TIA Consolidating 3 Cabling Standards Into 1

The Telecommunications Industry Association’s (TIA) TR-42 Telecommunications Cabling Systems Engineering Committee is nearly two years into the process of revising the ANSI/TIA-568.1 standard. When the process is complete, the “F” revision of 568.1 will include not only information and specifications previously contained in the “E” revision, but also content previously contained in the ANSI/TIA-568.0 standard (covering customer premises) and the ANSI/TIA-862 standard (covering intelligent building systems).

The TR-42.1 Premises Telecommunications Infrastructure Subcommittee is taking on this consolidation project; Cindy Montstream is the document’s editor and TR-42.1’s vice chair. In an interview with Cabling Installation & Maintenance, Montstream explained that the three documents have co-existed for decades, through several revision cycles. “568.0 was the initial generic structured cabling standard,” published in the 1990s, she said. As a generic standard, 568.0 contains “common guidelines, rules behind structured cabling, including the definition of a channel, permanent link, spaces.”

The 568.0 standard gained widespread recognition throughout the information and communications technology (ICT) industry and was (and still is) commonly referred to in project documents. As that standard matured, the TIA began developing standards that addressed specific types of properties or premises. “The general guidelines are great,” Montstream said. “At the same time, different types of premises have unique needs.” Two examples of premises types are commercial buildings and healthcare facilities. Each has a need for a structured cabling system (as established in the 568.0 standard), but these two building types can vary significantly when it comes to particular needs—such as cabling performance level, the number of outlets required at given locations, and pathway requirements throughout the building. This diversity of needs for different building types prompted the publication of a number of premises-specific standards, including the 568.1 standard for commercial buildings.

The ANSI/TIA-862 standard addresses the cabling needs within an intelligent building. Early revisions of the standard included the phrase “Building Automation Systems” in the title, but more-recent revisions use the “Intelligent Building” terminology. As the 862 and the 568.1 standards evolved through the revision process, the two documents became increasingly similar to each other. And both of those standards had information in common with the 568.0 standard.

In mid-2022, some members of TR-42.1 began unofficially discussing the prospect of consolidating the three standards into one. In early 2024, the process officially began. When ANSI/TIA-568.1-F ultimately is published, it will establish, among other things, a common set of terms and definitions. The existing standards (the latest revisions of 568.0, 568.1, and 862) in some cases use different terminology to describe or define the same things—for example, “telecommunications outlets” versus “equipment outlets” and “cabling subsystem” versus “horizontal.” The consolidated document will eliminate ambiguity or confusion that stems from these differences.

TR-42 has not established a specific target completion date for the revised standard, but it is possible their work will be done in late 2026 or early 2027. In the meantime, the existing 568.0, 568.1, and 862 standards remain active, relevant, and useful for ICT professionals in the process of specifying, designing, and installing structured cabling systems.

The interview Cabling Installation & Maintenance conducted with TR-42’s Cindy Monstream was recorded. We will post that recording on our website. It includes an in-depth discussion about the standard revision process that ICT pros may find useful. Look for it at cablinginstall.com soon.