STRUCTURED CABLING
Our Structured Cabling solutions include:
CATEGORY 5E STRUCTURED CABLING (“CAT 5E”)
CAT5e has been the industry standard for many years, but has largely been surpassed by Cat 6. It will still suffice for many business needs but the marginal cost between Cat 5e and Cat 6 means that new installations rarely use Cat 5e cable. We’re happy to oblige any requirements where Cat 5e matches existing cabling.
CATEGORY 6 STRUCTURED CABLING (“CAT 6”)
CAT6 cable is now the default standard of 95% of data cabling installations in offices. The cable can carry data speeds of up to a Gigabit, over a 100m distance, and up to 10Gb over shorter distances (40m max).
Because these speeds are far higher than external (i.e. internet) speeds, Cat 6 will suffice for virtually all SME & corporate network requirements.
CATEGORY 6A STRUCTURED CABLING (“CAT 6A”)
Used in environments where high bandwidth (10Gb standard) is required, Cat 6a is more expensive than Cat 6, and is subsequently only used in high demand environments.
CATEGORY 7A & CATEGORY 8 STRUCTURED CABLING (“CAT 7A & CAT 8”)
Still in its infancy, the CAT 7A & Cat 8 cable is capable of speeds of up to 40 Gigabit. Expensive compared to Cat 6 and Cat 6A, but provides far greater bandwidth than the other standards.
FIBRE OPTIC
For long distance, high-speed backbone connectivity.
All of the standards are backward compatible, e.g. Cat 6 patch leads will work on Cat 5e cabling.
Talk to the Smart Data Optics team about how we can help your business move, change or grow.