Who Standardizes What? Standards Bodies

06.04.2023 | TD

There is a multitude of IT cabling standards: EN, IEC, ISO/IEC, TIA and IEEE are publishing regularly standards on cabling, components, transmission protocols and testing. 

The four most important standards bodies for IT infrastructures are ISO/IEC, CENELEC, ANSI/TIA and IEEE.

ISO and IEC

ISO – International Organization for Standardization – and IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission – are publishing global standards. The two are independent from each other but work closely together, so there are ISO, IEC and ISO/IEC standards around. The European standards body CENELEC harmonize their EN standards with ISO and IEC. Sometimes ISO or IEC standards are incorporated into the EN standards without any changes. ISO/IEC 11801 largely corresponds to EN 50173. It has adopted the structure of the latter (in most cases it is the other way round).

CENELEC

CENELEC publishes EN standards which are valid in the European Union (EU). The national standards bodies of the EU countries check the EN standards to make sure they can be used in their country, adapt the EN standards if necessary and translate the so adapted standard into local language. Other European countries like Switzerland harmonize their national standards and EU standards where it is reasonable. EN standards are being harmonized with ISO and IEC standards. Sometimes ISO or IEC standards are incorporated into the EU standards unchanged. The most important EN standard regarding IT cabling is EN 50173.

ANSI and TIA

In the US TIA – the Telecommunications Industry Association – specifies industry standards. Depending on the importance of such an industry standard, ANSI – the American National Standards Institute – incorporates it into the American national standards. Canada acknowledges many US standards by choice. Strictly speaking, ANSI/TIA standards and TIA Industry Standards are valid only in the USA. As they typically are much more pragmatic than ISO/IEC and EN standards, they are referenced in many projects outside of the US as well. Depending on the standard, American standards developers and standards bodies cooperate with ISO and IEC to harmonize the standards. Unlike ISO and IEC standards that carry the year of publication, ANSI/TIA and TIA standards have a letter after the standard’s number to mark the standard’s issue. The first issue has not letter, the first revision has an ”A”, and so on. “E” to give an example stands for the sixth issue or fifth revision respectively. IT cabling is standardized by ANSI/TIA-568.

IEEE

Strictly speaking, IEEE – the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers – is not a standards body. It stared as an American club of engineers but regards itself now as a global organization. IEEE 802.3 specifies all the different Ethernet variants. Selected IEEE 802.3 standards can be downloaded at no cost after having been available for six months in PDF version. By this, these important standards can be obtained by anyone at no cost, which is important to educational institutions and journalist among others.

The column “Standards in Short” introduces standards that are important for the IT infrastructure, points to revisions and deals with questions on applying standards for network design and installation.

Author:

Dirk Traeger
Technical Solutions Manager DataVoice