What Type of Cabling Do I Need for the Latest 802.11 Wi-Fi?

Not long ago, IEEE published the 802.11ac standard for very high throughput Wi-Fi, which has come to be known as Wi-Fi 5. Wi-Fi 5 Wave 1 devices hit the market a few years ago and supported speeds of up to 1.3 G/bs, and we are now seeing Wave 2 devices supporting up to 3.5 Gb/s. And that kind of amazing Wi-Fi bandwidth is only the beginning. IEEE is now working on a new high-efficiency standard called Wi-Fi 6.

Targeted towards large public spaces where Wi-Fi 5 simply can’t keep up with the volume of devices (think crowded arenas or busy airports with hundreds of people trying to stream video at the same time), Wi-Fi 6 aims to deliver a single stream at 3.5 Gb/s with the ability to deliver four simultaneous streams for a total of at least 11 Gb/s.  That kind of bandwidth requires serious cabling considerations. Whether you’re just now upgrading to Wi-Fi 5, or already looking to deploy Wi-Fi 6, your cabling should be category 6A shielded or higher – without a doubt. And here are the top 3 reasons why:

1. Category 6A cabling is recommended by industry standards

TIA specifically states “Cabling for wireless access points should be balanced twisted-pair, category 6A or higher, as specified in ANSI/TIA-568-2.D, or two-fiber multimode optical fiber cable, OM3 or higher, as specified in ANSI/TIA-568-3.D.” Read the Standard:  https://go.siemon.com/l/10432/2018-11-12/7c8nlz

2. Category 6A cabling is the only way to achieve > 5 Gb/s throughput

Deploying two category 6A channels to access points is the only way to achieve multi-1 Gb/s link aggregation needed for immediate support of 1.3 Gb/s to 3.5 Gb/s 802.11ac Wave 1 and Wave 2 implementations, as well as multi-10 Gb/s link aggregation for future Wi-Fi 6 high-efficiency implementations. Learn more about cabling configurations for Wi-Fi: https://go.siemon.com/l/10432/2018-11-12/7c8nm8

3. Category 6A shielded cabling is the best option for powering access points

The majority of 802.11 Wi-Fi access points are powered via power over Ethernet (PoE). Only category 6A shielded cabling or higher exhibits the heat dissipation and thermal stability to reduce length de-rating and bundling restrictions. Otherwise, you may need to reduce your channel length and bundle sizes to avoid increased insertion loss that can impact performance. Learn more about shielded cabling and PoE:  https://go.siemon.com/l/10432/2018-11-12/7c8nmx

Category 6A shielded cabling is a great start, but there are additional cabling considerations to maximize performance and manageability of Wi-Fi 5 and Wi Fi 6 deployments, such as use of a zone cabling design methodology, plug-terminated links, solid conductor cords and higher temperature rated cables. 

Download Siemon’s Whitepaper: https://go.siemon.com/l/10432/2018-11-12/7c8nm8

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