Not too long ago, Cat5 made waves and almost made Cat3 obsolete. Soon after, Cat5e made its debut and made Cat5 look like a distant past. When Cat6 rolled out, businesses across industries were at their wits’ end since they had to upgrade again if they wanted better networks, connections and a more efficient transmission of data. While most companies have long shunned Cat3 and are likely to have Cat5, unless one has started a business recently in a new office that came with Cat6 cabling, it is essential that you know about the latest cabling options. Before we talk about the difference between Cat6 and Cat6a, let us state a caveat. It is not necessary that every latest innovation or subsequent variant of an existing option would be better. There can be loopholes. Also, whether or not your switch would be needless depends on your purpose and scope of your operations.
Difference Between Cat6 and Cat6a
Cat6a is Cat6 cabling with an additional feature: augmented. Right now, Cat6a is starting to being pegged as the standard cabling option, a recognition once bestowed for the Cat5 and still considered for Cat6.
Cat6 is capable of handling 10BASE-T, 1000BASE-TX up to 10GBASE-T. Cat6a is also capable of the same but it can manage frequencies up to 500 MHz. Cat6 is capable of managing up to 250 MHz. Cat6 cabling is reduced to 37-55 meters if you are using 10GBASE-T applications. Cat6a can stretch up to a hundred meters for the same.
Cat6 is better than Cat5 when it comes to preventing crosstalk. Cat6a is even better. Cat6 can prevent circuit interferences from multiple sources, typically NEXT or near end crosstalk and PS-NEXT or power sum NEXT. Cat6a can also reduce crosstalk from interfering cables in proximity. This is known as alien crosstalk or AXT. Alien crosstalk is not addressed by Cat6 and those who have this problem will always find it substantially bothersome. Cat6a solves this problem to a large extent.
Cat6 is relatively slimmer and although Cat6a has been redesigned over the years, it is still quite bulky. The installation is also a tad more sophisticated, especially with all those twists and turns. But the installation or the setup space is the least of the concerns when one compares the undisputed advantages of Cat6a over Cat6.
The only concern with Cat6a is that many of its features have to be tested over time. Cat6 advantages have been substantiated long back. Cat6a is heavy, it takes more space, there is an attenuation risk if you tighten the cables together or zip them up too stringently and you have to factor in compatibility in some cases.
