Futureproofing is a myth

[giddonah]

10GBase-T is live in enterprise applications, and home applications are merely an eventuality. In order to take advantage of that when the time comes it has been thought that Cat6 should be able to handle it. At best the answer to that is a most definite "maybe". A new standard, Cat6A (category 6 augmented), has been set and is in current use. At nearly $700/1000ft though, this isn't the cheap "pull extra everywhere" cable we've gotten used to with Cat5e. Plus, 10GE switches are around $500/port. Compare that to a gigabit switch at $8/port or even less. Network Interface Cards (NIC's) are even more of a problem. At $2000 per computer, you're looking at some expensive implementations. They expect this to come down to the $200 range in 2009, but that's still 2yrs off.

For anyone wanting to "futureproof" their installation, conduit is the only way to guarantee it. At the very least, be willing to fish wires and re-pull.



OPINION:

Pull what you need now, or what you can verify you'll need within a year or maybe 2. Trying to pull for 5-10yrs down the road is a gamble at best. Fiber you say? Make sure that it's going to be compatible with whatever standard you plan on going with (or even if that standard exists yet). My conclusion is to keep going with Cat5e. It's cheap enough, and gigabit networks should be fast enough for most applications for years to come. A friend of mine at work is looking to build a server on the order of 10 terabytes for a movie server to remote pc's. If that ever gets going, I'll let you know how it goes.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_gigabit_Ethernet

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196902365&subSection=

[HDNord]

Cat5e? I pulled cat6 last year. Are you saying that is not enough already? Cat6A $700 a ft? Damn!

[giddonah]

From what I can gather Cat6 will give you a better chance that your gigabit will work well, and a very slim chance that 10GE will work on it. You'll have to have it tested to see. I don't think it's worth the cost right now to do anything more than Cat5e unless you KNOW you'll be using 10GE in the very near future, in which case you'll need the $$$ Cat6a. I'm not sure if the news about Cat6 is getting around yet, but I thought it might help people considering it now.


And it's not $700/ft, although I can get you some speaker wire that expensive or even more if you want ;)

it's $700/1000ft, or $.70/ft

[giddonah]

Just thought this might be interesting/funny:

"Why do I need all the bandwidth of category 6? As far as I know, there is no application today that requires 200 MHz of bandwidth.
Bandwidth precedes data rates just as highways come before traffic. Doubling the bandwidth is like adding twice the number of lanes on a highway. The trends of the past and the predictions for the future indicate that data rates have been doubling every 18 months. Current applications running at 1 Gb/s are really pushing the limits of Category 5e cabling. As streaming media applications such as video and multi-media become commonplace, the demands for faster data rates will increase and spawn new applications that will benefit from the higher bandwidth offered by Category 6. This is exactly what happened in the early ’90s when the higher bandwidth of Category 5 cabling compared to Category 3 caused most local area network (LAN) applications to choose the better media to allow simpler, cost effective, higher speed LAN applications, such as 100BASE-TX. It is also important to note that cabling infrastructure is generally considered a 10 year investment as opposed to two or three years for electronics. Work has already started on 10G BASE-T, and Category 5e cabling is not being considered. With additional throughput requirements right around the corner, it makes sense to plan ahead. Note: Bandwidth is defined as the highest frequency up to which positive power sum ACR (attenuation-to-crosstalk ratio) is greater than zero."


copied from:
http://www.tiaonline.org/standards/technology/cat6/faq.cfm



I like the part where it says that the reason to pull cat6 is to "plan ahead"...

[HDNord]

Cat6 was only about $30 more per 1000 ft when I pulled my wire about 2 years ago. Pulled a bundle (2 RG6 quad, 2 cat5e) to every room, then pulled an extra cat6 along side the bundle and also pulled a separate RG6/cat6 to opposite walls in most rooms.

Thought that cat6 would take care of future needs for at least 5 years. Oh well, I did put in a 2" conduit from the attic to basement room where the home runs terminated.

[David]

Cat6 will be fine for the next 5 years unless you get into some really techie stuff.

From what I understand, most nice Plasma TVs don't even have an input for Cat6, and you're looking at somewhere around a grand for a Cat6 video streaming converter box. You're probably looking at 4-5 years before Cat7 video streaming converter boxes are close to $500.

And, if you intend to use Cat7 for networking, well, those NIC cards won't be cheap for some time.

Anyone who installs conduit for future wiring is on the right track. Eventually Cat cable will be outdated with something else.

[giddonah]

Input for Cat6? Cat6 video streaming?

Do you have a link for a box that specifies cat6? I have yet to see anything that requires cat6. I also don't know what you mean by a Cat6 input. You have to terminate the cable to make an input, and if you mean an rj45 input for streaming video, then that can be done with cat5e, we do it all the time. In a current project we have a 30 unit building that's having its cable fed to the building via fiber. Floor to floor is also by fiber. From each floor's service closet it's over Cat5e to the node panel in each unit. From there, its fed to the individual tv locations via more cat5e. It's actually pretty dumb, because of the limited bandwidth compared to coax. I don't really understand why they want to do it that way. From what I understand, they can only watch two channels at a time in each unit. I don't know what the people are going to do with their 4 tv's.

[David]

I mean Hi Def video streaming using Cat6. Maybe you can stream HD over Cat5e???

I asked my buddy who does high end entertainment systems and he said for me to stream my movies from computer to TVs over ethernet would require a converter box that runs about 1 grand. I'll have to get clarity from him what type of unit he was referring to.


My main point, though, is that Cat7 is not required and, IMO, won't be a standard in the consumer market for another 5 years.

By input, yes, by CatX 'input,' I meant an RJ45 connector attached to a CatX cable.

[giddonah]

I can't remember the manufacturer of the boxes we use, but I think you're talking about baluns. If this is what you're talking about it's not really referred to as "streaming", but just sending. A quick google found this (cheap) example:

http://www.smarthome.com/7805hd.html

There are baluns for almost any audio/video format these days. We have a project that will have a video/audio signal sent 1700ft over cat5e using baluns. It's not HD mind you, it's just composite video. You can send HD over cat5e, this example says you can go 1000ft, but I do remember reading the specs on the units we use saying it's much shorter.



Edit: Ok, I found it:
http://www.wholehouseaudiocontrol.com/dept.asp?d_id=5646&l1=5646

The limitation I remember is for 1080p. You can send lower resolutions farther. Remember, "HD" actually starts at 720p.


Also, I'm with you on the Cat7 thing. Based on this whole cat6 vs. cat6a thing I'll bed cat7 never gets used and 100GE ends up requiring a different wire than today's cat7 anyway.

[peterselby7]

My father is an electrician and all he is using is Cat 6 now.

[giddonah]

what's his reasoning for it?

[Laserlad]

The previous owner of my house had a very mysterious wiring system of cat5. Some of these cables seem to be going places I just can't figure out :P His future proofing efforts were for naught.... I think I'll skip trying to replace his mess with cat6 :p