M
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ONNECTIONS
4-81000BASE-T Cable Requirements

All Category 5 UTP cables that are used for 100BASE-TX connections

should also work for 1000BASE-T, providing that all four wire pairs are

connected. However, it is recommended that for all critical connections, or

any new cable installations, Category 5e (enhanced Category 5) or

Category 6 cable should be used. The Category 5e and 6 specifications

include test parameters that are only recommendations for Catego ry 5.

Therefore, the first step in prep aring existing Category 5 cabling fo r

running 1000BASE-T is a simple test of the cable installation to be sure

that it complies with the IEEE 802.3ab standards.

1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet Collision Domain

Table 4-1 Maximum 1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet Cable Length

Table 4-2 Maximum 1000BASE-SX Gigabit Ethernet Cable Lengths

Table 4-3 Maximum 1000BASE-LX Gigabit Ethernet Cable Length

Cable Type Maximum Cable
Length
Connector
Category 5, 5e, or 6 100-ohm UTP
or STP
100 m (328 ft) RJ-45
Fiber Size Fiber
Bandwidth
Maximum Cable
Length
Connector
62.5/125 micron
multimode fiber
160 MHz/km 2-220 m (7-722 ft) LC
200 MHz/km 2-275 m (7-902 ft) LC
50/125 micron
multimode fiber
400 MHz/km 2-500 m (7-1641 ft) LC
500 MHz/km 2-550 m (7-1805 ft) LC
Fiber Size Fiber
Bandwidth
Maximum Cable
Length
Connector
9/125 micron
single-mode fiber
N/A 2 m - 5 km (7 ft - 3.2
miles)
LC