A thin-diameter wire (22 to 26 gauge) commonly used for telephone and network cabling. The wires are twisted around each other to minimize interference from other twisted pairs in the cable (Alexander Graham Bell invented this and was awarded a patent for it in 1881). Twisted pairs have less bandwidth than coaxial cable or optical fiber.
UTP, STP, ScTP, FTP
Twisted pair cables are available unshielded (UTP) or shielded (STP), with UTP being the most common. STP is used in noisy environments where the shield around each of the wire pairs, plus an overall shield, protects against excessive electromagnetic interference. A variation of STP, known as ScTP for "screened twisted pair" or FTP for "foil twisted pair," uses only the overall shield and provides more protection than UTP, but not as much as STP.
Standed and Solid
Both UTP and STP come in stranded and solid wire varieties. The stranded wire is the most common and is also very flexible for bending around corners. Solid wire has less attenuation and spans longer distances, but is less flexible than stranded and cannot be repeatedly bent.
Cable Band- Data
# Type Width Rate
1 UTP Analog voice
2 UTP 1 Mbps
3 UTP/STP 16 MHz, 4 Mbps
4 UTP/STP 20 MHz, 16 Mbps
5 UTP/STP 100 MHz, 100 Mbps
5e UTP/STP 100 MHz, 1 Gbps
6 UTP/STP 200 MHz, 10 Gbps (<10 m)
6a UTP/STP 500 MHz, 10 Gbps (>10 m)
7 STP 600 MHz 10 Gbps
7a STP 1000 MHz 40 Gbps (<15 m)
The metal shrouds on shielded cable add protection against external interference.
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