Ethernet Lan Cable UTP Cables- 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps

[longtimeago 0]

So every one who are into computer networks, a very familiar object which you come across daily is the LAN Cable. This they call it as the UTP Cable that is Unshielded Twisted Pair or the Ethernet cable. This particular cable has 4 pairs of twisted wires in it, but however only 2 pairs of twisted wire only is used for the transmission of data in a Network and over the internet. So every one is aware that this UTP cable can transmit only 100 Mbps (general speed of any LAN), but few days ago i came across a LAN Cable which has the same look, same RJ-45 jack was crimped in both the ends, but the manufacturer of the cable claims that it can transmit 1 Gbps. This cable has been released by a company Finolex. When i looked deep i found that this cable is also made of same copper stranded wires, that is the twisted wires, and there were only 4 pairs of twisted wires in this cable, just like any other UTP cable had, but now in this case the transfer rate which has been promised by the manufacturer is 1 Gbps. So how is this possible ?? 1 Gbps transfer rate in UTP cable. What would have been the technology which might have been used behind this. I do understand that the quality is different, but what is that thing which makes this cable so special that it can transfer upto 1 Gbps...

[zakaluka 0]

Like you said, it's the quality of the cable. The same thing happens in CPU and GPU production also. The chips are made in a plant that wants to produce them to run at a certain speed. However, due to any number of reasons (impurities, defects, etc.), they are only stable at a lower frequency. So, they are branded as the lower speed CPUs / GPUs and the ones that meet the quality standards are priced higher as faster speed CPUs / GPUs.

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable to see what quality requirements a cable has to meet to be marked as Cat 6 (i.e. supporting 1Gbps).

Regards,

z.

[galexcd 0]

zakaluka is correct. Quality is everything. The higher quality the cable is, the more shielding it has, and thus the less it is affected by other electromagnetic fields around it. Any interference around the cable causes noise on the line, and could cause packets to drop, and thus having to be resent. This is why a cable with better shielding can transfer data faster, and also stretch longer distances.