How many CAT5E (or CAT6) cables in a (plenum) bundle?
July 18th, 2008 | 
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Jim T asked:
When bundling CAT5E (or CAT6) cables together in a commercial (plenum) office space (and these cables will be used to link standard office desktop PCs running on a typical 10/100 Mbps network), is there a standard (568B?) that states the maximum number of cables that should be bundled together that is run any distance (say greater than 10 feet)?
Wendy
When bundling CAT5E (or CAT6) cables together in a commercial (plenum) office space (and these cables will be used to link standard office desktop PCs running on a typical 10/100 Mbps network), is there a standard (568B?) that states the maximum number of cables that should be bundled together that is run any distance (say greater than 10 feet)?
Wendy
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You can bundle as many as you require. At the MDF where they are terminated, they all come together in any case. By the way, the ethernet standard 568A is the primary choice, but this has nothing to do with your question regarding the total number individual drops bundled together. Plenum and feet do not come into play in this either. However, if the ceiling is plenum you will need to use plenum cable instead of the standard Cat5 or 6. A plenum ceiling is one where the entire ceiling is the air return. and it requires special (and expensive) fireproof cable.