Final Category 8 cabling specification has just been approved but the cables are not expected to be available for another 2 or 3 years. Click here for article.

Category 8 certifiers should start at around $8000 each. Hurry up and order yours!

The cat 8 certifiers will be much cheaper after the cat 9 and 10 cable comes out.

Yuk yuk good one! Anyone interested in buying a slightly used T-bird?

Why do we need cat 8

More importantly, why do we need CAT6?

Because the IT "professionals" say so. And we all know they are smart because they have certifications hanging on their walls and their bosses kiss their asses.

-Hal

Or because CAT 6 has far greater capacity?

Ed -

If I've said this before then I apologize, but...

Type out "The quick brown fox..." in notepad, wordpad and ms word. Then save the results and look at the file size.

NOBODY corporate sends email that they didn't write first in MS word. Then when you include the fonts, the pictures and the graphics, you see why the networks get overloaded.

Not to mention the corporate culture of downloading videos (and porn) at the office.

To paraphrase an old saying:

You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much bandwidth.

In the corporate world, if you're the IT manager and the CEO can't download...something... because of a slow network, you're going to get a reaming, at the very least - if not fired!

As a telecom professional - rejoice in this! We thought we'd all be out of work forever once we put in 100mbs Cat 5 cable plants! Cat 8 should take you through retirement!

Sam

Cat 6 made sense to me because it broke the gigabit barrier, officially. Sure, Cat 5 will run gigabit quite nicely, but it isn't certified to do so. In the corporate world, it's what is perceived to be that gets the traction, not what actually is.

To be honest, I missed the boat on this one. I thought, for sure, the Category cable releases would stop at 6 and fiber would be going to the desktop. I know IEEE has committees making plans for Cat X into the future, but there is a physical limit to the bandwidth over UTP that is fast approaching. A simple sweep test shows the limits are being pushed now.

Rcaman

Fiber to the desktop sounds good in theory but is very expensive to deploy. The typical office user is fine (and will be) with gigabit speeds but get into architects etc. and it begins to make sense.

Cat5e is fine for 99% of users but as long as cable manufacturers and the TIA keep pushing the envelope the IT wienies keep drooling and the latest becomes a must have. Why do you think constant upgrades are such an easy sell to this crowd? And as long as copper is a player it gets the thumbs up because that's all they are familiar with.

If the TIA said enough of the insanity, Cat7 will be the EOL for copper you can bet on how fast fiber gets deployed and the costs involved come down to copper levels.

-Hal

Actually, it's the IEEE that has to throw the flag. TIA/EIA and ANSI are standards groups that adopt recommendations made by the IEEE.

Since the IEEE members have a predisposition to make recommendations on systems that benefit IEEE members, we will continue to see category increments that make no sense but ultimately becomes a standard.

Rcaman

Ok, then it's the IEEE. Dunno, because every time a new technology becomes available it quickly replaces the old. Somebody has a vested interest in this nonsense because if they didn't it would have ended with CAT5.

-Hal

Cat8 is meant for data centers and not much more.

I wish they would work on reliability and forget about speed. Computers are faster then most people need if they just worked right.

It would be nice to have a reliable computer and a bug free and virus free operating system. The computers are barely reliable enough to work. The Microsquish operating systems are all beta releases and we, the users, PAY to use their buggy software. What is wrong with this picture?

Rcaman

I got so disgusted with Microsoft after i retired (I had a series of problems - registry errors, viruses, buggy software etc.) and i got tired of hearing that I had to reload Windows.

I switched to Apple and haven't looked back. I don't know how that would work for people who need Windows for business/corporate software. i imagine it could be a serious problem.

There are at least two fixes that I know of - One is to run software called parallels that runs windows and mac OS X simultaneously and the other is a dual boot setup. I don't run either (I don't need it) I do however run some software called Crossover that lets me run MS Visio (which I still use occasionally) on the Mac.

OSX is Unix with the Mac GUI. Unix is practically bulletproof and the Mac GUI is the best I've ever worked with.

Just my $0.02

Sam

Ugh, I'm about to drive the car a little bit further up the sidestreet.

I guess that I'm the polar opposite of Sam. I've used Windows based computers for years and haven't had any real reasons to consider switching to a different OS.

My Microsoft Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 are fairly well behaved with Windows 10. Are they perfect? No. Is there room for improvement? Yes.

Apple has been having its own problems as of late. Seems like its churning out iOS security patches with ever increasing frequency. iOS 8.0.1.and 9.3.2 were unmitigated disasters...especially 8.0.1. For a company that controls everything about their products, that should not happen.

Due to inflation, I'll be adding my own $0.05.

Unfortunately, we have a Microsquish shop and EVERYTHING is Windows based. I tried toying with Linux with Wine to run MS programs, but that proved to be less than adequate.

I have a Linux computer that I do ESI programming with and it runs like a finely made watch. In 5 years I have had NO problems. I initially had Wine on it and tried to run MS programs, but that didn't work well so I just removed Wine and use it as just Linux.

Rcaman

While fiber is definitely the superior technology its just not practical to bring it to the desktop yet hence the continued development of copper. For backbone and data center fiber is king but for desktop copper rules the roost. As far as desktops Microsoft does everything I need and its been pretty solid since Windows 7. Apple is like being allowed into the petting zoo where you can only touch certain things and your always being supervised while everything else allows you full access to the zoo. Yeah every once in a while someone lets the tigers out but for the most part things work fine. Iphones are cute though.

Why not? Terminations have become easy enough although I imagine the IT geeks would have problems learning a new manual task.

-Hal

LOL I'd place my bets on IT geeks learning new technologies faster than old farts can. The first reason is durability. Id much rather have end users dealing with something stronger than fiber. Then there's not really any advantage to converting to a new desktop cabling technology as copper gigabit to the desktop fills most needs and fiber can still be ran on an as needed basis. On my desktop I have both fiber and copper connections but all our end users are on copper. Then there's cost. As a whole fiber tends to be more expensive to implement than copper. I can recall back in the early 2000s when people were talking about fiber taking over and seeing the demise of copper but yet here we are......same stories I used to hear about VOIP ending POTS back way back in 1999.

We're going around in circles here. We've already established that Cat5e "fills most needs" but the IT geeks have to have the latest "upgrades" which means that it will be Cat8 to the desktop.

I don't agree that fiber is any less durable than a piece of UTP. If it gets yanked on and stomped on under desks it's because some IT genius had no idea what neatness means.

-Hal

Of course, having gotten bored and decided to read the spec, Cat8 has a maximum length of 30 meters. Sort of makes the idea of taking it to the desktop a little bit of a challenge.

Doesn't mean the IT guys won't try for it anyway, but it at least gives us the ability to say "ok, you're moving all your users into the server rooms?"

Like I said in an earlier post. CAT8 is meant for the data center and not for the office environment.

Fiber to the desktop is happening all over. They are using a passive fiber network which keeps the cost down. Cost is the biggest factor as to why fiber to the desktop hasn't taken off.

Please take the Windows Mac war to another topic. I read here that Category 8 is intended only for the data center. It is called 40GBase-T or 40G for short, meaning 40 gigabits per second. The article also has a picture of the cables. Category 8.1 has 4 untwisted pairs plus an overall foil sheath. Category 8.2 has a foil sheath around each pair plus an overall foil plus braided sheath.

Sounds like it'll be real fun to work with....

Anybody notice that the Cat8.2 colors are W/B, W/O, W/G and white red??? Those look like old audio cables by the way. And if Cat8 is for data centers, surely they could afford fiber...

Time to stop kicking that dead horse.

-Hal

Apparently, there are three Category 8 standards: just Category 8, Category 8.1 and Category 8.2. Cagtegory 8.1 is also called Category 8 Class I, and Category 8.2 is also called Category 8 Class II. Say that ten times fast.

Category 8 and Category 8.1 will use the RJ-45 connector and Category 8.2 will not. It will the Siemon TERA® connector.

Here is a picture of the Siemon Tera connectors used with Category 8.2 cables.

And that's easier than terminating fiber?

-Hal

Since the IEEE has a committee (802.3bq) that is establishing the electrical parameters for 25GBase-T and 40GBase-T, the emerging specifications all point to shielded, 2 pair, 22 gauge cable which can be terminated on RJ-45 or the Siemon TERA connectors. Right now, this is all in development.

Here's The Link

One thing that stands out, for me, is that this is being specifically developed for Edge data centers and the distance limitation is 30 meters and that is ONLY if the committees can develop a working standard. Just because there is an IEEE committee and a TIA/EIA standard, that doesn't mean any of this will actually be deployed as it is being discussed now. There are too many variables that have not been addressed, yet.

IEEE recognizes 2,000 MHz data rates as being practical over fiber not copper. The 802.3bq committee is trying to resolve the copper 2,000 MHz limitations and the resulting connector problems.

Rcaman

Cha Ching!

I hear the sound of money rolling in, as all the yahoos insist on the latest and greatest!

Sam

Two questions for all of you .

Who has installed Cat 7 ? Was it needed ?

Who needs?

• steam engines
• telegraph
• wireless telegraph
• radio
• television
• airplanes
• automobiles
• antibiotics
• inside plumbing
• jet planes
• flush toilets
• color television
• polaroid cameras
• vaccines
• Category 8 cabling

Since TIA/EIA never adopted the international Cat 7 standard, we have not had any requests to install, just a lot of IT weenies wanting to know when it's going to be available. My response, to them, is never.

The category was adopted in Europe but has not been formally set as a standard in the U.S. The category was in IEEE committee, however, the 802.3bq committee which is setting the electrical conformation codes for Cat 8 basically, negated the committee that had been considered for Cat 7.

The operative word is exactly what Silversam wrote: "Cha-Ching."

Rcaman

I'm a dreaded IT geek by trade. I always spec CAT5e unless the client specifies otherwise. I find it is still less expensive than CAT6 and easier to work with. It's plenty fine for 99% of the small businesses that I work with, now and into the future. Most of their apps are going to the "cloud" anyway, so even less data being transmitted back and forth. I personally don't see the reason to keep stringing copper along with new specs every few years. Just go fiber and be done with it. Then you just change out the optics on the end for whatever faster specs come out. Glass doesn't change too much.

There is no such thing as Cat7 in the states. The TIA skipped it.

Even the fiber specs have changed over the years. I used to run 62.5/125, but if you wanted to go to 10Gb or faster, then you would want OM3 50/125 fiber end to end instead.

Still after all these years nobody does fiber to the desktop because copper is still the cheaper, backwards compatible, and just as good for most applications.