loaded on a payout or storage reel and apply stresses to or distort the crush sensitive cores contained in the cable the stresses on the cores tend to cause serious loss of optical power or signal loss and or attenuation in the case of optical fiber cores since a strength member of the cable will tend to stretch under load to a greater extent than is permissible for an optical fiber the optical fibers must be decoupled from external crushing axial forces on the cable and from transverse stretch forces on the cable the cable of this invention accomplishes that decoupling by separating the optical fibers or other cores from the strength member so that the strength member may stretch as much as needed under tension but apply no axial or radial force to the fibers or cores which are further buffered from the strength member by a wrap of soft protective material such as a soft porous polymer tape made of for example porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene or other soft porous polymer or a textile material such as a soft cotton or synthetic fiber woven or non woven material or a soft light polymer foam material the less friction and contact between the fibers or cores and the strength member of the cable the better as shown in fig1 crush sensitive optical fibers 3 are depicted with one or more buffering layers 4 and the optical fibers illustrated in the figure three shown in this example wrapped as a unit with a layer of resilient material 5 the wrapped fibers are placed within a helically slit.