Category 5e network cables have a maximum transmission rate of 1000 Mbps, so they can only reach 1 Gigabit or less. If you have good cable material and your devices support 1 Gigabit, you should be able to reach 1 Gigabit.
According to the ISO/IEC 11801 standard, twisted-pair cables are commonly classified into three categories: Category 5, Category 5e, Category 6, and Category 7. Category 5 has thinner wires, while Category 5e has thicker wires. The models are as follows:
1. Category 3:
This cable has a transmission bandwidth of 16 MHz and is used for voice transmission and data transmission with a maximum transmission rate of 10 Mbps. It is primarily used in 10BASE-T and is designated as the minimum grade in ANSI/TIA-568.C.2.
2. Category 5:
This cable has increased winding density and a transmission bandwidth of 100 MHz. It is used for voice transmission and data transmission with a maximum transmission rate of 100 Mbps. It is primarily used in 100BASE-T and 10BASE-T networks and has been replaced by Category 5e.
3. Category 5e:
Featuring low attenuation and crosstalk, Category 5 cabling has increased near-end crosstalk power and test requirements compared to Category 5 cabling. It also offers higher attenuation-to-crosstalk ratio (ACR), signal-to-noise ratio, and lower delay error, significantly improving performance. Category 5e has a maximum bandwidth of 100MHz.
4. Category 6:
This type of cable has a transmission bandwidth of 250MHz. Category 6 cabling systems should have a large margin in the combined attenuation-to-crosstalk ratio (PS-ACR) at 200MHz, providing twice the bandwidth of Category 5e.
Category 6 cabling offers significantly higher transmission performance than Category 5e and is best suited for applications with transmission rates of 1Gbps. A key difference between Category 6 and Category 5e is improved crosstalk and return loss performance. Excellent return loss performance is crucial for next-generation full-duplex, high-speed network applications.
