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I had someone try to convince me that we needed Cat6A cabling for a Cisco 1252 802.11N implementation we are planning.

All documentation I can find states "Category 5e cabling or better".

Has anyone run into any issues with Cat5e not working with 802.11N access points that require more power than the typical access point?

Thanks in advance!

Pure 802.11n should yield near 200MB "throughput" and have a near 600MB data rate. The wired side can become the bottle neck. You may also need Gigabit switches as well as better cable just to support the speed. PoE raises new questions about compatibility and finding PoE Gigabit equipment, AP's and Switches alike.

I'm specifically looking at the PoE portion of the 802.11N access points from Cisco. True, in theory the access point could have 600 MB of throughput, but that rarely happens where I work. I'm the Enterprise Wireless Architect and we have about 800 access points. We typically have about 1350 users on the network at one time with an aggregate throughput of about 7MB during regular usage hours.

We wanted to deploy the 1252s and I was told we needed Cat6A (from cabling sales people, of course)because the Cat5e could not handle the power. I say that's not true and would love to talk with someone that has data proving otherwise.

A couple of guys named Google and Wikipedia really like explaining things like this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_6_cable

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_5_cable

Both use 24 gauge wire. All 24 gauge wire looks alike to DC.

Good post ad5mb. Cat5e is perfectly sufficient for an 802.11n installation both for power and for data rates.

We've done plenty of lab-based testing on this, and Cat5e has never had a problem.

Devinator

Well, I've asked the sales people that made the statement that we'll need Cat6A, "May I see the test results?"

I bet they don't come up with any.

Nice certs, Devinator. I'm impressed...

Tim

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/wireless/ps5678/ps6973/ps8382/product_data_sheet0900aecd806b7c5c.html

Search this page on "Power Draw" then read the note.

802.3at (draft 3) allows for up to 25W over Cat5e, so this isn't going to be a problem for 1252 series APs.

http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=blog&blog_id=1470000147&blog_post_id=1650023965

Hope this helps. :)