CAT8: the future of data Center cabling

Category 8 will play a major role in data centres and critical environments upgrading to 25/40GBASE-T. As bandwidth demand continues to increase on daily basis, Cat 8 is future proofing the need of Bandwidth.

The most common cabling system for Enterprise happens to be copper cabling due to Ethernet standard and its deployments. 

Unlike copper cabling for earlier 1G and 10G technologies, Cat8 will not have a 100-meter range. For most data centres purposes, however, this limitation is not a problem. Cat8 is designed to support 30-meter channel range.

What is CAT8 Cabling?

• Cat 8 solutions are designed to support Ethernet at rates up to 25/40 Gbps (40GBASE-T). 
• Short distances up to 30 meters, which is a solution primarily for data centres. 
• Unlike earlier, no. of ports required to reach 25/40Gbps, now with Cat 8 it is less and thus results in less of Power usage and electronic costs.
• Category 8 operates at 2 GHz, more than 4 x Cat 6A.
• Besides, the 25/40GBASE-T standards support auto negotiation, which provides convenience for data centre users.
• The international standards bodies ISO and IEC have designated two cabling variants; they are Category 8.1 and Category 8.2.
• Category 8.1 components are used to construct Class I links. They are backward compatible with the RJ45 connector interface for categories 6A, 6 and 5e as specified in ISO/IEC 11801 and EN 50173. 
• Category 8.2 components are used to construct Class II links. Category 8.2 components are backward compatible with components used to construct Class F and Class FA links.
• CAT8 cables look similar to lower category cables and most will still be terminated in RJ45 connections.
• Cat 8 uses Common, field-proven and time-tested RJ45 Interface which is backward compatible.
  

Standards Applicable

SANSI/TIA-568-2.D Category 8 Cabling

ISO/IEC 11801 Generic Cabling, Including Class I & II Channels

Channel Configuration

Maximum 24 meter, jack-to-jack permanent link and up to 6 meters of patch cords.

RiT's Category 8 cables are shielded and comply with the standard requirement.

The cable performance is tested for 2GHz and is verified by ETL for 2 connector channel performance. Cable flammability complies with the IEC 60332-1, IEC 60332-2, UL 1581 VW-1, EN 50575:2014Cca s1d1a1 (CPR) requirement.

RiT's Category 8 connectors is familiar to RJ45 interface ( 8 pin modular). Keystone Jack complies to the standard requirement and is part of the ETL verification program for the channel performance. This jack complies to the standard Patch Panels offered by RiT.
High quality connectors ensure system reliability and stability by press-fit assembly process.
Compact RJ45 Keystone design to support HD installations up to 48 keystones in 1U rack space.
Optimized for Power Over ethernet IEEE 802.3bt (4PPoE) Type 3 (60W) and Type 4 (100W). RiT connector also supports Power over HDBaseT (PoH) - up to 100W.

RIT CAT8 S/FTP Patch Cords conforms to ANSI/TIA/EIA-568.2-D, ISO/IEC 11801, IEEE and CENELEC EC50575 for Category 8. The patch cords are 100% tested per Cat.8 Channel up to 2000 MHz. RiT's Patented Precision Placement Technology (PPT), the Plug ensures high-repeatability Cross-Talk performance. PPT enables Category 8 performance under any field condition.

Verified by ETL for 2 Connector Channel Performance

Anand Kumar, RCDD
Global Product Manager
RiT Tech (Intelligence Solutions) Ltd.