Cables for 10GBaseT Network?

Hi There,

You can use the following cable categories with the limitations that are next to them.

10GBASE-T RJ45 copper
CAT 5e or 6 (55 m/180 ft Maximum cable length)
CAT 6a or 7 (100 m/330 ft Maximum cable length)

As for brand I am unable to offer assistance for your location but I use Tyco or General Cable for any work I do.

Hope this helps you in your decision.

Cheers

Dear compbatty,
thanks for your valuable reply,
i might go for CAT6a, as advised..

Now kindly advice:

1. the good brand/manufacturer (available in UAE/Dubai) if you can...
2. Do i have to choose the RJ45 connector, IDF panel, wall jacks, switches, WAPs, routers etc accordingly to my cable type...(here if I go for CAT6a) or all said components are compatibles with all ethernet cables like CAT5e, CAT6, CAT6a, CAT6e, CAT7,? like they all can work with all kind of ethernet cables.
3. I am planing to put WAP to my 3 floor building, is there any tool available which help me to check the wi-fi network range so I can buy the WAP accordingly or can choose the correct location to put my WAP devices in all floors?
4. How I will connect the IDFs togather for all 3 floors?

thanks once again for your time to read & looking forwards to have your valuable advice..

many thanks .....

anyone pls advice...

thanks in advance..

first of all, look closely, if you really need those 10G in your building. if WiFi is an option, i assume in no place raw speed will be essential. 10Gs over copper is quite an animal with it's own demands - every single component in the line _must_ comply to the standard. even best cat7 cables layed (or patched) badly will not work. this is really critical on distances over 35 meters (100 feet). a single wire failure, a single loose connector, or bad patch-cable will render your 10G link almost unusable. i definately would discourage using 10Gbase-T if you can not cover the span with single patch cable.

if the speed is concern - go for fiberoptics. maybe even get rid of all "horizontal" copper installations and switch to fiber there. in all other cases you can stick with much cheaper (and robust) "classic" 1G solutions. in worst case (like, you still need multiple gigabits between some branches or distant racks) use port-channel/etherchannel of multiple 1G lines. you will benefit both from speed and redundancy.

to get into more detail, we need some more knowledge of your network design (or design plans, if any)

@ avcontrol :  
“Your cabling have to be choose base upon hardware you will….” I have not purchased/selected any hardware…just starting with cabling only= kindly advice the correct cable type to start with?
“The wider range cable support, means more information can be send over this cable, in your case 10Gig…….” Do you mean to connect switches each other I have to use fiber cable or connecting each PC with switches I should use fiber cable? Kindly clarify?
“Now fiber is getting very cheap ….” Is not cheap compared to CAT6.
**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------***
@ corower:
Ofcource, I wanted to connect my core/edge witches with fiber but connecting the PC to switches I wanted to use 10G network with CAT6,
I guess I can use…Cisco Switches which come with firber port which will enable me to interconnect on 8G ..am I correct?
“..to get into more detail, we need some more knowledge of your network design …….” Attached here with.
Cabling-Daigram.jpg

Access ports should be 1Gig.........not 10Gig, not sure maybe you mistyped?
"but connecting the PC to switches I wanted to use 10G network with CAT6,"
So all interswitches (most of the switches will have 2-4 10Gig ports, which you could connect by fiber)
But the access port=1Gig you would use Cat5E/6, CAT5E will support 1Gig but shorter distance.
The wider range cable support..........means the wider frequency range supported, more information can be transmitted=more speed= support of 10Gig to the refrence of original question on 500Mhz

so far (as i see it, and as i would do it) -
if you do not have lots of clients on cables on floors 2, 3 and 4, (none are drawn) and most of load is on WIFis, the load on floors 3 and 4 will be under 2 Gbits. (6 APs per floor, maximum 300Mbit per AP, if using 802.11n and gigabit uplinks to APs). so, you can clearly use 2x1Gbit links with cat5e cabling (it passes for 1Gbit speed). however, in real world WiFI APs rarely have 1G connection, so, it's more likely to have them at 100megs each. still, second gigabit to floor does not seem to be an overkill (and you will gain both speed and redundancy, you know, here it seems to be cheap and yet really effective), and you still might have some clients at 1G connected to floor "core". it does look more like edge for me. after all, you might need POE to those APs. probably, you may even eliminate those floor "core" switches - if cable span to WiFI access points allows to bring all of them to single place.

on the other hand, if you have lots of clients on those floors (not shown), and each of those clients is at his own 1G, and constantly pumping data... then, of course, it could be advisable to make a fatpipe connections between those switches. however, maybe you should completely move to fiber (yes, fiber to the desk), and eliminate floor cabinets and "floor core" completely. 1G fiber NICs are a bit costier than twisted pair, however, FO cables come cheaper with each day, and you definately can extend your fiber links well over those 305 feet. a small fiber cross on the floor, completely passive, without the need for cooling and power and no interference from power grid or other cables. and lots of headroom for speed. if you happen to upgrade to 10G at some nodes at some point, there will be no need to upgrade cabling - just swap GBICs.
so - check prices, analyse and balance your needs, try to plan a bit ahead.

if you have lots of clients on the floors with 1G access ports, and area is small, try to move those "floor cross cabinets" to datacenter. better you make a good switch stack, located in one place (your server room) than split your efforts over three floors.

if you have lots of clients on the floors with 1G access ports, and area is really huge (you can not cover that from one switch), then you might need to stick with schema you have drawn. multi-gig (like 4x1G) uplink between those switches will be much cheaper than 10G uplinks. only think about 10G in copper, if you have those ports in place. if they have to be bought separately - look for FO. less hassle, more headroom and robustness.

in your server room i see a couple of VM nodes, storage and probably an internet appliance. so, essentially, the core can be completely concentrated in that micro-datacenter. as everything seems be at short distance, cat6 patches should suffice. of course, only if those copper ports are in place already. if they're not, check the prices for FiberOptics. you might be plesantly surprised.

I am going to post the updated network lay-out for clear understanding...kindly bear with me..for a while..
thanks....