Category 6 cable, commonly referred to as cat 6, is a standardized cable for gigabit ethernet and other network physical layers that is backward compatible with the category 5/5e and category 3 cable standards.
compared with cat 5 and cat 5e, cat 6 features more stringent specifications for crosstalk and system noise. the cable standard provides performance of up to 250 mhz and is suitable for 10base-t, 100base-tx (fast ethernet), 1000base-t/1000base-tx (gigabit ethernet) and 10gbase-t (10-gigabit ethernet).