1) Category 1: Primarily used for voice transmission (Category 1 was primarily used for telephone cables before the early 1980s), not for data transmission.
2) Category 2: Transmission frequency 1 MHz, used for voice transmission and data transmission with a maximum speed of 4 Mbps, commonly found in older token-passing networks using the 4 Mbps token-passing protocol.
3) Category 3: Refers to cables currently specified in the ANSI and EIA/TIA568 standards. This cable has a transmission frequency of 16 MHz and is used for voice transmission and data transmission with a maximum speed of 10 Mbps, primarily used in 10BASE-T.
4) Category 4: Transmission frequency 20 MHz, used for voice transmission and data transmission with a maximum speed of 16 Mbps, primarily used in token-based LANs and 10BASE-T/100BASE-T. 5) Category 5: This type of cable features increased winding density and is coated with a high-quality insulating material. It has a transmission rate of 100 MHz and is used for voice transmission and data transmission at speeds up to 10 Mbps. It is primarily used in 100BASE-T and 10BASE-T networks. It is the most commonly used Ethernet cable.
6) Category 5e: Category 5e offers low attenuation, reduced crosstalk, a higher attenuation-to-crosstalk ratio (ACR), a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and lower delay error, significantly improving performance. Category 5e is primarily used for Gigabit Ethernet (1000 Mbps).
7) Category 6: This type of cable operates at frequencies between 1 MHz and 250 MHz. Category 6 cabling systems should have a large margin in the combined attenuation-to-crosstalk ratio (PS-ACR) at 200 MHz, providing twice the bandwidth of Category 5e. Category 6 cabling offers transmission performance far exceeding the Category 5e standard and is ideal for applications with transmission rates exceeding 1 Gbps. A key difference between Category 6 and Category 5e is improved crosstalk and return loss performance. Excellent return loss performance is crucial for next-generation, full-duplex, high-speed network applications. The Category 6 standard eliminates the basic link model and adopts a star-shaped wiring topology. The required wiring distances are: permanent link lengths cannot exceed 90 meters, and channel lengths cannot exceed 100 meters.
