TIA Family of Standards

by

Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) Engineering Committee TR‑42 develops and maintains voluntary telecommunications cabling infrastructure Standards for user-owned Premises, such as commercial buildings, residential buildings, healthcare and educational facilities, data centers, and industrial buildings. Generic balanced twisted‑pair, optical fiber, and broadband coaxial cabling topologies, design, installation, application support distances, and outlet configurations are addressed in Common Standards. Component Standards detail requirements for cables, connectors, and cable assemblies. TIA TR‑42 Standards also address specifications for laboratory and field testing, intelligent building design, administration, the pathways and spaces supporting the cabling, and telecommunications grounding and bonding. TIA Technical Systems Bulletins (TSBs) provide non-normative guidance on a wide range of telecommunications cabling media and infrastructure‑related subjects.

This chart depicts TIA’s hierarchy of telecommunications Standards and how they interrelate. Click on the links to learn more about each Standard.

TIA Table

Other TIA Standards of Interest:

  • ANSI/TIA-440-C: Fiber Optic Terminology
  • ANSI/TIA-598-D: Optical Fiber Cable Color Coding
  • ANSI/TIA-1152-A: Requirements for Field Test Instruments and Measurements for Balanced Twisted‑Pair Cabling
  • ANSI/TIA-1183-B: Measurement Methods and Test Fixtures for Balun-Less Measurements of Balanced Components and Systems
  • ANSI/TIA-5048: Automated Infrastructure Management (AIM) Systems
  • TIA-492AAAE: 50/125-µm Multimode Fiber Specified for Wave Division Multiplexing (OM5)

TIA Technical Systems Bulletins of Interest:

  • TSB-140: Additional Guidelines for Field-Testing Length, Loss and Polarity of Optical Fiber Cabling Systems (superseded)
  • TSB-155-A: Guidelines for the Assessment and Mitigation of Installed Category 6 Cabling to Support 10GBASE‑T
  • TSB-162-B: Telecommunications Cabling Guidelines for Wireless Access Points
  • TSB-184-A: Guidelines for Supporting Power Delivery Over Balanced Twisted‑Pair Cabling
  • TSB-184-A-1: Guidelines for Supporting Power Delivery Over Balanced Twisted‑Pair Cabling Addendum 1: Use of 28 AWG Cords
  • TSB-185: Environmental Classification (MICE) Tutorial
  • TSB-190: Guidelines on Shared Pathways and Shared Sheaths
  • TSB-1197: Mode Conversion Parameters for Balanced Twisted Pair Cabling
  • TSB-5008: Mechanically-Generated Cable Impulse Noise Detection and Characterization
  • TSB-5018: Structured Cabling Infrastructure Guidelines to Support Distributed Antenna Systems
  • TSB-5019: High Performance Structured Cabling Use Cases for Data Centers and Other Premises
  • TSB-5021: Guidelines for the Use of Installed Category 5e and Category 6 Cabling to Support 2.5GBASE‑T and 5GBASE‑T
  • TSB-5069: Optical Fiber Channel Polarity – Duplex-Single and Dual Row Fibers

Resources: