Structured Cabling (Cat5e/6 & Fiber) Installation & Service for Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Cedar Falls & Waterloo

TechniCom's certified team of technicians can assist you in the design and installation of structured cabling projects ranging from small data closets to full building telecom systems. This includes but is not limited to Cat5e, Cat6 and fiber cabling. Common low voltage systems that may involve structured cabling: 

  • Closed circuit television (CCTV) or security systems
  • Cable television (CATV) systems
  • Voice and data (VoIP)
  • Audio, sound systems or paging

What is Cat 6 cabling?

Category 6 cable (Cat 6), is a standardized twisted pair cable for Ethernet and other network layers that is backward compatible with the Category 5/5e and Category 3 cable standards.Cat 6 has to meet more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise than Cat 5 and Cat 5e. The cable standard specifies performance of up to 250 MHz, compared to 100 MHz for Cat 5 and Cat 5e.Whereas Category 6 cable has a reduced maximum length of 55 metres (180 ft) when used for 10GBASE-T, Category 6A cable is characterized to 500 MHz and has improved alien crosstalk characteristics, allowing 10GBASE-T to be run for the same 100-metre (330 ft) maximum distance as previous Ethernet variants.One of the best things about this cable is the tremendous speed that it provides. Cat 6 can handle speed up to 250 MHz. This performance makes the device possible to be used with a faster Ethernet network, which includes Gigabit Ethernet connections and even 10 GB Ethernet.The introduction of this cable was done to complement Gigabit internet in particular which includes a wider range of interface cards, patch panels, routers, switches, and components which make for a full gigabit network. IT pros like Technicom realize that the Cat 6 cable provides a speedy network performance which delivers gigabit speeds to run seamless communications such as VoIP business phones.

Installation requirements for Category 6 cabling

Category 6 and 6A cable must be properly installed to meet specifications. The cable must not be kinked or bent too tightly; the bend radius should be larger than four times the outer diameter of the cable. The wire pairs must not be untwisted and the outer jacket must not be stripped back more than 13 mm (0.51 in).Cable shielding is sometimes required in order to avoid data corruption in high electromagnetic interference (EMI) environments. Shielding is typically maintained from one cable end to the other using a drain wire that runs through the cable alongside the twisted pairs. The shield's electrical connection to the chassis on each end is made through the jacks. The requirement for ground connections at both cable ends creates the possibility of creating a ground loop. This undesirable situation may compel currents to flow in the network cable shield and these currents may in turn induce detrimental noise in the signal being carried by the cable.

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