UTP kabel - kategorie, stínění, aplikace

Categories/classes of twisted-pair cables

• Category 1 (class A by EN 50173)
Telephone voice services with band up to 100 kHz.

• Category 2 (class B by EN 50173)
Voice services and older terminal systems with band up to 1 MHz.

• Category 3 (class C by EN 50173)
Telephone services with band up to 16 MHz.

• Category 5/5e (class D by EN 50173))
The category of computer twisted pair cable most often used in local networks, including applications requiring frequency band up to 100 MHz (FastEthernet 100Base-TX, GigabitEthernet 1000Base-T).

• Category 6 (class E by EN 50173)
Applications requiring frequency band up to 250 MHz, data transfer rates up to 1 Gbps.

• Category 6A (class E_.A. by EN 50173)
Applications requiring frequency band up to 500 MHz. Ideal for multimedia transmissions; U/FTP, F/FTP versions.

• Category 7 (class F by EN 50173)
Category 7 cables allow for applications requiring frequency band up to 600 MHz. Compared with the lower categories, each pair of the S/FTP cables is individually screened and all the pairs are wrapped up in another shielding layer. The connectors for the cables are shielded as well.

• Category 7A (class F_.A. by EN 50173)
Applications requiring frequency band up to 1000 MHz. Allows for data transfer rates up to 100 Gbps over distances up to 15 m or 40 Gbps over distances up to 100 m.

Shielding

• U/UTP – unshielded

• F/UTP – foil-shielded cable with unshielded twisted pairs

• U/FTP – cable with individually foil-shielded twisted pairs

• F/FTP – foil-shielded cable with individually foil-shielded twisted pairs

• SF/FTP – braid-and-foil shielded cable with individually foil-shielded twisted pairs

• S/FTP – braid-and-foil shielded cable with individually foil-shielded twisted pairs

• SF/UTP – braid-and-foil shielded cable with unshielded twisted pairs

Applications

• Outdoor
The most important feature of outdoor cables is their resistance to difficult and changeable environment conditions. The main influence ion this feature has the kind and quality of the material used for the jacket. There are available cables with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene (PE) jacket. PVC, synthetic polymer commonly used for the production of plastics, has thermoplastic properties and is resistant to mechanical damage. PE is harder than PVC, has even higher mechanical strength and chemical resistance, and makes a better barrier against gases. These features predispose it for use in outdoor cables.

• Indoor
When using cables inside buildings, a special attention should be paid to the requirements concerning reaction of the wiring to fire. Dedicated types of insulation, for example LS0H or LSZH (Low Smoke Zero Halogen) polymers, are safe when exposed to fire. In comparison with PVC and PE, they do not produce harmful and toxic substances (halogens), and also do not generate such large amounts of smoke. The use of cables in LSZH coatings is very often a requirement of fire regulations in large buildings, residential, commercial and public ones.

Data transfer rates

• Category 3 (class C by EN 50173)
• 4 Mb/s - (10BaseT, RS 232)

• Category 5 (class D by EN 50173)
• 1 Gb/s - (1000BaseT, ATM 155)

• Category 6 (class E by EN 50173)
• 1 Gb/s - (1000BaseT)
• 10 Gb/s - (10GBASE-T up to 55m)

• Category 6A (class E_.A. by EN 50173)
• 10 Gb/s - (10GBASE-T)

Fire performance of cables