One of the more significant results of the meeting of the Telecommunications Industry Association’s TR-42 Engineering Committee back in January 2016 was that announcement of the Category 8 cable standard.
Class I, Class II and Category 8 cabling is characterized to 2000 MHz and intended to support up to 30 meter long cabling channels consisted of two connectors. These channels and the emerging 25/40GBase-T applications that they support are specifically targeted for deployment at the data center ‘edge,’ where bandwidth intensive server-to-switch connections are made.
The preliminary tests of Cat8 cable have shown it meets connectivity performance standards found in the draft 2.0E of the TIA-568-C.2-1 Category 8 proposed standard and can support the operation of IEEE 802.3bq 25G/40GBASE-T applications up to 30 meters.
So how did the 30 meters maximum supported cabling channel length come about? One of the shortcomings of 10 GBase-T standard has been high power consumption resulting in increased heat dissipation issues produced by the equipment. In order to address this problem the Telecommunication Industry (TIA), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) have collectively concluded to reduce the maximum channel length to 30 meters in order to make sure that the power footprint for 25 GBase- T and 40 GBase- T chipsets is reduced and kept at minimum.
| Feature | Category 5e Cable | Category 6 Cable | Category 6a Cable | Category 7/7a Cable | Category 8 Cable |
| Maximum Data Rate/ Signal | 1000 Base T/Gigabit Ethernet | 1000 Base T/Gigabit Ethernet | 10 GBase- T | 10 GBase- T | 25 GBase- T, 40 GBase- T |
| Maximum Distance | 100 meters | 100 meters | 100 meters | 100 meters | 30 meters |
| Frequency | 100 MHz | 250 MHz | 500 MHz | 1000 MHz | 2000 MHz |
| Conductor Pairs | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Cable Type | Shielded / UTP | Shielded / UTP | Shielded / UTP | Shielded | Shielded |
| Connector Type | RJ45 | RJ45 | RJ45 | GG45, TERA | Class I: RJ45, Class II: Non-RJ45 |
| Use Cases | Small office, home office | Large enterprise, high speed applications | Large enterprise, high speed applications | Data center backbone, high speed and bandwidth intensive applications | Data center architecture, server-to-switch links |
This table is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. Cabling. Pro makes no guarantees, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness or reliability of the information found in this table.