Common Ethernet Categories, Speed, and Usage

The different categories of CAT cable:

Type	Speed	Detailed Information
Cat. 5	10/100/1000MbE*	Category 5 cables are currently outdated standard that provides support for up to 100Mhz operation. It can be used for 10/100 Ethernet without worry, however for longer runs of 1000MbE it is recommended to use Cat. 5e or higher.
Cat. 5e	10/100/1000MbE	Category 5e cable provides support for frequencies up to 100Mhz. Cat. 5e generally provides the best price for performance, however for future proofing Cat. 6 or higher might be a better choice as it usually does not cost much more.
Cat. 6	10/100/1000MbE 10GbE*	Category 6 is defined up to a frequency of 250Mhz. Allowing 10/100/1000 use with up to 100 meter cable length, along with 10GbE over shorter distances.
Cat. 6a	10/100/1000MbE 10GbE	Cat. 6a or Augmented Category 6 is defined up to 500Mhz. It allows up to 10GbE with a length up to 100m.
Cat. 7	10/100/1000MbE 10GbE/100GbE(?)	Category 7 is the informal name for “Class F” cabling defined by a different standards body than Cat. 6a and lower. It supports frequencies up to 600Mhz and may support the upcoming 100GbE standard
Cat. 7a	Unknown	Category 7a is an upcoming standard that allows frequencies up to 1000Mhz. Supported Ethernet bandwidths have not been defined.

Shield Cat cable and non-Shielded Cable

What’s the difference?

Often known as UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) and STP (Shielded Twisted Pair)

With high bandwidth applications on the rise and network systems venturing into new areas such as factory environments, the need for shielded Cat 6 cable has also increased. In these new areas of installation, the environment in which the network cable is run has a large amount of EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference). Although Cat 6 cables have improved cable twist to handle gigabit Ethernet and reject noise, this by itself is not enough for environments that have high EMI. Using a shielded Cat 6 cable will help in these high EMI installations. Examples of shielded cable: