Explore everything you need to know about copper wiring in structured cabling, how each category works and what infrastructure each is best suited for.
We're currently in the midst of a structured cabling revolution. The pandemic has driven the world to become more 'connected' as we’ve had to adapt our businesses to service what has become a new normal.
Millions around the planet are now selling, hosting meetings, educating, and entertaining online with some countries seeing an increase in online usage of up to 60%, underscoring the acceleration the pandemic has forced through.
Retailers have had to rethink the layout of their stores, speeding up the roll out of more hygienic unmanned checkouts and point of sale solutions, as well as implementing faster and more sophisticated network communication systems. Online purchasing increased the need for new structured cabling options to support a new breed of hi-tech warehousing and distribution centre.
Industry after industry has needed to evolve, meaning the demand for structured cabling solutions, at speed, has never been more important and/or needed.
If you work in one of these industries and are currently looking for an infrastructure upgrade, then it might seem like a daunting task finding where to start…
In this post we start at the beginning and explore the most used material in structured cabling, copper. It’s been around for hundreds of years and is used in everything from electrical power distribution through to high impact network communications and data management.
Over the past 20 years the price of copper as a commodity has skyrocketed, reflecting its importance in the world and the integral role it has played in the development of the age of connectivity.
In the year preceding the pandemic the United Kingdom alone was already importing almost 74,000 metric tons of copper wiring, this is expected to vastly increase going forward.
On top of this, the market for copper is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 6% + globally over the next 5 years due to increased demand from construction, electronics and telecommunication industries.
Copper has been used in electrical wiring from as early as the 1820's with the demand increasing further with the invention of the telephone in 1876. Since these early years copper has remained the traditional material of choice due to its conductivity, tensile strength and ductility.
Copper wiring in buildings, such as structured cabling, is still the most important market for the copper industry with roughly half of all the copper mined being applied to manufacturing electrical wiring and cable conductors.
In this post we list and break down the current categories of copper wire, briefly explaining how each operates within its parameters and add what type of infrastructure (business) each category is best suited for.
Here's what we'll cover:
Let’s get into the detail…
Before we get into the nitty gritty of all things copper categories, let’s start with the two different options copper wire is presented in: UTP vs STP.
Unshielded twisted pairs (UTP) are cables with wires that are twisted together to reduce noise and crosstalk. Crosstalk is a type of interference when one cable induces electromagnetic interference with an adjacent cable.
Shielded twisted pairs (STP) are a twisted pair cable confined in a foil or mesh shield that guards the cable against electromagnetic interference (EMI).
More material goes into the design of the STP option to protect against cross talk and interference so it will be of no surprise that it comes with heftier price tag.
Category 5 or Cat 5 copper cabling is a type of unshielded twisted pair copper cabling. Having been the go-to Copper cabling solution historically it is now being phased out for more sophisticated cabling such as Cat 5e or Cat 6, which offer superior performance enabling networks to run at higher speeds. Category 5 copper cabling is primarily used in structured cabling for computer networks.
Category 5e is also known as Enhanced Category 5 cabling. This has many similarities to regular Category 5 such as electrical performance of up to 100MHz, the difference between this and standard Category 5 cabling are extra and enhanced technical requirements.
One key difference is the reduction of crosstalk, this is the electrical interference when one wire signal affects another wire's signal, as well as being able to transmit data without as much signal degradation making it a preferred structured cabling option for many businesses.
This again is the next step up from Cat 5 and Cat 5e cabling boasting more demanding electrical parameters. If you’re looking to upgrade your structured cabling by using Category 6 it is useful to know that it's backwards compatible with older generations of copper cabling.
Cat 6 supports more than double the frequency of Cat 5e, being capable of up to 250MHz. It's considered to be more reliable, support faster protocols and is suitable for gigabit ethernet.
This is a good option for businesses looking to upgrade their current structured cabling in LAN business centres as well as looking for a cabling network that can power your offices.
Category 6A can also be referred to as Augmented Category 6 and unlike the categories above it uses a shielded twisted pair cabling system (STP) for its structured cabling. This prevents most of the noise from neighbouring cables and is preferable for Cat 6A systems opposed to UTP. It's also backwards compatible.
Cat 6A offers higher performance, being capable up to 500MHz and designed to support 10 Gigabit transmission over 100-meter channel. However, due to operating at a higher frequency of 500MHz for Cat 6A it's important to consider the alien crosstalk effect, this is a measurement of the noise crosstalk generated from neighbouring cables.
Category 7 cabling utilises the newest available ethernet technology within structured cabling and is backwards compatible with older standards such as Cat 6 and Cat 5e. This is a more expensive solution to copper cabling; however, the performance levels reflect the premium pricing and would be a great fit for any business centre or office space.
Cat 7 can support up to 600MHz and can reach 11 gigabits at a range of 15 metres making it a good choice for connecting modems or routers to devices. On top of this, it provides faster transmission speeds than Category 6 cables and has reduced signal attenuation due to its offer of extensive shielding.
But what comes after Category 7 when it comes to structured cabling, with the relatively new emergence of Cat 8 cabling as well as the future of Fibre optic.
Whilst Category 8 is a good option and can provide higher capabilities than its previous generations, it can be seen as expensive and around 50% more space consuming, leading to the debate in moving to a fibre optic future.
Fibre optic is seen as the future of structured cabling. Its internet networks are expected to meet future demands and it can be considered 'future proof' technology. Overall Fibre optic is seen as a faster and more reliable alternative to copper cabling due to the substantial volumes of data it can support.
Built upon over 20 years of experience, Comlek are fast becoming one of the nation’s leading contractors for structured cabling solutions. We're a business determined to deliver first class service and project delivery throughout the UK, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Comlek are proud to go ‘above and beyond’, make the impossible possible and go the extra mile for every client.
In this post we explore all things fibre optics from what fibre optic cables are and their history through to the different types of fibres and...
Discover everything you need to know about Category 5 copper cabling or 'Cat 5' from a brief history, to its technical specifications and...