The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA)’s TR-42.11 Engineering Committee on Optical Systems recently issued a call for interest relating to the TIA-526.14-C document, which is titled “Optical Power Loss Measurement of Installed Multimode Fiber Cable Plant.” The standard is frequently referred to as the “encircled flux” specification. In 2010, the TIA published TIA-526-14-B by back-adopting the IEC 61280-4-1 Edition 2/Part 4-1 specification. That specification defines and references encircled flux for multimode fibertesting. By back-adopting the IEC spec, TIA ensured complete harmonization between the two. The 526.14-B spec, however, has a foreword that includes additional information to that in the IEC spec.

Now the TR-42.11 looking to put together a C version of 526.14, including an effort “to modify the current foreword in the standard from adoption to adaptation of IEC 61280-4-1ed2 for regional variances,” the TIA said when announcing its call for interest. “These variances would change presently normative aspects of the standard to become informative.” A user must comply with all normative portions of the standard in order to claim adherence to the standard. The user does not, however, have to comply with informative portions of the standard in order to claim adherence to it.

The TIA added that “stakeholders may include, but are not limited to, end users, installers performing attenuation tests of installed multimode cabling. TIA is actively seeking participation in these projects from the user and general-interest communities.”