Cat8 Will Occupy the Cable Market Soon?
Release Time:2020-11-23
Category 8 was ratified by the TR43 working group under ANSI/TIA 568-C.2-1. It'is defined up 2000 MHz and only for distances from 30 to 36m depending on the patch cords used. ISO is expected to ratify the equivalent in 2018 but will have 2 options:
Class I channel (Category 8.1 cable): minimum cable design U/FTP or F/UTP, fully backward compatible and interoperable with Class EA (Category 6A) using 8P8C connectors
Class II channel (Category 8.2 cable): F/FTP or S/FTP minimum, interoperable with Class FA (Category 7A) using TERA or GG45 connectors.
Category 8 is designed only for data centers where distances between switches and servers are short. It is not intended for general office cabling.
The standard defines several link/channel classes and cabling categories of twisted-pair copper interconnects, which differ in the maximum frequency for which a certain channel performance is required:
Class A: link / channel up to 100 kHz using Category 1 cable/connectors
Class B: link / channel up to 1 MHz using Category 2 cable/connectors
Class C: link / channel up to 16 MHz using Category 3 cable/connectors
Class D: link / channel up to 100 MHz using Category 5e cable/connectors
Class E: link / channel up to 250 MHz using Category 6 cable/connectors
Class EA: link / channel up to 500 MHz using Category 6A cable/connectors (Amendment 1 and 2 to ISO/IEC 11801, 2nd Ed.)
Class F: link / channel up to 600 MHz using Category 7 cable/connectors
Class FA: link / channel up to 1000 MHz using Category 7A cable/connectors (Amendment 1 and 2 to ISO/IEC 11801, 2nd Ed.)
Class I: link / channel up to 2000 MHz using Category 8.1 cable/connectors (specification under development)
Class II: link / channel up to 2000 MHz using Category 8.2 cable/connectors (specification under development)
Although currently application of Cat8 Category 8 cable is not extensive, but with the increasing requirements of network cabling for transmission performance, we believe that Cat8 Category 8 cable will gradually become the mainstream product of integrated wiring systems in data centers in the future.
