The standardisation of cabling and cables is presently in violent progress and it may therefore be expected that people who are not actively involved in development of the new categories and requirements may feel confused or even lost. Company marketing is in some cases adding to the general confusion by using non-defined names as "level" or "Gigabit" cables.

The background for the development is double. First, a technical improvement of cable performance which far exceeds the Cat. 5 requirements. Second, development of applications like Gigabit Ethernet which stresses the Cat. 5 performance over the limit making new performance ratings desirable or necessary. For this reason standardisation groups are working to prepare new cable standards so that the following categories will be covered in the future:

Cat. 3 Low performance cable rating which is disappearing. Not included in the 3P Certification programme.

Cat. 5 The traditional rating of cables for data installations. Has been requested by IEEE application committee to be extended in the future with new transmission parameters like equal level far end crosstalk, power sum requirements and delay skew. Expected publication of requirements is mid 1999. Rated frequency is 100 MHz.

Cat. 5+ Ne rating now being developed in the US, which will probably become the future Cat. 5 rating. Rated frequency is 100 MHz but possibly requirements will be specified in the future to 125 MHz in order to show graceful degradation at frequencies where ACR (signal to noise ratio) may be negative. Prepared to support Gigabit Ethernet. Please note that the name Enhanced Cat. 5 is used in the US.
Cat. 6 New rating which is presently being developed in both the US, ISO/IEC and CENELEC. Is intended to reflect the max. technical performance of unscreened and overall screened cable types. Expected publication of requirements is late 2000. Rated frequency is 200 MHz with requirements specified to 250 MHz in order to show graceful degradation at frequencies where ACR (signal to noise ratio) may be negative.

Cat. 7 A rating for individual pair screened cables derived from the german DIN 44312-5 standard requirements. Is intended to reflect the technical performance of normal individual pair screened cable types (commonly called STP, S-STP or PIMF cables). Expected publication of requirements is late 2000. Rated frequency is 600 MHz. Upper test frequency is presently being discussed and so far requirements only apply to 600 MHz.

The following standardisation groups are responsible for the development of international cable specifications:

ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 25, WG 3:
An international cabling committee which is driving cable requirements, for instance based on cooperation with application committees. Cable standards for ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 25, WG 3 are prepared by IEC SC 46C.

CENELEC TC 215:
An international cabling committee for European countries working in parallel with ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 25, WG 3. Many persons are members of both cabling committees. Efforts are being made to secure consistency between the work of the two cabling committees, but national traditions between countries may cause differences in the resulting standards. Cable standards for CENELEC TC 215 are prepared by CENELEC SC 46XC.

IEC SC 46C:
The international cable committee which developed cable standards, for instance according to requirements of ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 25, WG 3. Cable standards are to be referenced in the new edition of the cabling standard developed by ISO/IEC JTC 1, SC 25, WG 3.

CENELEC TC 46X (SC 46XC):
The CENELEC cable committee which developed cable standards, for instance according to requirements of CENELEC TC 215. Many persons are members of both cable committees. Efforts are being made to secure consistency between the work of the two cable committees, but presently very big differences exist in the structure of the two proposals of cable standards.

Similar work is ongoing in the US to develop cable standards for the future cabling specified in ANSI/TIA/EIA-568 and Addendums.

It should be noted that the cabling standards ISO/IEC 11801 and CENELEC EN 50173 define the categories of cables while the cable standards only specify the frequency ratings of the cables.

3P is a member of all the cable and cabling committees referenced above in order to secure compliance of 3P Verified cables with future requirements of developing standards.