GigaBase® 350 CAT5e, 350MHz LSZH Bulk Cable

CAT5e, also known as Enhanced Category 5, is a UTP cable standard ratified in 1999. It’s an incremental improvement over Category 5 (CAT5) and is designed to enable cabling to support full-duplex Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet. The main differences between CAT5 and CAT5e are in the specifications. The performance requirements have been raised slightly in CAT5e standard.

CAT5e has stricter specifications for Power-Sum Equal-Level Far-End Crosstalk (PS-ELFEXT), Near-End Crosstalk (NEXT), Attenuation and Return-Loss (RL) than those for CAT5. Like CAT5, CAT5e is a 100-MHz standard, but it has the capacity to handle bandwidth superior to that of CAT5. With these improvements, you can expect problem-free, full-duplex, 4-pair Ethernet transmissions over your CAT5e UTP.

The European market is demanding that cables used in LANs, WANs, etc. meet this specification. The IEC 60332-1 governs the Flame Retardant Grade specifications in reference to LSZH cables.

Essentially, the compound used in manufacturing cables meeting the above specification reduces the amount of dangerous/poisonous gases in case of fire. The main difference in specifications between IEC 60332-1 versus UL® 1581, UL 1666 and UL 910 is that the cable under the IEC spec can continue to burn while still emitting very low gases. The UL specs demand that the flame be extinguished, but it can still emit dangerous/poisonous gases.

Today virtually all medium and large installations in Europe must meet the IEC specification. Many public authorities are already demanding that new installations must meet IEC 60332-3 which is a more demanding flammability specification for LSZH.

hysically, PVC and LSZH are very different. PVC patchcords are very soft; LSZH patchcords are more rigid because they contain the flame retardant compound, and they are aesthetically more pleasing.