Applications and technologies for voice, data, and video in the home continue to evolve. Data transfer loads are ever-increasing, while more advanced wireless networking technologies expand the requirements for supporting infrastructure cabling. Meanwhile, some of the world’s leading standards organizations have updated their minimum requirements and recommendations for which cables should be installed — some say Cat 6 or better, while others specify Cat 6A as the minimum category cable and OM4 as the minimum optical fiber infrastructure cable.  This paper explores balanced twisted pair, optical fiber, and coaxial cable families that comprise voice, data, and video cabling and applications, supplemented by an overview of cable jacket fire ratings to assist integrators in specifying appropriate cables to use in future-ready, compliant infrastructure designs. 

Updated  April 2024

9 Pages