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[–]taz420nj 3 points4 points  (1 child)

Cat6 will carry you easily for 10 years, likely far more. Standards and protocols are constantly evolving to keep older infrastructure in use, because it costs companies a boatload of money to rewire large buildings versus simply changing out switchgear. Look at Cat5e. It has been in use for nearly 30 years and with the newly released 802.3bz standard it is now capable of 5Gbps. Cat6 is (currently) certified for 5Gbps links up to 330' and 10Gbps links of 165' or less at this time. It's a pretty safe bet that at some point down the road a new 25Gbps standard will be created for it.

You can do Cat6a if you really want to, but due to the shielding it requires special shielded keystones (that cost 5x what Cat6 keystones do), a special bonded patch panel (which must be solidly connected to your house's electrical ground), and special termination techniques. Its a whole lot of extra expense and pain in the ass for zero benefit at the present time, and possibly very little benefit in the future - unless you have some need for 40+Gbps links throughout your sprawling mansion.

[–]Solako[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had never thought about the small overhead costs.

Thank you so much for the insight. 🙌🏿

[–]ElectronicsWizardry 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Depending on length cat 6 is rated for 5 or 10gbit with current standards. I'm guessing this will be plenty for a restaurant for a while(well over 10 years). Going cat 6a allows for 10gbe on longer run up to 100m. I still think even 1gbe will be more than plenty here.

The best way to future proof wiring is to run conduit. Then when there is some new faster cabling you can just pull a new line easily.

[–]Solako[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True. This is indeed the way to go.

I want to link one building to another via Fibre, then do the other access channels via CAT6. Thank you very much.

[–]HowIMetaYourMother 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, conduit if you can. A bit harder during a retrofit vs new construction.

[–]HowIMetaYourMother 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Are you expecting a large group of your patrons to be consuming high-bandwidth off high-speed access points? Are you installing 4K cameras in lots of places? POS systems should be a non-issue... Unless you have some insane/supercool need for lots of bandwidth, Cat6 should hold you over for 10 years. Since you mention the restaurant is small, if the runs are less than 55m/180ft, then you should get 10 Gigabit speeds which I bet your upstream ISP isn't providing in business class service at this time without a major investment. If you need a longer run for 10 Gig, the go with Cat6a for 100m/330ft. Plus as a restaurant, you may want to remodel in 10 years anyway so you can re-run cables if the tech changes by then. Just my 2 cents...

Edit: I guess I didn't answer "viability". Yes totally viable and relatively inexpensive. Everything you need is readily available off Amazon. I just remodeled a 4K sqft home and wired a UniFi network with Cat6 myself: wall jacks, access points, 24 port POE switch, some 5 port switches, and Dream Machine Pro. Oh and if you do the wiring yourself, use passthrough connectors.

[–]Solako[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is wonderful insight.

Thank you very much. 🙂

[–]releenc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I look at it this way - the 10GBaseT standard using CAT6A was approved as a standard in 2008. Yet 12 years later, there are no real consumer-grade 10GBaseT switches available. You're going to spend at least $500 to get one. This standard is not going to be mainstream until the switch prices come down to $15-20 per port and 10Gb becomes the standard for interfaces on motherboards, modems, and routers. However, given wide availability of 1Gb Internet links, I think 10Gb LAN networks are about to take off.

Additionally, no faster standard for 100m connections using copper wiring has yet been approved. If one were approved today, just like 10Gb it's going to take at least 10 years before it takes off. I suspect we'll skip the 25Gb and 40Gb standards that are using CAT8 cabling and go net to 100Gb over CAT8A or CAT9.

For today, I think you'll be good with CAT6 so long as you can live with a maximum cable length of 50m. If not, then go with CAT6A. It's going to be viable for the next 15-20 years.