Cabling 5e vs 6

[akuhn]

We're moving to a new location and have bids for cabling.  We're doing separate lines for Data (6) and Voice (5e)

We'll be getting new Mitel Handsets to replace our old Intertel Digital Handsets.

We'll be doing Gig to the desktop for PCs and 100MB to the phones.  Are we hurting ourselves if we only do 5e for voice rather than 6?  Even if newer handsets are capable of a Gig connection, my guess is that's generally for a single vlan'd connection shared between the phone and desktop.

But since we're doing two lines we won't be sharing the connection.  While I'm always for building for the future, I really wonder whether it's necessary for the extra expense when we're just not going to need to do Gig phone connections anytime soon.

Thoughts on this?

Adam in DC



Thoughts?

[marcolive]

New Mitel phones are gigabit compatible (5320e, 5330e, 5430e and 5360).
I would not go with separate cables for voice and data. Your phone and your PC can share the same cable, since you can connect your PC behind the phone. Both will work at 1 GIG.
Remember, if you want to separate voice and data, you'll have to double the number of cables.... and switch ports! This can become very expensive.

QoS is pretty reliable now and there's no reason you would separate voice and data in 2 different cables.

Anyway, since you're moving to a new building, you could buy 2 cat 6 cables per office. Second one only for future expension and not connected to a switch.

Hope this help!

[acejavelin]

My thoughts on this are simple... cable is cheap and labor is expensive... Pull 2-4 runs to every location, use Cat-6 for everything, it is cheaper and easier to do it now that to add later.

There is no logic to mix cat-5 and cat-6 in a new installation, and the amount of money you will save is mediocre.

I agree with marcolive on most of his comments, just remember to use high quality switches... and a good, quality enterprise-grade managed switch properly configured with QoS and running a single run to each location, will be much better in terms of quality and price than two mediocre switches running two separate networks (one for voice and one for data).

[cholzhauer]

Completely agree...waste of time to pull two separate runs and try and keep them separate.  As was mentioned, the phones are gigabit ready (if you get the right models) and you can use them to pass PC traffic as well.  Any new deployment needs to be VLAN'd anyway, so just tag your phone traffic with a specific VLAN and pass the rest to your desktop.

We sprung for CAT6a in our new building two years ago; yes it's a higher upfront cost, but I don't have to worry about bandwidth issues for a long long time.

[Hovus]

Except for the issue of if you ever have to reboot your phone or work on the jack/cable/patch panel port, your computer now suffers for it. God forbid you have any cloud-based applications. Better to be half up than fully down. That is of course if your budget allows for the extra switch(es) that'll likely be needed.

[akuhn]

Thanks all.  I was able to lobby successfully for the extra Cat 6.  Hopefully, someone will appreciate it 10 years from now...maybe even me!