Individual shield (U/FTP)

Individual shielding with aluminum foil for each twisted pair or quad. Common names: pair in
metal foil, shielded twisted pair, screened twisted pair. This type of shielding helps prevent
EMI from entering or exiting individual pairs and also protects neighboring pairs from
crosstalk.
Overall shield (F/UTP, S/UTP, and SF/UTP)
Overall foil, braided shield or braiding with foil across all of the pairs within the 100 ohm
twisted pair cable. Common names: foiled twisted pair, shielded twisted pair, screened twisted
pair. This type of shielding helps prevent EMI from entering or exiting the cable.
Individual and overall shield (F/FTP, S/FTP, and SF/FTP)
Individual shielding using foil between the twisted pair sets, and also an outer foil or braided
shielding. Common names: fully shielded twisted pair, screened foiled twisted pair, shielded
foiled twisted pair, screened shielded twisted pair, shielded screened twisted pair. This type of
shielding helps prevent EMI from entering or exiting the cable and also protects neighboring
pairs from crosstalk.

An early example of shielded twisted-pair was IBM STP-A, which is a two-pair 150 ohm S/FTP
cable defined in 1985 by the IBM Cabling System specifications, and used with Token Ring or
FDDI networks.[7][10]

Common industry nomenclature for cable construction types

Industry abbreviations ISO/IEC 11801 designation[A] Cable shielding Pair shielding

UTP, TP U/UTP None None

STP, ScTP, PiMF U/FTP None Foil

FTP, STP, ScTP F/UTP Foil None

STP, ScTP S/UTP Braiding None

SFTP, S-FTP, STP SF/UTP Braiding and Foil None

FFTP, STP F/FTP Foil Foil

SSTP, SFTP, STP, STP PiMF S/FTP Braiding Foil

SSTP, SFTP, STP SF/FTP Braiding and Foil Foil

A. The code before the slash designates the shielding for the cable itself, while the code after the slash
determines the shielding for the individual pairs:
U – unshielded
F – foil shielding
S – screened shielding (outer layer only)
 TP – twisted pair
TQ – twisted pair, individual shielding in quads

Types

Analog telephone

Before digital communication and Ethernet became widespread there was no international
standard for telephone cable. Standards were set at a national level. For instance, in the UK the
General Post Office specified CW1293 and CW1308 cables. CW1308 was a similar specification
to the earlier CW1293 but with an improved color code. CW1293 used mostly solid colors on the
cores making it difficult to identify the pair it was twisted with without stripping back a large
amount of sheath. To solve this problem. CW1308 has narrow rings of the paired color printed
over the base color. Both cables are a similar standard to category 3 cable.[11][12]

Prior to the common use of polyethylene and other plastics for insulation, telephone twisted pair
cable was insulated with waxed paper or cotton with a wax coating applied to the copper. The
overall sheath of this type of cable was usually lead. This style of cable came into use in the late
19th century shortly after the invention of the telephone.[13] The cable termination in termination
boxes were sealed with molten wax or a resin to prevent the ingress of moisture which would
seriously degrade the insulating properties of the paper insulation.[14] However, such seals made
future maintenance and changes more difficult. These cables are no longer made but are still
occasionally encountered in old buildings and in various external areas, commonly rural villages.

Building infrastructure
Standard types of twisted pair cabling
Typical
Name Bandwidth Applications Notes
construction

Telephone
Level Not described in EIA/TIA recommendations.
0.4 MHz and modem
1 Unsuitable for modern systems.[15]
lines

Older
terminal
Level Not described in EIA/TIA recommendations.
4 MHz systems,
2 Unsuitable for modern systems.[15]
e.g. IBM
3270

10BASE-T, Described in EIA/TIA-568. Unsuitable for

Cat 3 UTP[16] 16 MHz[16] 100BASE- speeds above 16 Mbit/s. Now mainly for
T4[16] telephone cables.[16]

16 Mbit/s
Cat 4 UTP[16] 20 MHz[16] Token Not commonly used[16]
Ring[16]

100BASE- Common for current LANs. Superseded by Cat

TX, 5e, but most Cat 5 cables meet Cat 5e
Cat 5 UTP[16] 100 MHz[16]
1000BASE- standards.[16] Limited to 100 m between
T[16] equipment.

1000BASE- Enhanced Cat 5. Common for current LANs.

UTP,[16]
Cat T, Same construction as Cat 5, but with better
F/UTP, 100 MHz[16]
5e 2.5GBASE- testing standards.[16] Limited to 100m between
U/FTP[17]
T[16] equipment.

ISO/IEC 11801 2nd Ed. (2002), ANSI/TIA 568-

UTP,[16] B.2-1. Most commonly installed cable in
5GBASE-T,
Cat 6 F/UTP, 250 MHz[16] Finland according to the 2002 standard EN
[18]
10GBASE-T
U/FTP 50173-1. Limited to 55 m distance at
10GBASE-T

Improved standards, tested to 500 MHz. Full

UTP, F/UTP,
Cat 5GBASE-T, 100 m distance at 10GBASE-T ISO/IEC 11801
U/FTP, 500 MHz
6A 10GBASE-T 2nd Ed. Am. 2. (2008), ANSI/TIA-568-C.1
S/FTP
(2009)
Cat 7 S/FTP, 600 MHz 5GBASE-T, Fully shielded cable. ISO/IEC 11801 2nd Ed.
F/FTP 10GBASE-T (2002). It is not recognized by the EIA/TIA.

Uses all four pairs. ISO/IEC 11801 2nd

Cat S/FTP, 5GBASE-T,
1000 MHz Ed. Am. 2. (2008). It is not recognized by the
7A F/FTP 10GBASE-T
EIA/TIA.

Cat F/UTP, 25GBASE-T,

2000 MHz ANSI/TIA-568-C.2-1, ISO/IEC 11801-1:2017
8/8.1 U/FTP 40GBASE-T

Cat S/FTP, 25GBASE-T,

2000 MHz ISO/IEC 11801-1:2017
8.2 F/FTP 40GBASE-T

Loaded

A loaded twisted pair has intentionally added inductance and was formerly common practice on
telecommunication lines. The added inductors are known as load coils and reduce attenuation
for voiceband frequencies but increase it on higher frequencies. Load coils reduce distortion in
voiceband on very long lines.[19] In this context a line without load coils is referred to as an
unloaded line.

Bonded

A bonded twisted pair is a construction variant in which the two wires of each pair are bonded
together for the length of the cable. Pioneered by Belden, it is intended to help assure
configuration consistency during and after installation. One key benefit is that the noise
immunity performance of the cable can be protected despite potentially rough handling.[20] The
enhanced performance may be unnecessary and bonding reduces the flexibility of the cable and
makes it prone to failure where it is flexed.[21]

Twisted ribbon cable

 

Twisted ribbon cable used for SCSI connections

A twisted ribbon cable is a variant of standard ribbon cable in which adjacent pairs of
conductors are bonded and twisted together. The twisted pairs are then lightly bonded to each
other in a ribbon format. Periodically along the ribbon, there are short sections with no twisting
where connectors may be attached using the usual ribbon cable IDC techniques.[22]

Solid-core vs. stranded cable

 Properties

Twisted pair has the following useful attributes:[23]

Electrical noise going into or coming from the cable can be prevented.

Crosstalk is minimized.

Cheapest form of cable available for networking purposes.

Easy to handle and install.

Twisted pair has the following limitations:

Deformation: twisted pair's susceptibility to electromagnetic interference greatly depends on

the pair twisting schemes (sometimes patented by the manufacturers) staying intact during
the installation. As a result, twisted pair cables usually have stringent requirements for
maximum pulling tension as well as minimum bend radius. This fragility of twisted pair cables
makes the installation practices an important part of ensuring the cable's performance.[24]

Delay skew: different pairs within the cable have different delays, due to different twist rates
used to minimize crosstalk between the pairs. This can degrade image quality when multiple
pairs are used to carry components of a video signal. Low skew cable is available to mitigate
this problem.[25][26]

Imbalance: differences between the two wires in a pair can cause coupling between the
common mode and the differential mode. Differential to common mode conversion produces
common mode currents that can cause external interference and can produce common mode
signals in other pairs. Common mode to differential mode conversion can produce differential
mode signals from common mode interference from other pairs or external sources.
Imbalance can be caused by asymmetry between the two conductors of the pair from each
other and in relationship to other wires and the shield. Some sources of asymmetry are
differences in conductor diameter and insulation thickness. In telephone jargon, the common
mode is called longitudinal and the differential mode is called metallic.[27]

See also

Ethernet over twisted pair

Balanced line

Copper wire and cable