Cat Cable Bandwidth. Category (cat) 3 cable = up to 16mhz category 4 cable = up to 20mhz category 5 cable = up to 100mhz category 6 cable = up to 250mhz category 7 cable = up to 600mhz. Bandwidth is measured in cycles per second or hertz (hz).
Not all cat 5e or cat 6 cable are of same quality. The bandwidth of category 5 and 5e is the same (100 mhz) and the physical cable construction is the same, and the reality is that most cat 5 cables meet cat 5e specifications, though it is not tested or certified as such. Cat 7 cables are the latest to hit the networking market and enable speeds of up 10 gigabits per second (gbps.
Category 6 cable (cat 6), is a standardized twisted pair cable for ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the category 5/5e and category 3 cable standards.
Besides, cat5e is rated at 350mhz, which allows it support increased bandwidth than cat5. Within a single cable, each colored pair will also have different twist lengths based on prime numbers so that no two twists ever align. The a stands for augmented and is a nod to cat6a's improved specifications compared with its predecessor, the category 6, or cat6 cable. My companys building has 8 floors and there are almost 20 ports in each floor.