Important european standards

22.05.2023 | With a nearly countless amount of standards available, it is not always easy to keep things in perspective. Please find an overview of important European standards on IT cabling here.

The most important European (EN) standard for IT cabling is EN 50173, which consists of six parts. Part 1 focuses on general requirements, parts 2 to 6 focus on specialized cabling. Parts 2 to 6 always reference part 1.

EN 50173 Information technology – Generic cabling systems.

Part 1: General requirements.

Part 2: Office spaces.

Part 3: Industrial spaces.

Part 4: Homes.

Part 5: Data center spaces.

Part 6: Distributed building services.

EN 50174 focuses on planning and installing. Cabling that shall meet the requirements of EN 50173 always has to meet the requirements of EN 50174 as well and vice versa!

EN 50174 Information technology – Cabling installation.

Part 1: Installation specification and quality assurance.

Part 2: Installation planning and practices inside buildings.

Part 3: Installation planning and practices outside buildings.

EN 50310 Telecommunications bonding networks for buildings and other structures

focuses on grounding and bonding in IT networks.

EN 50346 Information technology – Cabling installation – Testing of installed cabling

specifies the requirements for testing installed cabling.

The EN 50600 standards series specifies any aspect of data centres from building construction to operation. Parts 1 and 2-4 are most important for IT cabling.

EN 50600 Information technology – Data centres facilities and infrastructures.

Part 1: General concepts.

Part 2-1: Building construction.

Part 2-2: Power distribution.

Part 2-3: Environmental control.

Part 2-4: Telecommunications cabling infrastructure.

Part 2-5: Security systems.

Part 2-6: now Part 3-1.

Part 3-1: Management and operational information.

Part 4 with sub-parts regarding energy efficiency, processes, ...

EN 50700 Information technology – Premises distribution access network (PDAN) cabling to support deployment of optical broadband networks is an important standard for FTTH and FTTB.

Detailed cable specs are not part of EN 50173 anymore, the standard references the many parts of EN 50288 which specifies data cables.

EN 50288 Multi-element metallic cables used in analogue and digital communication and control.

Part 1: Generic specification.

Part 4-1: 600 MHz (cat. 7), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 4-2: 600 MHz (cat. 7), shielded, cord.

Part 5-1: 250 MHz (cat. 6), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 5-2: 250 MHz (cat. 6), shielded, cord.

Part 6-1: 250 MHz (cat. 6), unshielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 6-2: 250 MHz (cat. 6), unshielded, cord .

Part 9-1: 1000 MHz (cat. 7A), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 9-2: 1000 MHz (cat. 7A ), shielded, cord.

Part 10-1: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 10-2: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), shielded, cord.

Part 11-1: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), unshielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 11-2: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), unshielded, cord.

Part 12-1: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.2), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 12-2: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.2), shielded, cord.

Part 13-1: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.1), shielded, horizontal and riser.

Part 13-2: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.1), shielded, cord.

Connectors – RJ45 and multimedia connectors – are standardized by the different parts of EN 60603.

EN 60603 Connectors for electronic equipment.

RJ45:

General specification, unshielded.

Part 1: General specification, shielded.

Part 2: 100 MHz (cat. 5), unshielded.

Part 3: 100 MHz (cat. 5), shielded.

Part 4: 250 MHz (cat. 6), unshielded.

Part 41: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), unshielded.

Part 5: 250 MHz (cat. 6), shielded .

Part 51: 500 MHz (cat. 6A), unshielded.

Part 81: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.1), shielded.
Non-RJ45:

Part 7: 600 MHz (cat. 7), shielded.

Part 71: 1000 MHz (cat. 7A), shielded.

Part 82: 2000 MHz (cat. 8.2), shielded.

Short terms of cables like A-DQ(ZN)BH and others are standardized by EN 60794.

EN 60794 Optical fibre cables.

Part 1-1: Generic specification – General

Supplement 1: Marking, transportation and storage.

EN 60794 consist of several parts for different cable types, cable elements and test procedures.

The next episodes will introduce important international and American standards.

Author:

Dirk Traeger

Technical Solutions Manager DataVoice