T E C H N I C A L R E F E R E N C E TR125 Advantages of Using 0.240 Small Diameter Cables for Category 6A Installations INTRODUCTION The introduction of Category 6A cabling allowed a single cable to carry 10x the information over prior categories by supporting 10GBASE-T transmission at lengths up to 100 meters. The major innovation that allowed this to happen was improvements in alien crosstalk, or coupling between adjacent channels. Category Class Maximum Bandwidth Major Improvement over Prior Category / Class 5e D 100 MHz N/A 6 E 250 MHz Internal NEXT, FEXT (ACR-F), and Return Loss 6A E 500 MHz Alien Crosstalk A The simplest way to meet the demanding alien crosstalk specification was to increase the distance between the wires in adjacent channels. This was initially done by some cable vendors by just increasing the cable diameter and why some vendors Category 6A cables are significantly larger than their Category 6 cables. Unfortunately, this increase cable diameter made Category 6A cables more difficult to work with. Panduit recognized the difficulty in cable management caused by this increase in cable diameter and developed MaTriX Technology. MaTriX Technology utilizes discontinuous metallic elements to eliminate coupling between neighboring channels. By adding these discontinuous metallic elements, Panduit was able to offer a Category 6A cable with a smaller diameter. This technology is available on the cable, connectors, and patch cords. web: www.panduit.com e-mail: cs panduit.com phone: 800-777-3300 page 1 T E C H N I C A L R E F E R E N C E TR125 CATEGORY 6A SMALL DIAMETER CABLES Panduit recognized that the MaTriX Technology had the potential to solve new problems. Our engineers found that it was possible to further reduce Category 6A cable diameter using MaTriX Technology with thinner gauge copper, with the tradeoff of adding extra attenuation per unit length. Panduit settled on using 26 AWG wire, which meant the maximum channel length would be limited to 70 meters. This maximum length was deemed sufficient for nearly all copper data center runs. In summary, Panduit MaTriX small diameter (TX6A-SD 10Gig) cables offer: The smallest Category 6A cable on the market (0.240), similar to Category 6 cables Cost advantage over existing Category 6A since it uses both less copper and less materials Same fill ratios and pathways as you would for Category 6 cables Panduit Category 6, Category 6A Small Diameter (TX6A-SD 10Gig) and Category 6A Cables (TX6A 10Gig) web: www.panduit.com e-mail: cs panduit.com phone: 800-777-3300 page 2