What factors determine the bandwidth a network cable is capable of carrying?

[SithSolo1]

Title says it all

 

[zephyrprime]

Well at a purely physical level, the limitating factors are capacitance, inductance, and noise.

Capacitance is determined by the nature of the wire and the presence of nearby other wires. Cable length increases capacitance linearly. Unfortunately, any cable is going to have some capacitance. Inductance also increases linearly with cable length but I don't know if it is a big deal for signal transfer.

Noise can come from extenal sources but noise from adjacent cables is usually a bigger problem. This is why twisted pair cable is twisted. By aligning the direction of the current perpendicular to the magnetic field of the other cable, you can minimize crosstalk which is a form of noise.

I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for.

 

[zephyrprime]

And of course, your data trasmitter and receiver determines what your max possible speed if.