Patent ID: 7016579

Claim:
An optical fiber cable assembly comprising: a plurality of elongated cylindrical fiber optic tubes arranged with their axes extending in the same direction, the axis of each fiber optic tube positioned at a corner of one of (i) an imaginary triangle and (ii) an imaginary square, the plurality of fiber optic tubes arranged with each fiber optic tube tangent to two other fiber optic tubes and a first imaginary tube which surrounds the fiber optic tubes and which has an imaginary axis which extends in the same direction as the axes of the fiber optic tubes, with each pair of adjacent fiber optic tubes and the first imaginary tube defining therebetween an interstitial space; and a plurality of elongated cylindrical interstitial members, each interstitial member received in one of the interstitial spaces tangent to the two fiber optic tubes and the first imaginary tube defining the interstitial space, with the axis of the interstitial member extending in the same direction as the axes of the fiber optic tubes, said tubes and interstitial members wound spirally at a winding pitch between 9.5 and 16 times the diameter of the first imaginary tube; and the grounding members wound spirally at a winding pitch between 10 and 16 times the diameter of a second imaginary tube which is coaxial with the first imaginary tube and which surrounds the grounding members and is tangent to the grounding members.