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There's fast and then there's fast! I found this story at Ars Technica which is reporting that the IEEE has approved the 802.3bz standard: 2.5Gbps over Cat 5e, 5Gbps over Cat 6:
A new Ethernet standard that allows for up to 2.5Gbps over normal Cat 5e cables (the ones you probably have in your house) has been approved by the IEEE. The standard—formally known as IEEE 802.3bz-2016, 2.5G/5GBASE-T, or just 2.5 and 5 Gigabit Ethernet—also allows for up to 5Gbps over Cat 6 cabling.
The new standard was specifically designed to bridge the copper-twisted-pair gap between Gigabit Ethernet (1Gbps), which is currently the fastest standard for conventional Cat 5e and Cat 6 cabling, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet, which can do 10Gbps but requires special Cat 6a or 7 cabling. Rather impressively work only began on the new standard at the end of 2014, which gives you some idea of how quickly the powers that be wanted to push this through.
[...] The new 2.5G/5GBASE-T standard (PDF) will let you run 2.5Gbps over 100 metres of Cat 5e or 5Gbps over 100 metres of Cat 6, which should be fine for most homes and offices. The standard also implements other nice-to-have features, including various Power over Ethernet standards (PoE, PoE+, and UPoE)—handy for rolling out Wi-Fi access points.
The physical (PHY) layer of 2.5G/5GBASE-T is very similar to 10GBASE-T, but instead of 400MHz of spectral bandwidth it uses either 200MHz or 100MHz, thus not requiring a super-high-quality mega-shielded cable. ... Other differences from 10GBASE-T include low density parity checking (LDPC) rather than CRC-8 error correction, and PAM-16 modulation rather than DSQ128.>
These last acronyms are all designed to deal with errors in data transmission. low density parity checking, CRC, Pulse amplitude modulation, and DSQ128 is a 128-bit implementation of Double Square QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation).
As this standard was just approved it will still be a while before commercial products are available, let alone for them to become affordable for regular consumers. I'm curious if there are any Soylentils who are already maxing out their gigabit networks, and if so, what are you doing to max it out? How much would this additional speed help?
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 30 2016, @01:51PM
So I've been thinking about wiring my old, old house for ethernet. It currently has none. I was going to put in shielded CAT6 with an aftermarket commercial gigabit switch. Should this impact my plans at all? Does this maybe just mean that if I ever need a bump, I should be able to go to 5Gbps over the CAT6 and not even consider CAT6A?
I'm also really curious about other factors of the connection. How does the latency and error rate compare among these different speeds?
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @02:07PM
Until this, there was no real use for Cat6. I did a Cat5e wiring and am very happy with it; supposing I get this hardware, I could then do 2.5 Gbps. If I wanted to.
If you seriously think that high speed networking will be useful for you, and you are willing to put up with the extra cable bulk, use Cat6a.
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday September 30 2016, @02:40PM
pictures:
http://etherealmind.com/size-differences-cat5-and-cat6-cable-bundles/ [etherealmind.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @02:13PM
I'm in the same situation as you, and will likely use Cat 6A. If I'm stringing stuff through the walls I may as well use a damn good cable.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @02:49PM
Just know that cat6 is a lot harder to string through the walls than cat5. It is significantly less bendy. Yes, that's a technical term. It probably doesn't make much difference if you are wiring new construction. But retrofitting into walls that are already sheetrocked is going to be even more unpleasant.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by agentcooper on Friday September 30 2016, @02:54PM
I design large networks for a living so I'll make an alternate suggestion that may work better for a home user.
The tools, patch panels and keystones required for very high speed copper connections are expensive and require a lot of training in order to install something that will pass cable certifications. If you are planing on doing something that might support 2.5 or 5 Gb/s in your home you would have to take those steps or it would prove too unreliable.
Most of the work in installing a cabled network is in the pulling of the cable. As such I would recommend that you install regular Cat5e cabling which will support 1 Gb/s operation and anyone who is reasonably careful with their terminations can install cabling that will pass certification. At the same time that you are pulling the Cat5e pull in single mode fibre optic cable (zip cord is fine if you are careful - observe local building codes re. plenum rated vs. conduit). You don't need to terminate it just leave a foot or so coiled up in the box. Single mode fibre is cheap now but terminating it takes both skill and specialized tools. Having said that, who knows what might be available by the time you actually need to make use of that fibre in the walls. Don't forget to leave a "service loop" back at your patch panel. Ten feet of extra cabling should allow you to move the panel to pretty much anywhere inside a room should the need arise. Same goes for the fibre.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 30 2016, @05:21PM
Interesting. So do you expect the bare fiber to be useful for networking in the future? Or is there a way to make it useful now? Why do you recommend this option?
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @06:27PM
Find a single mode SFP module and as long as you can polish the cable ends you should be fine (there are machines for doing so for a few hundred bucks. Or you can try and do it manually, but it is generally a terrible idea.) I have seen them for 150-200USD for pairs. Cheap dropshipped from china.
With the proper grade of fiber you can upgrade to 10G with no trouble, and given your cable length, possible 40G or 100G when they get affordable (or if, since 10G has only recently dropped in price, and 1G is still not on every piece of equipment despite being 16+ years old.)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday September 30 2016, @07:07PM
Fiber nics, cabling, and jacks are already deployed in newer buildings, especially those designed for tech workers.
Not cheaply.
Your entry level nic [startech.com] will be a couple hundred bucks when the dust settles.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:39AM
A conduit with a string in it can be a wonderful thing.
https://www.amazon.com/Single-Plenum-Rated-Corrugated-Innerduct/dp/B00FZ5X5PM [amazon.com]