cat 7 ???

[NUTS]

Evening everyone,

I've got a job which along with electrical installation has been quoted for cat5 data cabling which is well capable of doing what i believe the client needs.
The client has now come back and said it needs to be wired in cat7 which according to everyone I have spoken to and wholesalers that don't even stock it is a bit of over kill.

I contacted a local networking company and they said they have never installed it so i'm sweating a bit on taking that side of the job on.

My question what are the major requirements on its installation and I'm guessing i need some special equipment to test it and the £10 tool wont be up to the job!!

Thanks for any advise

 

[Marvo]

Never seen a CAT 7 installation. I imagine you would need a special tester and probably special tools to fit plugs and make terminations. I wouldn't touch it unless there's enough money in the job to cover the learning curve.

 

[Cyberprog]

Even Cat6 is overkill for all the installs I do these days. 99% of them are still Cat5e.

 

[Delecq]

Hi ask the client why the think the need Cat7 then tell them the cost of Cat7 cable between £280 to £350 per 500 mtrs plus the containment will have to be upgraded to suit Cat 7 cable is 7.5mm to 9.5mm depending which make you use not to mention the bend radius. Outlets are £10 to £15 each dependant on make, you'll also need specialist tools to terminate with plus a cable certifier to test with £4500+. If it's just a normal office Cat 5e will more the meet their needs, Cat 7 is what you would install in data centres. All these prices are from a specialist networking wholesaler not from your average electrical wholesaler. If it’s a large installation be prepared to take out a second mortgage, we've just priced a job in Cat 7, for 11000 outlets the cable alone is going to cost £236,000.00 and the outlet another £60,000.00 and that’s with special rates.

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[topquark]

If you can find out what the application of the network is (bandwidth requirement and number of points being served mainly) then we could better advise.

 

[ian.settle1]

This may be of help but think at present it is overkill as the IT company (CSC)we have on site say cat 5e is ok as there is no need for cat 6 or higher unless you are connected to main frames like supercomputers eg crays



Category 7 cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[topquark]

This may be of help but think at present it is overkill as the IT company (CSC)we have on site say cat 5e is ok as there is no need for cat 6 or higher unless you are connected to main frames like supercomputers eg crays



Category 7 cable - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not what you are connected too, it's the overall required bandwidth that's important, that's very poor advice from a networking company Ian.

 

[Cyberprog]

About par for the course for CSC IIRC though topquark!

 

[topquark]

About par for the course for CSC IIRC though topquark!

Don't know them from "Adam" mate, we did all our own work in house.

 

[Cyberprog]

They're one of these big companies that does a lot of govt./big business outsourced IT. Need I say any more?

 

[NUTS]

Thanks everyone for your comments,

I am going to let the customer get an independent quote/advise as it's not something i'm set up for, ie test equipment.

Thanks again

 

[NUTS]

Another question please,
can cat 7 cable be made off into a standard RJ45 outlet if need be.

 

[topquark]

Another question please,
can cat 7 cable be made off into a standard RJ45 outlet if need be.

Yes, but it will need to be rated for cat 7 (the physical connector is the same), the same for any patch panels you use (most are only cat 5 certified). They are not (yet) readily available though.

You could still connect, but you WILL get reduced throughput as a result (as they wouldn't be able to handle the higher frequencies in use and the speed will most likely be auto dropped to compensate for the signal degredation).

 

[NUTS]

I see, cheers for that

 

[Cyberprog]

It would make things technically easier though to upgrade at a later date, once the cable's in the walls it's just a case of adjusting the end points to suit.

Edit: There are plenty of Cat7 Keystone Jack terminations available, so you can do a patch panel easily.

 

[sparkydude]

Things seem to be going back to the days of IBM ethernet cabling where the cables are getting bigger and bigger, surely these bigger cables are going to make already crowded server rooms even more so. Thought fibre optics was the way forwards, but obviously costs still an issue at the moment. Who knows where we will be in 5 or even ten years time .

Nick

 

[Paul Rees]

hi

I run a comms and data company we buy all our supplies from comms express a very large supplier and they dont even stock Cat 7 i did ask the question and the lead time for delivery is 90 days.

We are installing network cabling every day and 90% of it would be Cat 5e.