IEC 60793-1-1:2017

IEC 60793-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2017-01
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures – General and guidance

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from

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copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or

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About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

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latest edition, a corrigenda or an amendment might have been published.

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IEC 60793-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2017-01
REDLINE VERSION
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures – General and guidance

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-3912-4

– 2 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 RLV © IEC 2017

CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3

INTRODUCTION . 5

1 Scope and object . 6

2 Normative references . 6

3 Terms and definitions . 7

4 Rounding rules . 7

5 Measurement and test categories . 8
6 Standard atmospheric measurement and test conditions . 9
7 Calibration guidance . 9
8 Reference test methods . 9
9 Categories of optical fibres . 9
10 Packaging . 9
Bibliography . 11

Table 1 – Standard range of atmospheric conditions . 9

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –

General and guidance
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To
this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested
in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-
governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely
with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by
agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence
between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in
the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of
patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

This redline version of the official IEC Standard allows the user to identify the changes
made to the previous edition. A vertical bar appears in the margin wherever a change
has been made. Additions are in green text, deletions are in strikethrough red text.

International Standard IEC 60793-1-1 has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition published in 2008. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.

– 4 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 RLV © IEC 2017

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous

edition:
a) addition of rounding rules in Clause 4;

b) addition of two packaging requirements in Clause 10 d) and e).

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

CDV Report on voting
86A/1747/CDV 86A/1774/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in
the report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A list of all parts in the IEC 60793 series, published under the general title Optical fibres, can
be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a
colour printer.
INTRODUCTION
Publications in the IEC 60793-1 series concern measurement methods and test procedures as

they apply to optical fibres.
Within the same series, several different areas are grouped, as follows:

Parts 1-10 to 1-19: General
Parts 1-20 to 1-29: Measurement methods and test procedures for dimensions

Parts 1-30 to 1-39: Measurement methods and test procedures for mechanical

characteristics
Parts 1-40 to 1-49: Measurement methods and test procedures for transmission and
optical characteristics
Parts 1-50 to 1-59: Measurement methods and test procedures for environmental
characteristics.
– 6 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 RLV © IEC 2017

OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –

General and guidance
1 Scope and object
This part of IEC 60793 lists and gives guidance on the use of documents giving the uniform

requirements for measuring and testing optical fibres, thereby assisting in the inspection of
fibres and cables for commercial (mostly telecommunications) purposes.
The individual measurement and test methods are contained in the different parts of the
IEC 60793 series. They are identified as IEC 60793-1-X, where "X" is an assigned sub-part
number, indicating its affiliation to the IEC 60793-1 series.
In general, measurements and tests methods apply to all class A multimode fibres and
class B and class C single-mode optical fibres covered by IEC 60793-2 (all parts) relating to
product specifications, although there may can be exceptions. Clause 1 of each part of the
IEC 60793 series contains the scope for each particular attribute.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their
content constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition
cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including
any amendments) applies.
IEC 60793 (all parts), Optical fibres
IEC 60793-1-20, Optical fibres – Part 1-20: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre geometry
IEC 60793-1-21, Optical fibres – Part 1-21: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Coating geometry
IEC 60793-1-22, Optical fibres – Part 1-22: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Length measurement
IEC 60793-1-30, Optical fibres – Part 1-30: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre proof test
IEC 60793-1-31, Optical fibres – Part 1-31: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Tensile strength
IEC 60793-1-32, Optical fibres – Part 1-32: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Coating strippability
IEC 60793-1-33, Optical fibres – Part 1-33: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Stress corrosion susceptibility
IEC 60793-1-34, Optical fibres – Part 1-34: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Fibre curl
IEC 60793-1-40, Optical fibres – Part 1-40: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Attenuation
IEC 60793-1-41, Optical fibres – Part 1-41: Measurement methods and test procedures –
Bandwidth
IEC 60793-1-42, Optical fibres – Part 1-42: Measurement methods and test procedures –

Chromatic dispersion
IEC 60793-1-43, Optical fibres – Part 1-43: Measurement methods and test procedures –

Numerical aperture measurement

IEC 60793-1-44, Optical fibres – Part 1-44: Measurement methods and test procedures – Cut-

off wavelength
IEC 60793-1-45, Optical fibres – Part 1-45: Measurement methods and test procedures –

Mode field
...

IEC 60793-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2017-01
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures – General and guidance

Fibres optiques –
Partie 1-1: Méthodes de mesure et procédures d’essai – Généralités et
recommandations
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

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IEC Central Office Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical containing more than 22 000 terminological entries in English
committee,…). It also gives information on projects, replaced and French, with equivalent terms in 16 additional languages.
and withdrawn publications. Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
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Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published IEC Glossary - std.iec.ch/glossary
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publications issued since 2002. Some entries have been
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IEC 60793-1-1 ®
Edition 4.0 2017-01
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
colour
inside
Optical fibres –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures – General and guidance

Fibres optiques –
Partie 1-1: Méthodes de mesure et procédures d’essai – Généralités et

recommandations
INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 33.180.10 ISBN 978-2-8322-8807-8

– 2 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 3
INTRODUCTION . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 Normative references . 6
3 Terms and definitions . 7
4 Rounding rules . 8
5 Measurement and test categories . 8
6 Standard atmospheric measurement and test conditions . 9
7 Calibration guidance . 9
8 Reference test methods . 9
9 Categories of optical fibres . 10
10 Packaging . 10
Bibliography . 11

Table 1 – Standard range of atmospheric conditions . 9

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –
General and guidance
FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent
rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard IEC 60793-1-1 has been prepared by subcommittee 86A: Fibres and
cables, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition published in 2008. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) addition of rounding rules in Clause 4;
b) addition of two packaging requirements in Clause 10 d) and e).

– 4 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
CDV Report on voting
86A/1747/CDV 86A/1774/RVC
Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A list of all parts in the IEC 60793 series, published under the general title Optical fibres, can
be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding
of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

INTRODUCTION
Publications in the IEC 60793-1 series concern measurement methods and test procedures as
they apply to optical fibres.
Within the same series, several different areas are grouped, as follows:
Parts 1-10 to 1-19: General
Parts 1-20 to 1-29: Measurement methods and test procedures for dimensions
Parts 1-30 to 1-39: Measurement methods and test procedures for mechanical
characteristics
Parts 1-40 to 1-49: Measurement methods and test procedures for transmission and optical
characteristics
Parts 1-50 to 1-59: Measurement methods and test procedures for environmental
characteristics.
– 6 – IEC 60793-1-1:2017 © IEC 2017
OPTICAL FIBRES –
Part 1-1: Measurement methods and test procedures –
General and guidance
1 Scope
This part of IEC 60793 lists and gives guidance on the use of documents giving the uniform
requirements for measuring and testing optical fibres, thereby assisting in the inspection of
fibres and cables for commercial (mostly telecommunications) purposes.
The individual measurement and test methods are contained in the different parts of the
IEC 60793 series. They are identified as IEC 60793-1-X, where "X" is an assigned sub-part
number, indicating its affiliation to the IEC 60793-1 series.
In general, measurements and tests methods apply to all class A multimode fibres and class B
and class C single-mode optical fibres covered by IEC 60793-2 (all parts) relating to product
specifications, although there can be exceptions. Clause 1 of each part of the IEC 60793 series
contains the scope for each particular attribute.
2 Normative references
The following documents are ref
...