Originally posted by garegin
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CAT 5e by specification is only rated to 100Mhz without interference. That is technically too slow for 1000gbe if adaptors had a zero interference tolerance/mitigation. Cat6 is in fact rated to do 1000gbe without interference with its 250 MHz rating. Of course these rating by the standard are min requirements of cable makers to use the CAT classifications.
Basically the people impression that Cat 5e can't do 1000gbe is not 100 percent wrong. Cat5e rating means depending on quality of cable and tolerance of adaptors/switches you may have issues doing 1000gbe. Cat6 you should not have issues doing 1000gbe because if you do the cable is outside rated requirements.
Its not that I don't use Cat5e for 1000gbe but knowing you are above the rated level for interference tolerance I am aware I have to be more careful running it.
Basically if CAT 5e can or cannot carry 1000gbe is multi factors because the cable rating is technically not high enough. I have pushed 1000gbe though CAT 3 under controlled conditions not that I would do a big wiring job and expect that to work at all. Cat5e if you wire out a building and are willing to tolerated a random percentage of ports only being 100 Mbps instead due to cable limitations caused by to low of rating against interference it fine. So there are cases where business say cabling will be all cat6 to have 1000 gbe without these random failures.
You don't really want people thinking that choosing Cat5e is just a cheaper way to get dependable 1000 gbe wiring all the time with the reality its not. Yes the failure rate can be low to less than 1 failure to carry 1000gbe per 1000 ports/links but you can bet you will get sod law and non working link be like to the desk of a person who does in fact need the speed so complains up a storm. You can see the same things happen with cat 6 and cat6a with 10 Gigabit Ethernet.
Underrated cable for job does have it price.
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