expensive wire will give you good results. The quality and features of the cable matter a lot in this scenario.

Therefore, network administrators first need to study their network requirements. After that, they have to understand the needs of the users of that network. Once they analyze this information properly then they will be in a good position to select the right network cables.

There are some major things that they should take into consideration before choosing the Ethernet cable.

• Requirements of Data transfer speed
• Requirements of Bandwidth Capacity
• Budget Limits

Almost every network engineer works according to the above-mentioned requirements. They are interlink with each other. Sometimes it is not possible to fulfill all these requirements in a single network. Therefore, they have to compromise on some of them. Pure Copper Cat6 Ethernet Cable can say fulfills all requirements efficiently. Now, it is solely their decision that which needs are more important to be fulfilled and which can be compromised.

Some Ethernet Cables with their specifications and features.

Modern-day Ethernet Cables Cat6 Bare Copper & Cat6a Bare Copper

A modern-day version of Ethernet cable can be use in the shape of Cat6 and Cat6a cables. They are much more efficient and reliable versions as compared to all other older versions. Especially, Cat6 Bare Copper cable has become the first choice of modern-day network designers. The progressions in the technology allow the manufacturers to create these cables with better technical features and qualities.

One of the most common factors that separate them from older versions is their ability of data transferring speed. They are highly efficient in this regard. As Cat6 Plenum Pure Copper and cat6a both are capable of transferring data up to 10Gbps. The only difference between these two is that cat6 is capable of transferring data up to 50 meters with the mentioned speed whereas cat6a is capable of transferring data up to 100 meters with the same speed.

Therefore, network managers can select one of them according to their needs and requirements. If they are designing a network where they need Ethernet cables up to a distance of 100 meters then cat6a should be their option, otherwise with networks where they do not need cables more than 50 meters long then they can go for other variant as well.

Similarly, the bandwidth of both cables is also different. Cat6 Solid Copper works at 250 MHz whereas Cat6a works on a bandwidth of 500MHz. Mostly, the two 2 variants cat6 plenum and Cat6 Riser are available for the networks nowadays. Both of them are compatible with each other. Therefore, you can use both of them in the same network as well.

Decision Time: –

If you want to get all these features then you have to pay a handsome amount for it as well. These cables are expensive as compared to previous variants of Ethernet cables available in the market. Therefore, you need to increase your budget limits to use these cables.

They are available in different colors in the market. This helps you to arrange your network settings in a way that will be easy to understand for you. This helps you in the future during troubleshooting problems. It also helps you in keeping your network maintenance costs down.