"Future proof" network cabling

Mike1983

Mike1983

Mike1983

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Hi all

I'm in the position of potentially moving house in the next 6 months, I know the floor plan of the house I'll be moving in to and starting to plan out all my electrical, network and general geekery needs.

At my current house I've been running a Cat5E setup including a central patch panel, switch and ports in all major rooms of the house. I wish to replicate this setup but "future proof" it as far as reasonably practicable.

I've been doing a little research and think I've settled on running a Cat6A installation to cater for future roll out of 10 Gig Ethernet whenever costs come down and equipment is commonly available.

So I have a few general questions please...

1) Do you think I'm wise in choosing Cat 6A? I know that standard Cat 6 would be fine for 10 Gig Ethernet over small runs and would be cheaper etc... I can afford the extra costs though and I'm big on making sure this is future proofed and it's a relatively big 4 bedroom detached property so the runs could get long.

Rough calcs indicate the following

a) Cat 5E = 20p per metre
b) Cat 6 = 30p per metre
c) Cat 6a = 50p per metre

2) Cat 7 cable. Should I do more research on this and keep it in mind as a viable option?

3) Should I run some fibre connections at the same time, say from the cabinet where the patch panel and router will be sited to the main office / PC / server location. If so, please could you link a suitable cable please as I know very little about fibre. My thoughts here would be to run the fibre and then whenever it takes off in the future I pay a specialist to splice the necessary ends on perhaps??

4) Would unscreened Cat6A solid cable be ok to run behind walls, from the patch panel to the RJ45 outlets? I suspect screened cables introduce complications and would need bonding to the house earth?

Thanks for your time

Mike
 
Mike - simply use standard Cat6.

Cat6a is unnecessary, Fibre is unnecessary, cat7 is not cost effective.

Use a good quality, high copper content, cat6 LSOH.

E.g. Cable Monkey
 
bertles86 said:
Mike - simply use standard Cat6.

Cat6a is unnecessary, Fibre is unnecessary, cat7 is not cost effective.

Use a good quality, high copper content, cat6 LSOH.

E.g. Cable Monkey
Click to expand...

Cheers, but from my research I'm led to believe standard Cat 6 wouldn't cope with 10 Gig Ethernet over relatively long runs, say in excess of 20m hence having 6A in mind.
 
I'd agree that there's no reason to use anything beyond Cat6. From a straight networking perspective Cat5e is still fine for most things.

The main way you can future proof things is make replacing the cables as easy as possible.
 
Ok, well I'd recommend fibre throughout then.

Although saying that what devices/tech actually make use of 10GigE?

Some devices don't even use 1GigE yet!
 
bremen1874 said:
The main way you can future proof things is make replacing the cables as easy as possible.
Click to expand...

That's the problem and the reason for me looking into this. To replace the cables would involve lifting up carpets, floor boards, punching holes in walls etc.

If I'm going to gut / decorate now and 10 Gig becomes the standard in 5 years time I'd be pretty hacked off if I only had 5E behind the walls.

You have got me thinking though about putting in trunking behind walls, cable cord pulls etc. That would sort out the walls, I think access to the floor space would still be problematic though.

Thanks
 
bertles86 said:
Ok, well I'd recommend fibre throughout then.

Although saying that what devices/tech actually make use of 10GigE?

Some devices don't even use 1GigE yet!
Click to expand...

... I'm not thinking now... or 1 years time, 2 or 3. I'm thinking for 10 years down the line. Extra hassle and expense now means no hassle and expense in the future.

Mike
 
20 metres is very pessimistic for Cat6 and 10Gig. It's also actually quite a long run in a domestic environment.

I'd install Cat6 now. In the timescales you are talking about you must be redectorating at least once.
 
It would probably help more to know what your network is actually used for.

When you talk about 10Gig and future proofing are you talking about 10Gig on your local network? What equipment do you need to run at 10Gig?

Thanks :)
 
I'd wire everything in 5e for the forseeable and install drawcords in alongside the 5e cabling just in case you want to upgrade in future.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable#Category_6a

According to Wikipedia, under hostile conditions the maximum length for 10GbE over copper is 37 metres. There are a bunch of conditions about the quality of the cable runs, including no tight bends, no untwisting of pairs, and no stripping of cladding.

I don't think 10 GbE will ever be mainstream for home use, there just isn't a market for it. Every datacentre I've worked in uses fibre for 10 GbE, I've never seen anything running 10 Gbps over copper. Which leads me to believe that prices will never go down. The other reason they won't go down, is because so few people need or will even come close to using 10 Gbps of network bandwidth in a home environment.
 
As someone who has dealt with more than a handful of bad CAT6 installations on new builds, if you can afford (and fit) CAT6a, get it.

With CAT6 I now recommend a full 10GbE recertification test on each drop because often, for no apparent reason, it just won't work. Even on runs much shorter than 20m. CAT6a is much more 'do it once, it'll work forever' like CAT5e.

There's much of a muchness of having Fibre or CAT6A in terms of turn radius, other than the latter is considerably more robust if there's the possibility of people tugging and kinking it.

Dave L's suggestion of drawcords is a good one, incase you want to run fibre later on.

rotor said:
According to Wikipedia, under hostile conditions the maximum length for 10GbE over copper is 37 metres. There are a bunch of conditions about the quality of the cable runs, including no tight bends, no untwisting of pairs, and no stripping of cladding.
Click to expand...
With CAT6 you're lucky to get 40m under ideal conditions. It's fine for patching in a server room but for structured cabling, get CAT6a.

rotor said:
I don't think 10 GbE will ever be mainstream for home use, there just isn't a market for it. The other reason they won't go down, is because so few people need or will even come close to using 10 Gbps of network bandwidth in a home environment.
Click to expand...
I don't think 10GbE will be mainstream for a long time either, adapter prices are just too high. It's even less likely when HDMI 1.4 does handle 10Gbit over reasonable distances, I'm sure we'll see some kind of hybrid solution for home networks rather than 10GbE.
I can't comment on your experiences in datacentres but 10GbE over copper is very common, if not moreso than fibre.
 
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Yamahahahahaha said:
As someone who has dealt with more than a handful of bad CAT6 installations on new builds, if you can afford (and fit) CAT6a, get it.

With CAT6 I now recommend a full 10GbE recertification test on each drop because often, for no apparent reason, it just won't work. Even on runs much shorter than 20m. CAT6a is much more 'do it once, it'll work forever' like CAT5e.
.....
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That's great, thank you for your very helpful and informative reply. This, along with other information I've come across is leading me down the path of 6A.

Your direct experience of cat 6 commonly failing 10 Gig spec is very useful to informing my choice and isn't something I've read previously, just "theory" instead of practical.

What's concerning me, and I don't know if you have direct experience of this, but I'm aware 6A is much thicker and rigid than 6 / 5E. Given this, what do you think my chances are of terminating 4 cables in a 4 port / keystone RJ45 wall outlet? Would a double back box give enough room for this?

Thanks

Mike
 
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