Solid Conductor Cable

Solid conductor cables are made up of a single, solid conducting wire. Solid conductors usually consist of bare copper wires with diameter between 22 and 24 AWG (American Wire Gauge units). For example, the diameter of UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) Cat5e patch cable is 24AWG. The benefit of large wires is that they can provide superior electrical characteristics to keep stable over a wide range of frequencies. Therefore, solid cables are well suitable for high speed Ethernet applications.

Because of the large wire diameters, solid conductor cables have a lower DC resistance (The resistance is not good for signal transmission) and lower susceptibility to high frequency effects. This kind of cables can support longer distance transmission and higher data rates compared with stranded cables. But the large wire diameters also lead to disadvantages. The larger the core, the less inflexible the cable. If the cables were bent, they are very likely to be broken or affect the network performance.