From time to time, ANSI/TIA and IEEE (responsible for the IEEE 802 network standards) talk and agree upon what actual physical Category cable standard should be used for a specific data rate, which is called “Application Bandwidth”.

In the case of cabling standards outside of the USA, the standards are defined by ISO/IEC. In the case of the United States, ANSI/TIA loosely defines the physical cable construction standard and strongly defines the electrical performance part of the standard-the latest being ANSI/TIA 568 2.D.It defines how a category of cable should perform over a defined maximum distance. Ethernet Category (referred to as Cat) is the specific standard used by manufacturers when constructing Ethernet cable.The wider the pipe, the more water it can handle. How do you visualize this? Think of MHz as the width of a water pipe. Megahertz, for the curious, is an electrical frequency (take note on the electrical part).Megahertz is a clock speed measurement of how fast something can go.Then we will put this in a real-world situation so that everyone can make sense of it. Let’s pump the brakes for a moment and start defining what some of these terms really mean. What exactly does this mean to your network? Does higher ethernet cable MHz speed matter when it comes to ethernet cable and its category? Does this equate to higher bandwidth? The answer is not a simple yes or no, as you likely have guessed by now. Written by Don Schultz, trueCABLE Technical Sales Representative & Fluke Networks Certified Technicianįrequently, the ethernet cable MHz speed rating of an ethernet cable is an important checkbox for many shoppers. Ethernet MHz Speed: Does It Make a Difference?

Ethernet loopback cable