Tag: Cat5e cable

How Many Cables Can You Pull Through A Hole?

by http://www.fiber-mart.com

A guide to help figure out how many cables you can pull through a hole to help you plan your structured wiring project.
I’d like to run new cables for TV, phone and network and I came up with this little chart that might help you figure out how many telecom cables you can pull through a hole. It includes Cat3 2-pair, Cat3 4-pair, Cat5 4-pair, Cat5e 4-pair, Cat6 4-pair, RG59 and RG6 Quad Shield in various sized holes.
Dimensions of cables vary so please double check the actual cables you’re going to use.
For the holes I selected sizes that match the auger sizes of Greenlee D’Versibit Flexible Drill Bits which are a popular type of installation bit used when pulling cables in existing walls. The bits come in 3/8″, 1/2″, 9/16″, 3/4″ and 1″ diameters.
There are 2 values in the chart. In black is the maximum number of cables I think I can jam through the hole and in green is the number of cables based on a 40% fill.
The NEC (National Electric Code) specifies conduits for power cables should not exceed 40% fill. This allows for some room to run extra cable in the future or change to larger cable as well as heat and providing enough room to minimize chances of damaging cables while pulling.
For some reason TIA/EIT and most LAN installers have adopted the 40% fill rule even though these are very lower power cables. When running cable through conduit the NEC says that the same conduit fill rules apply for low power cables as I understand it. I’m not 100% sure what the rule is when just running cable through holes and not conduit. What I’ve seen installers do is measure the size of their cable bundle and choose a drill bit slightly larger so that the bundle pulls easily without damaging the cable. The hole size needs to conform with building codes regarding making holes in structural members (generally no more than 1/3rd the width of the member.) Check with your local codes before starting. This is used mainly as a guide to help in planning and determining which size bits to buy. They aren’t cheap!
As you can see the Cat6 cable is a lot thicker than Cat5e cable. The whole reason I made this chart was to determine which cable to buy as I have a limited amount of space to run the cables.
They both support Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base-T. Even the older Cat5 cable was able to run at gigabit speeds. The issue comes with transmission problems that may cause errors and slow down the network. Cat5e is better than Cat5 and Cat 6 is better than Cat5e in that regard.
Most Cat6 cable has a plastic center spline that helps prevent crosstalk and other signal issues. That’s the main reason the Cat6 cable is thicker. Some manufacturers have found ways to make cable that meets that Cat6 spec without the need for the center spline.
Most of the splineless cat6 cable I’ve seen is plenum rated. (see Cat6, Splineless, UTP, 23AWG, 8C Solid Bare Copper, Plenum, 1000ft, Blue, Bulk Ethernet Cable (Made in USA)) which is about 3 times the cost of regular riser cat 6 with a spline. The plenum rating means it’s made with a different jacket material that doesn’t release toxic fumes if it burns. I did however find this Riser rated ICC CMR CAT6 UTP 500 MHz (NO SPLINE) / ICC-ICCABR6VWH  which is only 2x the cost of regular Cat6 cable.
If I use Cat5e or splineless Cat6 the installation will be easier as I’d have to drill less holes or I could make smaller holes. Still trying to figure out if it’s worth the expense of the more expensive splineless Cat6 instead of regular Cat5e.

Talk About 2.5G And 5G

Network technology is developing rapidly. To keep up with the trend, data centers are required to upgrade constantly, from 10G to 40G, 40G to 100G and even 100G to 400G. However, for some small business data centers with 1G infrastructures, directly migrating from 1G to 10G is a little fast. Is there any slower Ethernet standards to fill the gap between 1G Ethernet and 10G Ethernet speeds? The answer is Yes—2.5 Ethernet and 5G Ethernet. This article will talk about 2.5G and 5G.
Overview of 2.5G And 5G
The physical (PHY) layer transmission technology of IEEE 802.3bz is based on 10GBASE-T, but operates at a lower signaling rate. By reducing the original signal rate to  1/4 or  1/2, the transfer rate drops to 2.5 or 5 Gbit/s, respectively. The spectral bandwidth of the signal is reduced accordingly, lowering the requirements on the cabling, so that 2.5GBASE-T and 5GBASE-T can be deployed at a cable length of 100 meters on unshielded Cat5e cable and Cat6 cable, respectively. The following figure shows the comparison of twisted pair based Ethernet technologies.
Cons And Pros of 2.5G/5G Ethernet Standards
As 2.5G and 5G Ethernet standards came out after 10G Ethernet standard, there are mixed reviews for them. This part will focus on cons and pros of 2.5G/5G Ethernet standards.
Cons of 2.5G And 5G
When 2.5G Ethernet and 5G Ethernet standards came out, many people didn’t think much of them. They commented that:
5GBase-T and 5GBase-T are more going to be used for wifi rollouts. And they are pretty much strictly for enterprise wireless deployments.
10GbE is getting pretty cheap. Lots of new desktop motherboards now have 10G NICs inside them and the premium seems to be less than $100 too, which isn’t too bad. What’s missing is a bunch of 10G home switches and routers.
As for the availability, the 10G has 2 models out while the 2.5G and 5G are both “coming soon”. Due to the economies of scale and the penetration, 10G already has IMO. While 2.5G and 5G will never be widely adopted or supported.
There are not that many chip sets that support 2.5G Ethernet and 5G Ethernet yet as they really only got finalized. Also, most cards that support them right now also support 10Gbe.
Pros of 2.5G And 5G
What exists is reasonable. One estimate is that there are 70 billion meters of Cat5e and Cat6 cabling have been sold between 2003 and 2014. With such a significant amount of existing infrastructure at stake, it’s hardly surprising that most enterprises want to extend the existing cabling, component and equipment investments in the standard Ethernet wireless closet. Therefore, it is not difficult to find that 2.5G Ethernet and 5G Ethernet standards have their advantages.
Cat5 and Cat6 cabling can’t support 10G Ethernet up to 100 meters, but they will be able to support the emerging 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps standards, thereby preserving the value of the existing copper cable plant.
Adopting new 2.5G and 5G can satisfy the need of increasing data rates of wireless networking. The new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard increases wireless bandwidth, supporting Ethernet speeds of 1.7 Gbps to 2.5 Gbps. With the coming of the next generation of wireless networking, 802.11ac Wi-Fi Wave 2, wireless network speeds could increase to as high as 6.8 Gbps.
Besides the need from the Wi-Fi industry, a 2.5G/5G version will also aid in other applications such as enterprise infrastructure, cellular Wi-Fi offloads, small cells, security cameras, multiple industrial uses and PoE technology.
These two new Ethernet standards have plenty of attributes to ensure success, such as ease of use, backward compatibility, faster speeds without requiring a cable upgrade, incremental speed upgrades, multi-vendor interoperability, not to mention optimized cost and performance.
Conclusion
From the above content, we can conclude that 2.5G/5G Ethernet standards have both pros and cons. For those who want to upgrade cabling system to 10G, 2.5G/5G is not useful. While for small business and home network, 2.5G/5G is a cost-effective solution. No matter what your cable plant is, choosing a suitable migration path is the most important thing. fiber-mart.COM can provides high quality components for your cable plant, such as Cat5e cable, Cat6 cable, wireless access point and PoE switch. For more details, you can visit our site.