Blog | Progress Communications

When Gigabit first was being developed, cable and physical layer hardware manufacturers were under the impression it would run on 2 pairs - like 10-base-t and 100-base-t (fast Ethernet) - so they developed Cat6 cable to be able to handle the bandwidth. The final ratification of Gigabit Ethernet standards called for the switches to use all 4 pairs, so Cat6 was not needed. The next speed on the horizon is 10-Gig and it won’t run on 5, 5e, 5E, OR Cat6 – at least not past about 60’ (under the current 10-Gig specification requirements).