LAN Cables

In 1987, a cable manufacturer developed cables using twisted-pair copper wires for Ethernet networks, and in 1990, the IEEE released the 802.3i Ethernet standard for 10Base-T. In 1991, the EIA and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) released the first telecommunications cabling standard, EIA/TIA 568, based on Category 3 unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cables. One month later, Technical Systems Bulletin (TSB-36) was issued, defining higher-performance UTP cabling standards for Category 4 and Category 5. The evolution of networking has pushed Category 5 to its limits. Under the latest cabling standard, ANSI/TIA-568.2-D, cable categories now include Cat 5e (100MHz), Cat 6 (250MHz), Cat 6a (500MHz), and Cat 8 (2000MHz).