Maximum Cable Length vs. Data Rate
Purpose: To list out the different commonly used cables, and their corresponding maximum data rate given the length of the cable. These values are based off of estimated ideal conditions and should be interpreted with understanding that in real world applications results may vary.
Last Updated: February 2020
CAN Bus
Bit Rate
Cable Length
3 Mbps
5 meters
1.5 Mbps
15 meters
1 Mbps
30 meters
800 kbps
50 meters
500 kbps
100 meters
250 kbps
250 meters
RS-232
Bit Rate
Cable Length
921.6 kbps
2 meters
460.8 kbps
5 meters
230 kbps
12.5 meters
115.2 kbps
25 meters
57.6 kbps
50 meters
28.8 kbps
100 meters
RS-422
Data Rate
Cable Length
3 Mbps
5 meters
1.5 Mbps
15 meters
1 Mbps
30 meters
800 kbps
50 meters
500 kbps
100 meters
250 kbps
250 meters
RS-485
Data Rate
Cable Length
3 Gbps
5 meters
1 Gbps
10 meters
70 Mbps
50 meters
20 Mbps
100 meters
5 Mbps
200 meters
0.7 Mbps
500 meters
Ethernet (CAT5e)
Data Rate
Cable Length
1.5 Gbps
5 meters
0.5 Gbps
10 meters
30 Mbps
50 meters
8 Mbps
100 meters
2 Mbps
200 meters
0.3 Mbps
500 meters