There are two things that we generally consider when buying ethernet cables; price and quality. Since the price is obvious to us, we focus on the quality of the cable. But how do we determine the quality of the cable? There are many factors that you should take into account when you shop for Network cables.
In this article, we have summed up a couple of features that might help you get a perfect cable for your network.
Low Crosstalk
An ethernet cable with low crosstalk and electromagnetic interferences always has a good performance. But how can you tell an ethernet cable has low crosstalk?
For unshielded twisted pairs cables, twist rate determines crosstalk greatly. The tighter the twists, the less crosstalk. Four twisted pairs in a network cable should have different twists rate to minimize crosstalk between the pairs.
For shielded cables, the shielding plays an important role in crosstalk. There are two types of shielded cables available in the market. FTP (foil twisted pair) cables have an additional layer of protection. SFTP (shielded and foil pair) cables have both foil and an extra layer of shield around the pairs to fight off the crosstalk.
Fluke Testing
This is the most authoritative criteria to determine the quality of an ethernet cable. It can test the quality of an ethernet cable according to different cable standards, such as ANSI/TIA, ISO/IEC 11801, etc. This test includes two types of testing; patch cord testing and channel testing.
For home networks, the ethernet cable just has to pass the channel testing. For the deployment of big data centers. Here is an example of a fluke test report of a Cat6 Plenum provided by NewYork Cables.
Oxygen-Free Copper Wires
This is one of the major factors that have a great impact on the price of the cable. Different manufacturers offer a unique quality of the copper wire inside the cable. The biggest difference between the conductors of the cable is the purity of the copper. The oxygen-free copper is of the highest quality. It is 99.95%, pure copper. Pure copper comes after it, then bare copper and copper-clad aluminium, respectively.
Fire Retardant Jacket
This is yet another important factor to consider while buying network cables. We design flame retardant jackets in such a way that they resist the spread of fire in the new areas. They burn slowly with low very smoke. The non-flame-retardant cables do not have this quality. If you are to deploy cables in a plenum space that has regular air circulation, go for the plenum-rated cables.
