1. Will contractors be able to make their own patch cords?
Category 6 patch cords are precision products, just like the cables and the connectors. They are best manufactured and tested in a controlled environment to ensure consistent, reliable performance. This will ensure interoperability and backward compatibility. All this supports patch cords as a factory-assembled product rather than a field-assembled product.
2. Do you have to use the manufacturer’s patch cords to get Category 6 performance?
The Category 6 standard has specifications for patch cords and connectors that are intended to assure interoperable Category 6 performance. If manufacturers can demonstrate that each component meets the requirements in the standard, minimum Category 6 performance will be achieved. However, manufacturers may also design their products to perform better than the minimum Category 6 requirements, and in these cases compatible patch cords and connectors may lead to performance above the minimum Category 6 requirements.
3. Are there any issues with a scenario of Category 6 horizontal run, but a user with a Category 5 office patch cable?
The main issue with using Category 5 patch cords with Category 6 horizontal cabling is transmission performance and Category designation by TIA standards. TIA-568-B standards series require that all components of a link or channel be Category 6 for a horizontal run to be classified as Category 6. Testing installed cabling is additional and optional in TIA and if used there are additional requirements for links and channels for Category 5e and Category 6. The horizontal run containing Category 6 cable and Category 5 patch cords will be designated by the lowest Category component, i.e., Category 5.
Transmission performance of Category 6 is significantly improved over Category 5, especially in the areas of NEXT, ELFEXT and Return Loss. Hence using poor patch cords could easily degrade the performance of the horizontal run, especially since these cords are so close to the equipment where cross-talk coupling is very strong. So depending on the application, this may potentially translate into increased frame errors, or CRC errors.
4. Can Cat 5e patch cords be used with a CAT 6 horizontal infrastructure, specifically for 10/100 Mbps Ethernet applications? I imagine lower Cat 5 characteristics would be the expected performance.
Cat 5e patch cords can be used with a CAT 6 horizontal cabling infrastructure. This is one of the advantages of CAT 6 in that it is backward compatible. However, the resultant channel will be rated Cat 5e, because a channel is rated according to the lowest performing component that is included in the channel (TIA-568-B.1).
