A Cat7 network cable is high performance cabling and capable of transporting data at a high speed. Up to a distance of 50 meters, a Cat7 cable is capable of transporting data with a transfer rate of 40 gigabits per second (Gb / s). Up to a distance of up to 15 meters, this is even 100 Gb / s. A Cat7 cable is mainly used in situations where equipment is used that is capable of a high transfer speed. An example of this is a backbone connection between routers to which multiple computers with 1 Gb / s are connected.
Best CAT7 Cables:
Types of Cat7 cable
There are different types of network cabling available and it is important to know the different properties to make a good choice. This type of network cabling is able to transfer data between equipment at a high data rate. For this, the equipment must be equipped with a suitable network port capable of this high data rate.
It is also possible to use a Cat7 cable on a slower port. The cabling will also perform well here, but the speed will not exceed the slowest link. A Cat7 cable can also be used for the transmission of analog signals. Network cables are widely used in practice for the transmission of signals from surveillance cameras. There are some subtypes of Cat7 cable each with their own analog bandwidth specification.
- Cat7 has an analog bandwidth of 600 MHz;
- Cat7a has an analog bandwidth of 1 GHz;
- Cat7 + has an analog bandwidth of 1.2 GHz.
For the transmission of an analog signal, it is important to choose cabling with an analog bandwidth equal to or higher than the analog signal.
Shielding of Cat7 cable
Because high demands are placed on a Cat7 cable, this category of cables is shielded as standard. The choice is between single or double shielding. A single shielding Cat7 cable is called U / FTP Unshielded Foiled Twisted Pair. U / FTP is often shortened to FTP. Twisted pair stands for the pairs of two twisted wires, which are used for the transmission of a data signal. A Cat7 cable contains four of these wire pairs. Twisting the pairs of wires ensures that external interference has little influence.
To achieve better shielding between the signals of the different pairs of wires, the wire pairs are shielded individually. With a U / FTP Cat7 cable, each pair of wires is wrapped with aluminum foil. The aluminum foil provides particularly good shielding against high-frequency signals. In industrial situations with high current cables, it is useful to also shield a data cable well against low-frequency interference. Aluminum foil is less suitable for this due to its relatively high resistance. Therefore, a low-resistance braided screen of thin wire is used, which shields the entire Cat7 cable. This Cat7 cable has the designation S / FTP. Shielded Foiled Twisted Pair.
Smooth and stiff network cable
For network cables, the cross section of the conductors is indicated with the AWG. AWG stands for American Wire Gauge and is an American standard. It is an inverted scale where a larger AWG number indicates a thinner wire. The scale is logarithmic. Every three steps in AWG doubles the area of the wire. Network cable with solid core wire is often referred to as a “stiff” network cable. This cabling is suitable for fixed mounting.
This Cat7 cable has an AWG designation with a single digit, for example AWG 22 or a double digit with the digit one. This indicates that it is a single core, for example AWG 22/1. The slightly more expensive version Cat7 cable has conductors that are made up of several thin wires. This cord is easy to bend and breaks less quickly than rigid cabling with frequent bending. This Cat7 cable has a double digit AWG designation, for example AWG 27/7. This indicates that a single conductor is made up of 7 strands of AWG 27 strands. A flexible Cat7 cable is ideally suited as a patch cable in a network or server cabinet and connecting equipment to each other.
Other properties
When buying this type of network cabling, there are some features that are important for the optimal choice. Of course, the length of the cord is important. You can choose the length as per your need.
In addition, you can also buy network cabling per meter or per whole roll. Handy if you want to build your own network. If you choose pre-assembled cables that you want to pull along many other cables, it is useful to opt for a so-called “snagless” cable. With a “snagless” cord, the clips of the connectors are shielded so that the connector cannot get stuck behind other cables.
With the ready-made cables you can choose a simple, gray cable but also several other colors. In a network or server cabinet, you can easily separate the different cables. The flat FTP network cable, despite its flat appearance, is a high-performance cable. This cabling is easy to hide in places where a round network cable does not fit.
