ANIMAL-RESISTANT CABLE

摘要

An animal-resistant optical fiber cable (20) includes a core (22) which comprises a transmission medium and a sheath system. The sheath system includes an outer jacket (65) and a dielectric armor (40) in the form of a shell. The shell comprises a plurality of longitudinally extending preformed segments (42-42) each having a cross section transverse to a longitudinal axis of the cable each of which covers less than half of the periphery of the core. Further, the shell segments are stranded helically about the core with at least portions of longitudinal edge surfaces of adjacent segments being in engagement with each other. The shell segments notonly provide rodent protection for the cable, but also they provide suitable tensile and compressive strength. Further, because the cable in the preferred embodimenthas an all-dielectric sheath system, it is inherently lightning, corrosion and EMP resistant.