 What is shielded cat 6a cabling and what different types are there? With cat 5e and cat 6 cables, there are two main types of cable differences. They either come in a shielded or unshielded version. With cat 6a cable there are three different variations. 1. U slash utp cat 6a this cat 6a cable consists of unscreened inner cores and no screen around the four pairs overall under the outer jacket. 2. F slash utp cat 6a this cat 6a cable once again has no shielding around the inner cores but on this occasion has an overall shield surrounding the four pairs under the outer jacket. 3. F slash ftp cat 6a the total shielding solution option. The inner pairs are each shielded and those four pairs are again surrounded by an overall shield. Visually the shielded cables look the same in many ways. However, the addition of a foil shield around the cores or around the outer sheath increases the size of the cable. However, this shielding adds protection from any and external noise.