ANSI/TIA-568-D: Generic Telecommunications Cabling for Customer Premises

This Standard provides structure, topologies and distances, installation, performance, and testing requirements for generic telecommunications cabling.  This Standard forms the foundation for premises telecommunications cabling infrastructure design and can be used to address cabling needs when a specific premise standard does not exist.

ANSI/TIA-568.0-D “Generic Telecommunications Cabling for Customer Premises” was developed by the TIA TR-42.1 Commercial Building Cabling Subcommittee and published in December, 2015.  Significant changes from the previous edition include:

  • Category 5e or higher rated cabling is required for all generic balanced twisted-pair cabling deployments
  • OM3 or higher rated cabling is required for all generic multimode optical fiber cabling deployments
  • The minimum fiber count for generic multimode and singlemode optical fiber cabling deployments has changed from one fiber to two fibers per port/channel
  • Broadband coaxial cabling has been added as a recognized media
  • Information on optical fiber polarity and optical fiber testing has been moved to TIA-568.3-D
  • Requirements for open office cabling (i.e., consolidation points, multi-user telecommunications outlet assemblies) have been moved into this Standard
  • The minimum inside bend radius for balanced twisted-pair cord cable has been increased to four times the overall cable diameter
  • The minimum inside bend radius for optical fiber cord cable is specified as 25 mm (1 in)
  • A new Annex provides guidelines on shared pathways and shared sheaths for balanced twisted-pair cabling
  • The contents of TIA-568-C.0-1 (updated references) and TIA-568-C.0-2 (general updates) were incorporated

ANSI/TIA-568-0.D-1 “Addendum 1, Updated References, Accommodation of New Media Types” published in July, 2017 and provides modification text to TIA-568.0-D to recognize category 8 balanced twisted-pair and OM5 multimode optical fiber media types.

ANSI/TIA-568.0-D Content

  • Environmental Compatibility
  • Telecommunications Cabling System Structure
  • Cabling Installation Requirements
  • Cabling Transmission Performance and Test Requirements
  • Annexes addressing Centralized Optical Fiber Cabling, Multi-Tenant Cabling, Application Support Information, Environmental (MICE) Classifications, and Shared Sheath and Shared Pathways Guidelines

Documents with the 568 set of standards include:

  • TIA/EIA-568-D.1 defines general requirements,
  • TIA-568-D.2 focuses on components of balanced twisted-pair cable systems
  • TIA-568-D.3 addresses components of fiber optic cable systems, and
  • TIA-568-D.4, addressed coaxial cabling components.

The intent of these standards is to provide recommended practices for the design and installation of cabling systems that will support a wide variety of existing and future services. Developers hope the standards will provide a lifespan for commercial cabling systems in excess of ten years.

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